A PERSONAL TOUCH by Claudia Lugo
If ever there was a marriage of labor and love, Enrique Chiu has found the formula. Both practical and passionate, Chiu’s life-long experience with the commercial arts spills over to his creative endeavors so smoothly that neither usurps his loyalty more than the other. With graphic design as his introduction to the arts, his approach to the canvas is informed by pure colors, broad lines, and stylized figures.
Chiu’s style is easily identifiable. Some signature recurrences are the use of a guitar, and of musical notes that can usually be found either in the foreground or cleverly implied in the background. All other figures usually revolve around this central theme, and carry the very vibration of music and a festive atmosphere. On a lifted plane, people dance, musicians play their instruments, women move suggestively, and sound becomes tangible. Suddenly, the concrete and the emotive share a space. A hand reaches out and can touch the waves of music. Two worlds collide in a pandemonium of color and movement.
The lines with which Chiu encases his subjects are emotively drawn. Brushstrokes move quickly, gestures are documented, and colors overlap instead of bleeding into each other. Arms are curved, defying anatomic accuracy, fingers open like fans, and faces are simplified to their most economic expression. There is an abundance of movement in Chiu’s work, and the waves seem to want to fall right off the canvas.
Though he has matured a particular signature, there is a progression waiting to come from it and on to other ventures. One can see that it is fermenting, that certain strokes have begun to hint at a different sensuality. The anticipation of work to come might delve into other techniques, but Chiu states, adamantly, that his work will always have the same flavor. This is what he is familiar with, this is what “feels right” and it is not produced with a commercial intent, but simply as a mode of expression. That his work has sold well is happenstance, and he is always the first to be surprised at the interest in what came of a moment of inspiration
Enrique Chiu takes you on a cultural journey that stems from his heart to his paintings reflecting his past experiences and rich upbringing. Fortunate to have lived in Guadalajara, Mexico surrounded by endless folklore, music, indiginous culture and most important a city full of life. Enrique attended the University of Guadalajara where he majored in design and visual arts. It was at the University where his future was ignited and his artistic passion for painting and design developed. Influenced by the fusion of his Chinese and Mexican roots his paintings convey rich colors with exotic whimsical brushstrokes that leave a harmonizing impression of love, culture, and passion. In them, you will find his love for the sensual figure of the guitar that expresses the vibration of music and romance. Enrique’s paintings are a poem of life projecting the love, pain, and bliss that we feel and can relate to our everyday lives.