Color Contradances

Color Contradances

Ai-Wen Wu Kratz

On the surface, Ai-Wen Wu Kratz’s vibrant paintings appear as a dazzling dance of colors. Shapes, hues, and even the canvas surfaces, at times, seem to perform for the viewer as they leap and bound through space. Yet, this flowing movement of the composition is met with sharp, calculated geometry.

Among Kratz’s influences are artists such as Kandinsky and Mondrian, paying homage to their modern approaches while offering contemporary color choices and motifs. She elaborates on these modernist concepts in a global context, drawing upon both Eastern and Western cultural and artistic histories.

Heavily influenced by theatre, classical music and dance, Kratz is interested in the spirituality and emotion that all art forms can convey. Her colors are carefully chosen to communicate a state of being.

The exhibition’s title, Color Contradances, refers to a dance of colors. A contradance (or contra dance) is a social folk dance, beginning with long lines of dancers facing each other, which then come together to create various formations and patterns. The dancers, much like the hues in Kratz’s artwork, collaborate seamlessly and act as parts of the whole.