Yu Feier’s paintings evoke a sense of continence: they attract willing attentions yet never to the extent of obsession.

From Song dynasty and Renaissance paintings, she has discovered some reserved emotions—those toward humanity, nature, and the order of the universe. When painting is understood as a direct expression existing outside the self, painters attain a kind of composure, freed from the burden of existential self-justification.

In this sense, through her restraint, Yu’s painted objects and her paintings on objects transcend the cycle of emotional depletion and fetishism of our contemporary world. As she seeks to rediscover the presence of the object in today’s objectless world, she is able to create a space of emotional respite for herself and the others.