吕鹏作品的画面庞杂纠结，让人心生惊诧。这种惊诧恰与他画中人物的表情有异曲同工之妙，大家仿佛一时无意间跌入吕鹏制造的空间无法自拔，与不同时空的各色人物和典故交汇在一起。
这像极了我们身处的这个时代，不是吗？时空错乱的、与自己无关的种种事件和细节充斥在我们身边，尽管它们对当时的我们来说有着暂时的新颖和刺激，但飞速发展的社会很快把这些历史的、文化的的碎片同化到我们熟悉的感知和生活方式中，迅速演变为我们生活中司空见惯的形式。急剧变化的社会不断产生新的事件和现象，不断冲击着人们旧的感知和（固有的）生活方式。与此同时，新的感知方式也在不断形成，整个过程发生的如此迅猛，以至于人们只是不断被这些事件和现象裹挟着向前走，而无暇顾及整个过程的来龙去脉。这最终导致人们虽然感觉到了新时代的到来，但在面对这些现象时却不明就里。
吕鹏凭借精心的构图和精湛的技术在他的画面上完美地再现了这个时代。他用颇具象征意味的历史典故和带着某种时代特征的人物塞满整个画面，营造出一个个比现实更像现实的社会百态图。吕鹏继承了中国传统绘画的某些写生技法，在平面上肆意地平铺直叙，但我们也必须承认，吕鹏同时具备西方现代艺术的观察和表达方式。他穿透重重现实，笔下再现种种早已被我们忽略或遗忘的文化，并藉此回溯它们被遗忘的起源，揭示这个时代的本质。
社会的现代化进程已经把人搁置到一个别无选择的处境，我们必须快速应对花样翻新的现象。在这样的情况下，新事物的不断被快速消化，导致人的心理机制逐渐获得了一种快速反应能力。人们无法通过朋友、亲戚或熟人消化信息。人们每天遭遇数量庞大的人流，彼此只是见面并不攀谈，相互完全不了解，却又必须“安然无恙”地相处在城市的狭小空间里。这就要求个体面对陌生的人或现象时即时做出反应，以获取自己的生存空间。吕鹏笔下的人物正处在这样的状态，他们不得不拥挤在以平方米计量的画布上，或互相争斗，或互相戏谑，都只为争得自己的一席之地，只为与周围毫不相干的人或事物安然相处。至于周遭是什么，显然无暇顾及和思考。
如果我们再仔细观察，画面上的人物表情都略带惊诧，这正是这个时代的写照：如同我们在都市的人流中行走，快速更迭的事物给人带来的正是这种接连不断地惊诧体验。在这个状态形成之初，我们无法适应，但连续不断的新现象满足了我们自身对时代强烈的认同感，以及渴望在群体中被认可的虚荣，随着时间的推移，我们爱上了这种快感——一种快节奏的生活带来的莫名其妙的满足。我们居然会产生不断激活、体验这种状态的需求，从这种诡异状态带来的刺激中获得快感。我们需要依赖被大众认可且辨识度极高的符号来确保自己不被时代洪流吞没，那些破碎的历史文化符号成了最好的救命稻草，不需要对它们的深度了解和学习，只要把它们抓在手上，出现在目光聚焦的地方，就能显示出自我的独特。也许面具或者墨镜是最后的保护，让我们为自己留下最后一丝真诚，但或者，墨镜更像是一个进可攻退可守的掩饰，它会为我们增加让人无法抗拒的神秘感。
初看之下，吕鹏的绘画仿佛一座意义的迷宫，大量精致的细节让人的目光无法移开，庞大的信息量似乎要冲破画面宣泄出来。但吕鹏显然并不满足于此，他更想做的，是为我们拨开迎面而来的现象的洪流，邀我们一起细细考量这个时代看似纷繁复杂实则空旷荒芜的本质。
Empty Age
By Amy
Lü Peng’s numerous and tangled canvas work is very surprising. The surprise is like the facial expression of the characters in his paintings, who seem to have inadvertently fallen into the space created by Lü Peng, yet are unable to get out of it, and to converge with a variety of different characters from different time and space.
This is very much like the era we live in, isn’t it? Time-warped, filled with all sorts of events that have nothing to do with us; even though they may present on the moment novelty and excitement, the rapid development of the society very quickly assimilates these historical and cultural fragments into our familiar perceptions and way of life, quickly becoming common place in our everyday reality. The rapid development of the society continuously creates new events and phenomena, and has a constant impact on people's old perceptions and way of life. At the same time, new perceptions are taking form, and this process occurs so fast that people are just dragged along by these events and phenomena, and have no time to take into account the ins and outs surrounding the whole process. Ultimately, even though it leads people to a perception of a new era, when they are confronted to it face to face, they are at a loss to understand it.
Lü Peng, through careful composition and superb technique, perfectly reproduces our times on the canvas. He fills the canvas with quite symbolic historical allusions and characters representative of their times, creating a complex picture of society more realistic than reality. Lü Peng inherited the tradition of natural sketches from Chinese painting, freely telling a tale on the canvas directly; but we have to admit that Lü Peng also has the modern western art methods of observation and expression, and that through heavy reality, through the renewed representation under his brush of culture that has long been ignored or forgotten by us, there is a comeback to those forgotten origins that reveal the essence of this era.
The modernization of society places people in a situation with no choice, in which they must respond quickly to new emerging phenomenon. In such circumstances, the new things continue to be digested quickly, leading to the psychological mechanism gradually gaining capability of rapid response. People just can not assimilate all this information through friends, relatives or acquaintances. People encounter daily crowds of other people, they just meet each other but don’t really talk with each other, they do not understand each other, they just do their best to cohabit safely in the city's small space. This requires the individual to adapt quickly when facing unfamiliar people or phenomenon, just to preserve their own living space. Characters described by Lü Peng are in such a state, that they must squeeze themselves on a canvas measured in square meters, or fight against each other, or play with each other, just to own a small living space, just to be able to cohabit with totally unrelated people or things that surround them – which they have apparently no time to tend to or to think about.
If we look closely, the characters on the screen are all slightly surprised, which is a reflection of our era: just like when we walk among the flow of people in the city, things appear and disappear quickly one after another, and it gives us shivering experiences. In the initial shaping of this form, we can not adapt. But these continuous new phenomena satisfy our own sense of recognition, and our vain desire to be accepted within a group; as time goes by, we fall in love with this kind of pleasure - a fast-paced life that gives us an inexplicable satisfaction. We are actually constantly activated to experience this feeling, and from this unusual excitement we get pleasure. We need a very high degree of public recognition and identification symbols to protect ourselves from being engulfed by the times, historical and cultural fragmented symbols become our best lifeline, it is not necessary to understand or learn them, as long as they are caught in our hand or placed right beneath our eyes, their uniqueness will show. Perhaps masks or sunglasses are the last protection; they let us keep the last vestiges of their faith. Then again, perhaps sunglasses are just an accessory thing that can be given or taken back, and thus will increase the irresistible mystery for us.
At first glance, Lü Peng’s painting seems like a maze, the viewers’ eyes cannot leave the large number of fine details, a huge amount of information seems to be about to break through the canvas. But Lü Peng is obviously not satisfied with this, what he really wants is to sweep aside the oncoming tide of the phenomenon, and invite us to carefully think together about the complex wilderness of this era.
【编辑：李雅】
