Liu Wei: Invisible Cities

The CMA’s presentation centers on Panorama No. 2 (2015–16), a recent gift to the museum by Mr. Richard Jeschelnig and Mrs. Michelle Shan Jeschelnig. The monumental diptych exemplifies a technical shift the artist introduced into his work in 2010, when he began using computer software to generate patterns of pixels that are converted onto canvas and subsequently filled with color. The semiabstract imagery of Panorama No. 2 recalls the vast skylines of megacities like Beijing. At the same time, the oscillating pattern of gray, orange, purple, and yellow generated by the software removes the work from functioning primarily as a social or political commentary. Instead, the painting’s abstract quality is so strong that it becomes unclear whether the viewer is looking at a landscape or a purely abstract pattern. Its complex architectural imagery comes off the wall into real space through a series of large-scale representations of architectural monuments made from animal edibles, primarily oxhide.