S ituated in the visceral space between surrealist landscapes and psychedelic dreamland, Lucy Bull’s abstract compositions draw the viewer into a hypnotic trance of sensory experience. Guided through undefineds lines and swirls of infinite shapes by Bull’s unparalleled dexterity, The Morning Effect (2019) is a prime example of the artist electric yet inexplicably soothing compositions. Ripples of electric blue and vivid red cascade through Bull’s expertly layered illusionist shapes of green, simultaneously coalescing and collapsing into an atmospheric abyss of colour and form. This disorienting yet serene landscape seemingly dissolves t.mes and space to offer a sublime meditation for the senses, a phenomenally immersive experience in a culture saturated with otherwise fleeting images and trends. Recently debuting with her first solo New York gallery exhibition in 2022 at David Kordansky, the young LA-based artist has distinguished herself as a contemporary paragon of abstract art, captivating audiences with a cosmic oeuvre of paintings, each of which crystallizes a new glimpse into the illusory and unconscious unknown.

Balancing the chromatic vibrancy of colour field paintings by the likes of Alma Thomas, Helen Frankenthaler, or Sam Gilliam, Bull’s enigmatic paintings are the result of a careful mediation between precision and impulse. First employing loose brushwork, the artist then builds upon it, layer by layer, until she finally reaches a trance-like abstraction. This negotiation between materials draws the viewer into Bull’s accumulated process of creation, becoming progressively more lost in the hypnotic trance it induces. Taking somewhere between four to twenty layers of paint to create a work’s final surface, Bull meticulously builds up the layers and textures of a composition, to then employ reductive techniques like scratching away. As Bull has described, “It’s this combination of playing with the mark-making, and stamping it with the imprint of my brush and twisting it in weird ways,” (Lucy Bull, quoted in Steph Eckardt, “In the Studio With Lucy Bull, the Painter Brining Back Abstraction”, W Magazine, 4 March 2021).

Embodying the fundamental Surrealist interest in unlocking new subconscious potentialities, Bull’s ethereal paintings stimulate a delicate wavering between conscious and unconscious thought in the viewer. With its amorphous collision of colour and form, The Morning Effect brilliantly exemplifies the mysticism of Lucy Bull’s distinctly contemporary practice as it draws the viewer into a cosmic illusion of painterly transfiguration. Tessellations of scratched markings give way to underlying layers of paint, which Bull accumulates in daubed and gauzy veils; meanwhile, streaming gradations of color seamlessly flow into each other, allowing pink and red smears to bleed into scattered yellow smudges. By harmoniously teetering between the material realities of its pigment and surface and the subjective experiences it elicits, The Morning Effect accesses the sensitive liminality between conscious and subconscious states of being.

露西・布爾的抽象作品描繪介乎超現實風景與迷幻夢境之間的心臟地帶，吸引觀者進入如同催眠般的狀態，享受迷幻的感官體驗。《晨朝效應》模糊不清的線條與不規則的迴旋，展現了藝術家靈巧精妙的繪畫技巧。作品精彩炫目之餘，卻又同時能撫慰人心，是布爾最出色的作品之一。藝術家在亞麻布上施加一層又一層油彩，電光藍色與鮮豔紅色在幻象般的綠色圖案上流淌而下，使畫面上的一切融合折疊，形成顏色與形狀糾纏不清的深淵，充斥著一種難以言明的氛圍。這幅使人昏頭轉向的風景畫似乎消融了時間與空間，為感官提供冥想沉澱的一角，讓人靜下心來。在影像與潮流都轉瞬即逝的速食文化下，觀者可以透過作品，難得地享受全身心的沉浸體驗。這位現居於洛杉磯的年輕藝術家剛於2022年舉辦首場紐約藝廊的個人展覽，這場在大衛・康丹斯基畫廊舉辦的個展迅速奠定她作為當代抽象主義藝術新星的位置。她的作品每一幅都如同一扇窗，吸引觀者仔細端詳，以不同角度窺看虛幻與未知世界。

布爾神秘的畫作採用了阿爾瑪・托馬斯、海倫・弗蘭肯塔勒和山姆・吉利安等藝術家色域畫作的繽紛色彩，再加以沉澱過濾，在冷靜精準與熱情衝動之間取得平衡。藝術家先以草草筆觸層層疊加顏料，直到畫面變得迷幻而抽象為止。媒材之間的角力將觀者帶進布爾步步推進的創作過程中，而攝人心魄的畫面最終使觀者逐步迷失方向。布爾的每幅作品都需要4至20層油彩才能達到她滿意的最終狀態。她創作時會先層層疊加顏料，再以刮除等手法移除部分顏料。她曾說這種創作方式「糅合了不同技巧，包括以畫筆壓印和以奇怪方式扭動畫筆，在畫布上留下痕跡」。（引述露西・布爾，摘自斯蒂芬・埃卡特（Steph Eckardt）撰〈與使抽象主義再次興起的露西・布爾同處工作室之中〉（In the Studio With Lucy Bull, the Painter Brining Back Abstraction），《W 雜誌》，2021年3月4日）。

布爾恍如幻象般的畫作，刺激觀者在主觀意識與潛意識之間游走，體現了超現實主義藝術家對打開潛意識大門和開啟無限可能的熱情。《晨朝效應》中顏色與圖案的碰撞，凸顯了藝術家採用的當代主義繪畫技巧的神祕感，畫作上的扭曲型態將觀者進一步帶進猶如浩瀚宇宙般的幻境。佈滿整幅亞麻布的刮痕揭露了底下或厚或薄的顏料，畫作表面亦有不少油彩蜿蜒而下，與其他顏料交叉縱橫，粉紅與紅色的油彩流進斑駁的黃色塊中，交匯相融，形成另一種顏色。《晨朝效應》巧妙地平衡顏料與畫作表面的實際狀況，以及每位觀者欣賞作品時的主觀體驗，探進大家心中主觀意識與潛意識之間難以觸摸的敏感交界。