Daguan Art Space took as the theme of its presentation this year “The Garden of Forking Paths” — the novel that touches on time and choice, on how a life branches into different directions according to its different decisions. Lo Chan Peng, long admired for his realist technique, showed four female portraits, distilling and reflecting upon the religious, martial and cultural turmoil of the times.

Among them, Soul (oil on transparent acrylic, 100 × 60 cm, 2022) is the artist’s first attempt to paint on an acrylic panel rather than canvas. The change of medium still keeps his singular delicacy of touch, while the transparent material closely echoes the diaphanous idea of the soul; standing free, the work also offers a view from behind — a further step in both technique and concept. The figure’s pensive, sorrowful expression sets the viewer guessing in many directions, and through the act of observing the surface of outward things, lets them look back into their own interior.