With a straight edge and knife, Huntz Liu uses layered paper to expose gorgeous geometric/abstract compositions that boggle the mind with elegant artisanship.
Recently exhibited at Los Angeles' Giant Robot gallery, these compositions are comprised of shapes that sit on different planes, creating literal depth, while the composition itself creates a perceived depth. It is this intersection of the literal and perceived that informs the work; where the absence of material reveal form and the casting of shadow create line.
Recently, Liu has been further exploring the collision between imaginary space and real space: shadows that cast shadow / extruding shapes that recede like a sunken relief / sliced shapes formed by cut material.
Liu's "Paper Cuts" show is a combination of work progression and a playground of new ideas. The artist writes that "It continues my interest in extruding and extracting flatness and further caters to our fascination with the inside, the underside, and the other side of things.
For the ‘divide’ series, the division is the goal. The thing created is just the method of delivering that goal. ‘pointed 5 + 6’ introduces sculpture as sketch, with its created purpose serving only as a projection to be captured for the layered piece. With the ‘chasm’ and ‘extrude’ series, negative space becomes material.
Underlying every piece is the method and medium of hand cut paper. There is a calm in this process, with its forced tedium + slow/heavy time consumption, that allows me to live in and about the work. Every shape and color, every corner and edge, I was there for. There is no escaping it and, ultimately, there are no shortcuts."
