Luo Mingjun painted in her studio in Switzerland for four years without paying much attention to the tree outside her window, a magnolia. Then one day she decided to paint the tree, learning later from a friend that it was an Asian species of magnolia. The echo wasn’t lost on Luo, whose life has been largely split between China and Europe. She let the tree, her kindred spirit, inspire the series on view in this exhibition. —E.C.