Vail International Gallery hosts exhibit by oil painter

When people walk into Vail International Gallery in Vail, sometimes they stop mid-step to stare at one of Lu Cong's paintings, hanging on the wall.

“The eyes really grab them,” said Patrick Cassidy, gallery co-owner. “And people are also impressed by the near photographic quality of his work. Sometimes I have people ask if they are photographs, until they look close and see that it's done with a brush and oil paint. And they're even more impressed when they find out he's a self-taught artist.”

The gallery is hosting Cong's second large scale exhibit, with 11 paintings on display, through March 1; a reception with the artist will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. Saturday.

Since Cong's last exhibit at the gallery, in 2010, the Denver artist has broken into the national art scene, with exhibits in New York City and Southampton, said Marc LeVarn, who owns the gallery along with Cassidy.

The painter, whose given name is actually Cong Lu, came to the United States from Shanghai China when he was 11 years old. He began working full time as a painter while in his early 20s after moving to Denver. Naturally gifted as both a draftsman and colorist, Cong's early works were “large and sensational, though they were painted with exaggerated melodrama and pathos, his keen insight and sensitivity towards his subjects were nonetheless evident,” LeVarn said.

Between 2003 and 2007, Lu was recognized by a number of art publications as a notable emerging artist.

“Since then, Lu has developed a distinctive look that many regard as an original approach to figurative realism,” LeVarn said. “His portraits do not simply capture the physical or emotional likeness of the subject, rather they beckon to establish an authentic engagement — interaction that ensues when one comes face to face with the sensual, the inexplicable and the unsettling.”

Cong is best known for his paintings of women and his compositions often depict females looking directly out from the painting toward the viewer. While Cong's work is realistic, its also fairly stylized, Cong said. For example, the women's eyes often look bigger than they might in real life.

“It's not that I go measure, and make them big, its just something that happens,” he said during a 2010 interview. “Whenever I try too hard to make something have a formula, they end up like caricatures,” Cong said. “But I like to just look at them like I'm just painting them like they're in front of me. If I do some funky things — eyes get bigger, certain things get streamlined — I just let that happen.”

And its those details that distinguish Cong's work from that of other portrait artists.

“I do have a sensibility and style that I feel is pretty unique and other people respond to,” he said. “But it's nothing I can tell you how it happens, it's just something that comes out in my work.”

The gallery has carried Cong's work since 2006. Over the years, Cassidy has watched Cong's style evolve.

“He has more of a classical Renaissance technique now, Cassidy said. “He stopped painting on canvas because no matter how tight the weave, it didn't provide him the ability to paint the detail he wanted. It's a very Renaissance style of painting to paint on a wood panel on a very flat plane with hardly any texture. He can get extreme levels of detail.”