With colorful and daring brushstrokes, award winning Chinese-born illustrator and animator Yukai Du opens portals to worlds that exist within her imagination. Drawing inspiration from her memories, travels, and literature, she translates each slice of life with her unique style.  

The exhibition Fragments presents a painted past and landscapes from the now UK-based artist’s journeys as a traveler. As she picks apart these places and spaces, she portrays them in her own visual language and injects her surreal and impressionistic interpretations into the art. Often, landscapes are personified, achieving playfulness and mischief while maintaining calmness.

Yukai’s influence are rooted in her upbringing in Southern China, foundations in traditional Chinese painting, and appreciation for Chinese literature. Specifically, Fragment by modern poet Bian Zhilin has inspired the artist to build new realities from the abstract.   
 
On the surface, Yukai’s work primarily strikes a fine balance between reality and imagination. Dig a little deeper, and more symbiotic relationships emerge. Fullness is juxtaposed against the emptiness, and the observer against the observed.  

Through the marriage of animation and illustration in her work, Yukai’s images could be understood as a single frame or a singular moment. There’s an imaginary time before and after, hence the feeling that her works overflow the frame. Despite the graphic explosion of colors and lines, there’s a silence that reverberates beyond the painting.