Artist Statement

Claire Lau insists on painting en plein air, completing all of her paintings on site from beginning to end. Claire finds plein air painting essential in today's world, when people are seemingly connected online, but are becoming increasingly detached from nature and humanity. This disconnect, along with the nonstop pursuit of wealth and profits, she believes continues to intensify our climate and humanitarian crisis. By setting up her easel outdoors, she invites everyone to reconnect with their surroundings, and to pause and ponder on our existence.

For the past decade, Claire has been exploring the spatial relationship between nature and the manmade environment while living and working in Hong Kong and San Francisco.

In her plant series, the banyan trees’s gestures are a metaphor for life’s cycles, connectedness, and spirituality, while succulents represent resilience. Although humans attempt to control nature with concrete sidewalks and fences, these plants often fight back, bursting out of the shackles imposed by humans.

Claire's cityscape series investigates the structure of the land, sometimes highlighting contradictions, sometimes contemplating how we are one small joint in a web of connections.

劉漢澄的大型畫作由始至終都在戶外完成。在這個數碼時代，堅持在戶外寫生別具意義：在資訊爆炸的今天，城市人營營役役地成了低頭族，網絡看似把人與人緊密相連，其實卻漸漸把我們和周遭的環境及人道割斷。再加上人類對財富和利潤不懈的追求，以至我們面臨全球氣候變化和環境污染等問題。 透過戶外寫生，漢澄誠邀你我減慢步伐，好好地重新審視自己所處的環境，反思一下我們在世上的存在。
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漢澄過去十年在香港和三藩市居住及創作。透過繪畫成市景色和本土植物兩個系列，分別從微觀和宏觀層面探索人與大自然之間的空間關係。

在本土植物系列中，漢澄被香港細葉榕與高山榕榕樹生命力、以及它們體現着生態循環的多姿體態所吸引，而加州的仙人掌和多肉植物卻顯露出生命強韌的一面。畫作亦探索這些植物在日常都市佔據的空間，有時候在有限的空間中掙扎求存。

漢澄的成市景色中了解那一個地方的空間結構。宏大的景觀可使你自感渺小,有如大蜘蛛網的其中一㸃；但如果各度力之間的平衡受到干擾, 整個網便會瓦解。

About the Artist

Claire was born in France, grew up in Hong Kong, and studied studio arts and music at Hampshire College, MA. Since then, she has lived in Hong Kong and Boston before settling in San Francisco in 2015. Claire considers herself a global citizen, and through her art and activism continuously strives to increase the care that people have for nature, for society, and for each other. 

劉漢澄出生於巴黎，在香港長大，大學時到美國麻省Hampshire College修讀美術與音樂。此後，漢澄回港數年，短暫地在麻省居住後定居三藩市。 漢澄視自己為一位世界公民，一直透過藝術和社運增加人們對社會和大自然的關心。