Bibi Lei: Where Light Blooms

Bibi Lei’s paintings begin with touch. Working intuitively, often with her fingers, she allows one form to grow into another: a mark becomes a flower, flowers expand into landscapes and figures emerge from gardens.

Colour carries much of what follows. The freedom of Fauvism and the light of Impressionism are important references, while Lei uses colour instinctively rather than descriptively. Thin, translucent passages sit beside denser areas of paint, and flowers and light become recurring ways of expressing feeling.

The fairytale running through 'Where Light Blooms' does not depend on rescue. Its figures find courage within themselves, opening onto a question that runs through the exhibition: what does it mean to grow without losing wonder?

For Lei, that question is inseparable from motherhood. Raising her daughter reawakened her own inner child. Some of these paintings are conceived almost as guidance for her daughter: ways of holding on to courage, curiosity and the freedom to feel.

Lei’s life between Macau, Lisbon and Tokyo also shapes the work, bringing different visual traditions into the paintings without separating one influence from another.

'Loli-Loti Grow Up' and 'Book of Wisdom' consider what we carry with us as we grow, while 'Mother & Muse' turns more directly to motherhood. In 'Queen of Bloom Mountain', conceived by Lei as a key work for the London exhibition, a woman rises through a vast flowering landscape, giving visual form to the bravery of holding on to the inner child.

Lei’s gardens rarely feel closed. Figures and forms seem able to continue beyond the edge of the canvas.

Growing up need not mean growing out of wonder.

The world keeps growing.