Creating a universe of salt, sugar and plastic
A German dance band, Groove Coverage, created song a few years ago: God Is a Girl.
The song got such a name for a reason, for speaking of creativeness and sensibility, females do have their advantages when they play with arts and literature.
As woman artists have found their voices in recent years, their imaginations can finally run free in galleries.
Sima Yuan, a Beijing-based artist, has taken on a bolder mission, creating a series of paintings that look like fragments from the abstracted universe.
The materials she used for these works are not what many would expect. They are household items: salt, sugar and plastic bags, etc.
Art critic Rasko Radovic said Sima uses the eye as an instrument.
"Working with scanners, she achieves unusual effects, creating a bewildering array of forms and colors. Her art is purely visual, playing with the creative abilities of the eyes," Radovic said.
"Sima uses modest objects and material we come in contact with on a daily basis without noticing the beauty hidden in them."
Her other creations are featured at the Shang Ba Art Gallery, shining with tangled lines, contrasting colors and indescribable patterns.
"The world in my painting is something between two and three dimensions, I call it two and a half dimensions," the artist said.
Such ideas may come from her experiences in biology and design management before a formal shift to the artistic field.
Born in a family with no history in the arts, Sima is an exception.
She has been enchanted by arts and literature ever since childhood, spending time writing prose and poems. She is also a photographer.
"I took photos of many things. It was casual. I just clicked the button and never intended to build up a theme through these photos," Sima told China Daily website.
This "creating for nothing" experience inspired her later works.
In 2015, she transformed a living room into her own art space, Sima Art Museum, over the course of 15 months. In the studio, she curated 11 online exhibitions with 223 pieces of artwork, including photography, installations, poetry and paintings.
Her solo exhibition Awareness attracted many collectors and artists on Saturday, including Swiss Ambassador to China Jean-Jacques de Dardel and his wife, scholar Ma Yue and artist Zhong Shan.
The exhibition will run until July 20.
If you go:
June 30 to July 20, Shang Ba Art Gallery, 1/F, Shang 8 Culture Group Building. Yard 3, Xiadianjia Chaoyang district, Beijing.
