At White Cube Gallery in New York City, Christine Ay Tjoe’s Covered and Cover exhibition is a cohesive group of twelve paintings, where the artist depicts her inner turmoil with pure honesty—with images moving in a kind of aesthetic trance that bridge the gap between the viewer’s glimpse and the innermost regions of great painting.
Born in Bandung, Indonesia and schooled in both graphic design and printmaking, Ay Tjoe’s knack for painting came about while working in drypoint, a printmaking process that creates a soft, somewhat blurred consistency, which is a quality she found important in her artistic direction. Her primary subjects were plants–which helped her create a process expressed in lines, all done with a direct focus on forming organic shapes, forms and textures. This direction leads further within her painting process, which expands the subject of the human form and uses it as an expression of angst and subjugation.
What is unique is Ay Tjoe’s style is her intense sense of expression, which comes from the experiences of losing a parent. The control she has over her oil sticks while working certainly conveys that feeling–of expression of great emotion and randomness, yet with specificity in her intentions. The visual process becomes striking, as everything seems to come together, as massive, organic images come quite together with scope, clarity and detail.
Upon entering the 2nd floor space, Covered and Cover #01 (2025), is an unwavering mass of organic elements that seems to be stripping itself, yet is majestic. The layers shed away like old scraps of clothing but remains intact within its space; attached yet unattached.
Adjacent to it is a magnificent diptych entitled Covered and Cover #10 (2025), a work that captures the visual imagination quite vividly. It is an array of organic patterns, folds and sleeves similar to onions or garlic cloves, that seem to claw way from one end to the next, yet create volumes of tight waves, twists, and turns as it moves about.
Covered and Cover #7, (2025) is a dark yet warm work that reminds one of a bird’s nest. References to birth, nurturing, and life read as one glance at the blood-stained colors that unfold amongst the layers of cloth-like substances. It is a kind of unflowering; a kind of opening into new worlds and new experiences.
The last piece, Covered and Cover #4 (2024-25), is my personal favorite – a diptych full of vivid and detailed shades, colors and shapes, embraced in a continuum of serene activity. On the left panel, a red organic shape akin to a river seem to stand out in stark fashion. Scrawls and lines of different colors form a mesh of energy that is quite magnetic and powerful, a life-flow that holds the rest of the work together.
Christine Ay Tjoe’s Covered and Cover will be on display until August 16 at White Cube Gallery, located on 1002 Madison Ave. in New York City.
