Art in America On the “molten Lava Series”

“The Taiwanese-born painter Marlene Tseng Yu has lived in New York City for almost 30 years. Her often epic-size paintings consciously meld Western and Chinese techniques in their portrayal of a wide variety of natural settings underwater scenes, geysers and, in her recent exhibition, volcanoes. Her art moves with ease from abstract gestures to recognizable forms such as clouds or lava flows. Yu finds a balance between the subtleties of Chinese painting and the forthright ambition and eloquence of Abstract Expressionism.

The works in this recent show ranged from the huge acrylic-on-canvas Molten Lava III (1996)— 12 by 18 feet in size-to the 10 small acrylic-on-paper pieces of the 1997 "Molten Lava Park" series. Yu fills her compositions with striking abstract effects: areas that look like a watercolor wash, eccentric ovoid shapes, patches of red that appear to rush at the viewer. Her pleasure in these gestures is communicated by the way she allows them to spill every which way over the paper or canvas. At the same time, there's never much doubt about Yu's penchant for describing the natural world.

In Molten Lava III, a massive swath of brown with patches of rust and gray, occupies the work' s center; it looks like a huge cliff or promontory. At its top and bottom are areas of frothy white, next to which are touches of deep red alluding to intense volcanic heat. The colors are subtly modulated, with effects close to gouache or watercolor, yet the textures and color relationships are made striking by the force of the painting's enveloping scale.

In Bubbling Lava (1996), a large acrylic on canvas, white bubbles float up to the surface from a red ground. A bit of orange-yellow at center is the painting's visual core. While Yu' s impressionistic rendition of a geological event is geologically accurate, the work is also an abstract emotional statement.”

- Jonathan Goodman, Quote from Art in America, Space Untitled show