#still-life

#still-life

A dead fish lies still on a chopping board, its rear end sliced off, scales scattered across the wood. One animated eye and open mouth make it look as though it might slither off the table. This is 's Fish Still Life (1950), a small, ghostly painting that is currently on show in Alice NeelStill Lifes and Street Scenes, a new exhibition at Xavier Hufkens in Brussels.

Like a snippet of an overheard conversation in passing, each of the paintings provide a piece of a narrative or a fleeting feeling made physical within Wang's compositions. Largely devoid of human figures, their work often feels like the viewer has just arrived in the instant everyone has left - cigarette butts or a lingering trail of smoke trailing behind.

A simple gesture is capable of unleashing a gale of emotions, conjuring the promise of infinite pleasure. Cracking into a watermelon brings the sense of summer alive.

In Sacred Sleep, a brick-coloured table with legs reminiscent of Escher's never-ending staircases sets the stage for a subtly autobiographical still-life scene.