Oil On Paper

Exhibited in 2016, “Oil on Paper” does not only constitute Nemeth’s first public display of her work in Tokyo, Japan, but her first solo show as well. Initially held at Cale in Higashiazabu, Tokyo, the exhibition comprised 8 artworks of identical size and theme, creating a clearly comprehensive series of works which were to give a direction for her creative output during the following years.

Being well versed within music, playing multiple instruments in her youth, Nemeth wanted to bring a sonic aspect into the realm of visual arts, and more specifically painting in this case. Recording and collection very short segments form pure musical works, as well as more mundane sound snippets from the bustling streets, she thereafter set out to transcribe these instances into colour and shape directly, following her instinct. Drawing up and marking a minute grid on each piece of paper with sewing pins, wherein each square is 2.5 centimeters tall and wide, Nemeth thereon methodically filled in the table-like structure she had laid down following her natural transcription of the sounds she saw worthy of painting in order to create a visual harmony. It is in this latter part, beyond the conceptual framework and the underlying structure, that the unique qualities of the process of repetition, an essential aspect of her work, becomes evident, by the fact that she embraces the individual expression of each stroke rather than trying to erase them.

Blending and merging different art forms together in order to generate a completely unique expression, Lui Nemeth, channels through her artworks and creations a freeform, ever-evolving process, which interacts and plays with the notion of structure.

Focused on the act of painting in itself, on paint in its pure physicality, rather than on the finished image; concentrated on the succession of uncertainties and subsequent possibilities within the musical gesture rather than the completed, recorded piece, Nemeth’s vision is that of a world as making, one which finds its purpose in doing rather than being done.