Levi Yu’s landscapes and seascapes are happy places to get lost in. The blues in his skies and sea are electric. His orange sunrise and sunsets suggest a pleasant warmth both tactile and visually. It’s a color palette influenced largely by his love for Dragonball Z, and a fairly large collection of toys.
But it is in his cityscapes, where this artist really shows his teeth.
In the artist’s vision of Metro Manila, this bustling place is merely reduced to just a few colors, geometric shapes and white lines. ...
A close look of the paintings reveal famous landmarks such as The Manila Cathedral, The Quezon City Memorial, The Manila City Hall, A Chinese temple, The Luneta marker, and many more.
His cityscapes are usually colored in warm reds and blacks. The contrasts of red to black, or yellow and gold against black give the paintings a three-dimensional effect.
And the city seems to pop out of the canvas. It is as if the painting has an electric light source of its own. Even suggesting the noise, chaos, and scent of a city that never sleeps.
Like a scene from the original Blade Runner movie. The artist’s painting style is what makes the picture, a little bit futuristic,
We have lived all our lives in Metro Manila, and yet we have never seen it in this version.
The next time we find ourselves looking out from a 20th floor window. Or caught in the middle of a Metro Manila traffic jam. Let’s see if we can look at the city through the eyes of this artist. Color it Dragonball Z, Gundam and Transformer yellow, gold, red, black, then as a final touch, draw white lines on it.
