A shift in artistic focus can be seen in Luise Fong's new body of work, which goes on display at Wellington's Tinakori Gallery from 6 September. The paintings in Orientation reflect a fusion of cultures - Chinese, Japanese and Malaysian - and bring to the fore Fong's training as a textile designer and printmaker.

Image: Forest (detail), Luise Fong.A shift in artistic focus can be seen in Luise Fong's new body of work, which goes on display at Wellington's Tinakori Gallery from 6 September. The paintings in Orientation reflect a fusion of cultures - Chinese, Japanese and Malaysian - and bring to the fore Fong's training as a textile designer and printmaker.

Image: Forest (detail), Luise Fong.Creative stimulation for Fong has come from a variety of sources, such as the sumptuous and highly patterned fabric of kimono and the rich aesthetic present in contemporary Asian cinema. However, the most dynamic shift can be seen in the variety and intensity of colour she uses; a diversity not seen in her practice since the early 1990s.

This new direction unites with styles and techniques explored during her twenty years as a painter.

The works in Orientation were first inspired by an antique Chinese lattice window, which Luise has hanging in her home. The circular section removed from the centre of selected paintings recalls the rupture of the surface plane seen previously, but here the gesture is far more emphatic. This form echoes the tondos that appear in many of her works, and in the shaped boards and canvases she has utilised throughout her career.

For those familiar with the sophisticated abstract language that has been a crucial part of Luise's practice, her more representational approach is a radical departure.

Nevertheless, the works continue to reflect Luise's personal view of her wider environment. "I am simply translating the images I see in the world in a different way - The sensory and intense surfaces achieved in these paintings express, for me, a purely aesthetic enjoyment of colour and pattern found in Asian culture," she says.

When: 6-22 September 2007
Artist's reception: Thursday 6 September, 5.30pm
Where: Tinakori Gallery, 42 Victoria Street, Wellington

3/9/07