Enter a world in which swirling colours come to life, a sea of iridescent reflections and refractions coming alive in myriad optical forms. Imagine the light of sunrise captured in frozen time, or a visual vortex in which butterflies swim in your field of vision. Light crackles across the surface of ever-changing hues or seeps down in rippled waves as it dances across the vast spectrum of light and colour. And then, just as you start to trip the light fantastic, these surreal lightscapes give way to organic landscapes. Tree branches, spores, misty fields and the earthen planes meld with this play of light to create a pure, experiential moment. Lumière: Seeing in New Light (10 June – 31 August) brings together a group of artists who make us re-examine our everyday experiences through their investigation of optics and light, as well as appreciation of the natural world.
Indeed, for many of the artists showing here, light and colour form an integral part of their practice. At the centre of Austrian artist Robert Schaberl’s oeuvre, for example, is an almost alchemical investigation of colour and the way in which it behaves with light. This is also evident in the sculptures of Finnish artist HC Berg. For Schaberl, his use of interactive Iriodin pearl lustre pigments creates a subtle yet infinite spectrum of colour, while Berg poses questions about physical form and the play of light and optics in real and reflected spaces. Analysis of colour and perception are also at the centre of Swiss Marc Rembold’s work. A pioneer in the 1980s in the field of changing colour, his revolutionary techniques have given colour a physical fluidity, which he has referred to as “liquid sublimation”. Rembold’s practice – and its exploration of line – also resonates with that of the abstract work of New Zealand-born New York-based Max Gimblett, whose artistic practice combines Japanese calligraphy, Jungian psychology and the practice of Buddhism. With each work, Gimblett creates new relationships between surface, colour and gesture.
Moving into the realm of landscapes and the organic world, young British artist Caroline Jane Harris explores the complexities of nature through a labour-intensive paper-cutting technique. Her painstaking attention to visual phenomena finds a synergy in the works of Japanese Nobuhiro Nakanishi, whose sculptural works examine the notion of reticulated time by uncovering the raw beauty within our everyday experiences of the natural world. Meanwhile, instead of drawing on the world around her, Heekyoung Jeon, creates fantastical landscapes to create visions of Utopia that promise an idealised, Paradise-like state. They are also portals into her feelings and serve as a place within the ether in which she hovers between internal (of the mind) and external (her physical reality) states of being. The natural world and organic landscapes are also explored through the painterly practices of American artists Katherine Tzu-Lan Mann, Edward Lentsch and Lisa Ross, as well as Chinese Tianbing Li and Lebanese Marwan Sahmarani.
Running alongside Lumière: Seeing in New Light, the gallery’s Project Space will be holding a mixed exhibition of calligraphic works by Middle Eastern artists, including Abdallah Akar, Azra Aghighi Bakhshayeshi, Maryam Ghanbarian, Mir Yaghoub Sangterash, Nja Mahdaoui and Khaled Al-Saa’i among others.
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About Kashya Hildebrand
Founded in 2001, the gallery's artists challenge pre-conceived notions of nationality and cultural identity, creating an environment in which established norms become blurred and characterisations from seemingly contrasting cultures occupy the same visual space. This juxtaposition leads to a simultaneous renunciation and acceptance of the traditional and the contemporary, creating an environment that is in constant flux. Religion, politics, nationality and culture are treated as the foundation of identity, depicted and disseminated to varying degrees. Through painting, collage, sculpture, photography and installation work the artists convey the contestations of the contemporary political landscape.
Exhibition:
Summer Group Show: Lumière — Seeing in a New Light
Artists: HC Berg, Max Gimblett, Caroline Jane Harris, Heekyoung Jeon, Edward Lentsch, Tianbing Li, Katherine Tzu-Lan Mann, Nobuhiro Nakanishi, Marc Rembold, Robert Schaberl
Location:
Kashya Hildebrand, 22 Eastcastle Street London W1W 8DE, UK Telephone: +44 (0)20 3588 1195
Dates:
10 June — 31 August, 2015 at Kashya Hildebrand Gallery, London, UK
Summer Party and Fitzrovia Lates: 25 June, 2015, 6-8pm
Hours:
Monday – Friday 11am – 6pm, Saturday 12 – 6 pm
Admission is free
For press information and images, please contact:
Anna Wallace-Thompson
+44 (0)20 3588 1195
anna@kashyahildebrand.org
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About the Artists
HC Berg
With observation and perception as his subject matter, HC Berg (b. 1971, Finland) employs a variety of media from metals to glass to acrylics to create works that possess unlimited optical dexterity. The recipient of Finland’s Young Artist of the Year award in 2007, his works have been collected by all major museums in Finland, including Kiasma and Helsinki City Art Museum, and international private and public collections.
Max Gimblett
New York-based Max Gimblett ( b. 1935, New Zealand) studied painting at the San Francisco Art Institute in California in 1965, followed by studies in psychology at the CG Jung Foundation in New York (1983-2011). His work can be found in the collections of the British Library, London, UK, and New York’s Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and Museum of Modern Art, among others.
Caroline Jane Harris
Caroline Jane Harris (b. 1987, UK) explores the complexities of nature through a labour-intensive paper-cutting technique. She received her MA in Fine Art from the City and Guilds School of Art, London in 2015 and her BA in Fine Art Printmaking, University of Brighton in 2009. Recent solo exhibitions include Anatomy of the Arboreal, Scream Gallery (2014) and Lifelines, The Muse Gallery (2011), both in London, and has had her work shown in Abu Dhabi, Basel, Istanbul, Miami, Seoul and Singapore, among others.
Heekyoung Jeon
Based in Incheon, Heekyoung Jeon (b. 1981, Korea) received her MFA and BFA in Fine Art Painting from Hong-ik University, Seoul, Korea in 2009 and 2005 respectively. Exploring fantastical Utopian landscapes, her often large-scale works have been featured in solo exhibitions such as Where Are You Among These: Ideal, Reality and Desire? GeomjaJeongseon Art Museum, Seoul and Utopia in Emptiness, Lotte Gallery, Bucheon, Korea (both 2014). Her work can also be found in public collections such as the Taitung Art Museum in Taiwan and the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea.
Edward Lentsch
Studying at the Académie de la Grande Chaumié in Paris and the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Edward Lentsch (b. 1959, USA) lives and works in Minneapolis. His work has been shown throughout the USA, as well as as far afield as Oman and Japan. Lentsch is also founder of Artist League Projects, an initiative which hosts internships and apprenticeships for emerging artists. His work can be found in the corporate collections of Merrill Lynch, Marriot, Raddison and Bentley, among others.
Tianbing Li
Tianbing Li was born in 1974 in Guilin, China. There, he discovered painting at the early age of 6, learning traditional Chinese technique (ink on paper). In 1997, Li left China for Paris to attend the Ecole National Superiéure des Beaux-Arts. He has exhibited at Galerie Kashya Hildebrand, Zurich, Switzerland and Stephen Friedman Gallery, London and Institut Valancien d’Art Moderne, Valencia, Spain, among others. He was the recipient of the Biennale d’Issey award, Issey-les-Moulineaux in 2003.
Katherine Tzu-Lan Mann
Katherine Tzu-Lan Mann (b. 1983, USA) received her BA from Brown University and MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art. She is the recipient of a Fulbright grant to Taiwan, the AIR Gallery Fellowship program in Brooklyn, NY, and the So-Hamiltonian Fellowship in Washington, DC. Some of the venues where Mann has shown her work include Kashya Hildebrand London and Zurich, the Walters Art Museum, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Rawls Museum, the US consulate in Dubai, UAE, and the US embassy in Yaounde, Cameroon. Mann is currently an instructor at the Maryland Institute College of Art.
Nobuhiro Nakanishi
Currently based in Osaka, Nobuhiro Nakanishi (b. 1976, Japan) studied sculpture at Tokyo Zokei University, Tokyo, Japan and completed his MA in sculpture at Kyoto City University of Art, Kyoto, Japan. His drawings and sculptures been exhibited in China, Japan, Korea, France, the UK and Switzerland. His work is also represented in several major collections including: the Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, the Museum of Modern Art, Wakayama, Japan, and the Tokyo Municipal Museum of Art in Aichi, Japan
Marc Rembold
Basle-based artist Marc Rembold (b. 1963, Switzerland) is regarded as a pioneer of colour and pigment, coining the phrase ‘glamoury pop art kitsch’ to describe his brigntly coloured three-dimensional works and sculptures. He has exhibited throughout Switzerland, as well as in Toronto, Miami, Dubai and Vancouver. His work can be found in public and private collections throughout Europe, the USA, Canada, Asia and the Middle East, including Hoffman-La Roche in Basel and Saks Fifth Avenue in New York.
Lisa Ross
Lisa Ross (b. 1964, USA) graduated with her MFA in Visual Arts from Columbia University, New York, USA in 2001, following studies in elementary education (receiving an MA from Adelphie University, USA in 1995) and a BA from Sarah Lawrence College, New York, USA (1987). She has won numerous awards and residencies, including the 2001-2003 Hayward PRize, American Austrian Foundation. She lectures extensively, including at the University of California, Berkeley, the School of Visual Arts, New York, NY, USA and the University of London, School of Oriental and Africa Studies (SOAS), London, UK, among others.
Robert Schaberl
Robert Schaberl (b. 1961, Austria) studied from 1979-85 at the University Mozarteum in Salzburg, lived in the United States from 1985-86 and lived in Berlin from 1997-2000. Since then he has lived and worked in Vienna. His paintings have been exhibited in numerous galleries and museums, most notably in Austria, Germany, France, the USA and Costa Rica. His work is also represented in several major collections including the collection of the City of Vienna; the collection of the State of Austria and the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation, Los Angeles.
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