Misheel Adams, Bethany Bonfiglio, Olivia Chigas, Yanmei Jiang, Von Hyin Kolk, Yingyao Liang, Jane Philips, Hana Shannon, Deng Xiao, Se Young Yim
August 3 – 26, 2023 · Curated by Christy Dandan Qin
A figure rendered in an unsettling flat plane of color, figures drawn together in unrealistic portrait settings, or a woman shown facing away from the viewer, gazing just out of sight.
Idylls & Reveries at VillageOneArt presented a survey of landscape and figuration with a soupçon of peculiarity.
This August group show at VillageOneArt presented paintings by Misheel Adams, Bethany Bonfiglio, Olivia Chigas, Yanmei Jiang, Von Hyin Kolk, Yingyao Liang, Jane Philips, Hana Shannon, Deng Xiao, and Se Young Yim. Each artist worked in a unique style, at times with unusual mediums such as faux leather (Von Hyin Kolk) or mixed media (Yanmei Jiang), to produce images with an unsettling effect on the viewer. Deng Xiao’s painting style produced lush figuration that spoke to elements of Neoclassicism while folding in surrealist elements more redolent of Modernism. Where Xiao painted in a style considered classically Western, Yingyao Liang combined Chinese painting styles with Western imagery to produce fantastical scenes that transcended either painting tradition; figures from folklore inhabited seemingly familiar landscapes in surreal and even grotesque manners à la Hieronymus Bosch. Yanmei Jiang’s paintings leaned toward a Pop Art style, infusing this aesthetic with a subtle message of gender equality and intimacy present throughout her eye-catching artwork. Von Hyin Kolk similarly worked in bright, cheery tones, painting with acrylic onto faux leather to mix ideas of highbrow and lowbrow in art: asking viewers to examine what is familiar and unfamiliar, and hinting at ideas around assimilation and the idiosyncrasies of the immigrant experience. Loose brushstrokes and lightly painted figures hinted at the role of memory and myth-making in this process. Artist Jane Philips, in contrast, made the figure part of the landscape in works that embraced flesh tones and loosely worked flora in equal measure. In “Sunbath,” the ability to become truly one with something else was explored through careful attention to tone and compositional structure. Olivia Chigas’ work also demonstrated a keen attention to composition, with a sense of alienation created through skillful linework and the unique placement of the figure in the picture plane. Hana Shannon’s work also spoke to intimacy and alienation in its use of bold colors defining an otherwise ordinary landscape: a child playing in the wake of a deep navy sky of storms approaching. Bethany Bonfiglio’s portraits adopted Baroque mise-en-scènes while depicting people from her life, creating a mélange of past and present. Each artist adopted a singular style in presenting a world that approached what we find, bringing us through the veil of memory into a psychological landscape of idylls and reveries.
Works in the Exhibition
Idylls & Reveries was on view at VillageOneArt, 150 West 25th Street, Suite 403, New York, from August 3 to 26, 2023. Curated by Christy Dandan Qin. For inquiries regarding available works, please contact info@villageoneart.com.