Marlene Tseng Yu

FEBRUARY 21 – MAY 3, 2015

Marlene Yu, a native of Taiwan and participant in the New York City art scene for much of her life, is the founder of the Rainforest Art Foundation, which raises environmental awareness through art. This exhibit is one of seven regional exhibitions called the “Lucky Sevens,” celebrating the artist’s 77th year and the opening of the Marlene Yu Museum in downtown Shreveport.  

Many of her paintings, including those exhibited throughout Shreveport, depict colorful abstractions based on natural forms. The Dream Series, created in the 1980s, is unusual in Yu’s large body of work, however. It is more representational than abstract, with a focus on nature and human relationships. In the Meadows’ exhibition, the female body is surrounded by animals that symbolize the male aspect, creating a dreamlike meditation on love.

Art critic, editor, and poet Cynthia Nadelman commented on The Dream Series: “Marlene Tseng Yu’s dreams seem suspended in a watery medium…. And indeed they are. Limpid and floating as this world of hers may seem, though, it is rendered in clear crystalline strokes before her water-based media – watercolor and water-thinned acrylic on large sheets of saturated paper – have a chance to dry.  Rather than coaxing and worrying paint, the artist uses the time she has to illustrate visions from her mind’s eye.  Occasionally, she accentuates the images with pencil or ink.”