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"Deena Gu studied Chinese painting with me after she graduated from senior high school in 1979. I placed great hopes on her as she showed promise from the very beginning of her studies. Her intelligence and diligence brought her excellent achievements. It is not easy for Chinese painting to occupy a position in the contemporary world of art. The aesthetic view must be developed with the times through absorbing the elements from both ancient and new art in various styles. Deena Gu has made best efforts and now she has made great achievements. I once told her that we should be confident of influencing the Americans with Chinese art. She inherits the tradition of Chinese painting and adopts the best of the western painting; her works are well done. Now I am pleased that her efforts are crowned with success."
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"Deena Gu Laties represents a still unusual phenomenon - an
accomplished artist practicing a traditional Chinese mode of painting
with an American art world used to the grand gesture. Her flower
paintings are disciplined and elegant, characterized by a fluency of
line and delicasy of coloring associated first with the Song dynasty" Derek Gillman
"Born in Shanghai Deena, was recognized very early as having a significant talent in her adulthood she studied with several masters in China, most notably Chen-Si-fa. She came to the United States, to continue her work. In mid 1980's and enrolled in the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. This is where I first met her. After developing herself as an artist independent of her prior education, she returned to her roots, working in watercolor on silk a tradition of long-standing in her native China. But this time with a major difference. Now her work incorporated both Eastern and Western thinking, emphasizing color and space plus a sense of their relationships. To realize this is a significant accomplishment and one that could only be done by a very accomplished artist."
"When we had the Exhibition at the Museum, the main piece in view when you came down the hallway near the Museum store was that wonderful Lotus painting by Deena; it took up the whole wall. It was a wonderful example of Deena's work; it had that vibrancy of color and line in a large scale composition. You knew it wasn't purely by someone only trained in the West; it had to be by someone with traditional Chinese ink painting in their background. Such training is the basis of a wonderful freedom of color and brushwork. Contemporary Chinese painting, tends either to be so traditional that it is just uninspired copying of the past or so western that it cuts off the past. It is too bad because traditional painting should be preserved. What I love in Deena's work is that she has combined the two without being imitatve of one or the other. She revitalizes the traditional use of new elements. For so many contemporary works you need long explanations to understand them, because they kind of go to head without going to the heart. But Deena's pieces speak to you very directly. You get that because that's the way they are painted. I think we have some wonderful talent here that we have to keep an eye on for the future."
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