phosphene reverie
It is such a pleasure to be working with LUPA, an artist based in Taipei. From the first moment I encountered her work some 15 years ago in London, I was struck by her captivating subjects and her masterful use of light and shadow. Her paintings have a rare ability to draw the viewer in—at once intimate and expansive—revealing quiet stories that unfold with time.
Fast forward several years, I was ecstatic at the chance to share her work with a new audience and to bring her world to the USA. Glass Rice in San Francisco was the perfect gallery, a small, intimate powerhouse focused on sharing the work of upcoming artists with their dedicated community and collector base.
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Phosphene Reverie drifts through a constellation of interior thresholds—spaces that linger between light and shadow, memory and sensation, vulnerability and refuge. Named after the phosphene phenomenon—the fleeting light seen behind closed eyes—the exhibition invites viewers into a suspended dream-state, where quiet figures inhabit luminous, enclosed worlds.
In LUPA’s universe, the body is held by nature: surrounded by cascading water, cradled in orchids, submerged in moss-lined pools. These landscapes are not mere backdrops, but emotional terrains—structures shaped by a longing for softness, stillness, and shelter. Her figures move gently through them, caught between reaching out and turning inward, mirroring the contemporary tension between connection and self-preservation.
Each painting becomes a sanctuary, a fragment of reverie where feeling takes on atmosphere. With softened contours, layered textures, and a diffused, glowing light, LUPA’s work traces the delicate boundaries between self and other, reality and dream, silence and touch.
Phosphene Reverie offers not an escape, but a quiet return—to the intimate inner landscapes we carry and continually remake.
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View the short selection of works below and to see more of LUPA’s art, click here.
To read our interview with LUPA: here.
Fragments of Memory V by LUPA
A series of eight painting conceived as storyboard frames for a fictional animation, the sequence follows a girl drawn into a mirror and into a liminal space, where her since of self begins to fragment and shift. Along this path, she encounters an alternate version of herself - both recognizable and strange, who ultimately guides her back. With fluid lines and dreamlike transitions, the series explores themes of identity, dissociation, and the slow work of reassembly - a loop of separation and return, reflecting the ongoing rhythms of the inner self.
Edelweiss by LUPA
Horses often feature in LUPA’s work, with a nod to the playful era of the 1980s and My Little Pony, their forms also reminiscent of the sturdy elegance of Icelandic horses. These creatures carry both whimsy and strength, becoming vessels for memory and imagination. Alongside them, butterflies and moths appear as recurring motifs—symbols of transformation and messengers between worlds—delicate figures that bridge the earthly and the ethereal.
Great Expectations by LUPA
Bathed in golden light, this orchid opens up with quiet confidence. Its form is luminous, symmetrical, and almost ceremonial - like a vessel prepares for arrival. This painting carries a sense of becoming, of waiting for something yet to bloom, the flower embodies hope not as a fragile wish, but as a steady, radiant presence poised at the threshold between anticipation and transformation.
