Aug 2

Yu Cheng

Yu Cheng is an interior painter and draftswoman who has exhibited consistently in Massachusetts, especially Boston since 2022. Recent exhibitions in Boston include participation at Alpha Gallery, Tisch Gallery at the Aidekman Arts Center, and Till Wave Gallery. Yu has been a grant recipient of the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation and publications include features in Hyperallergic magazine and an interview with CBS Boston.

The paintings are crisp detailed-oriented representations of complex compositional interiors, usually of homes. These paintings are a play on the geometry of door frames, windows, and furniture against a backdrop of dimensioned shadows. With a consistent pattern of color, most of the paintings come off as almost monochromatic with the depictions of solid toned walls with breaks of color in shadows, furniture, floors, and figures. What remains striking would be the strategic use of figures, unlike many painters Yu does not rely on figures to enhance her art or become the focal point. The subjects are merely integrative parts of a system of space eloquently presented by Yu’s brush.

Containing forms of light and geometric shadows, the compositions reveal the aesthetics of contemporary interior design. Yu expresses herself through form and geometry rather than through application and subject matter. The interiors appear to serve a purpose in an expression of shaped form rather than merely a practice in illusion. With strategic spatial intervals between objects, these dynamic compositions represent our relationships with space emitting emotions of monumentality and grandeur.

Art Studio in Amsterdam (pictured above) contains one of the most interesting shadow placements out of all of Yu’s paintings with a sharp diagonal display across the surface. Portraying a consistent smear of white and pale earth colors across the entire composition, the only break in tones comes in the form of the orange chairs. The viewer can see all the machinations and components of an art studio from a thumb tack wall to place drawings to a sink used to clean brushes, along with open space to place easels. A brilliant asymmetrical diamond composition can be found from the top of the painting with the subtle shadows followed clockwise to the bottom of harsh angled shadows reflecting portions of studio tables along with the dark coloring of the wooden floor.

Yu Cheng brings realism through a lens of orchestrating space through use of interiors and shadows. Like a jury-rigging tradesman, she just happens to use the shadows of windows to create fascinating compositions and studies in geometry rather than place found objects to create such structure. With a promising, precise portfolio and structural consistency, Yu Cheng brings to a contemporary audience the deep aesthetic pleasures of interior spaces and compositions.