Karen Vogel

Somewhere

2017

Hayoon Jay Lee is a visual artist who explores the fundamental tension between indulgence and abnegation as it exists in terms of mind and body as well as on the level of social and political dynamics. Lee makes use of rice as an object, motif, metaphor, and visceral biomorphic form. As a building block for civilizations and as a link to the collective unconscious, rice allows her to create a visual echo reflecting points of conflict, oscillating between attraction and repulsion, between Orient and Occident, with the aim of inspiring self-reflection and ultimately producing conditions for healing and harmony. Lee’s paintings contain crowds of figures embedded in rice forms, emphasizing the symbiosis between rice and life, the seemingly countless, clearly defined grains suggesting infinite regeneration. In high and low reliefs, she meditatively arranges individual grains of rice into a surface with modeling paste to create physical and emotional topographies. In 3D works, rice is transformed into a pyramid or a grid of 3,000 handcrafted rice “bowls” that speak paradoxically of longing and fulfillment, not to mention Buddhist concepts of suffering and seeking Enlightenment. Her installations may also take the shape of mounds of rice occupying vast spaces underneath sacks of rice hanging in rows. These emotion-laden landscapes lay just beyond our reach; the extensive fields of rice seem to glow with their own inner light, yet each element of these constructs is formed by a single grain tentatively holding onto its place in the larger macrocosmic setting. Through interactive performances, she hopes to open a dialog with audiences, to create a new community of strangers, with eyes open...

Hayoon Jay Lee is a visual artist who explores the fundamental tension between indulgence and abnegation as it exists in terms of mind and body as well as on the level of social and political dynamics. Lee makes use of rice as an object, motif, metaphor, and visceral biomorphic form. As a building block for civilizations and as a link to the collective unconscious, rice allows her to create a visual echo reflecting points of conflict, oscillating between attraction and repulsion, between Orient and Occident, with the aim of inspiring self-reflection and ultimately producing conditions for healing and harmony. Lee’s paintings contain crowds of figures embedded in rice forms, emphasizing the symbiosis between rice and life, the seemingly countless, clearly defined grains suggesting infinite regeneration. In high and low reliefs, she meditatively arranges individual grains of rice into a surface with modeling paste to create physical and emotional topographies. In 3D works, rice is transformed into a pyramid or a grid of 3,000 handcrafted rice “bowls” that speak paradoxically of longing and fulfillment, not to mention Buddhist concepts of suffering and seeking Enlightenment. Her installations may also take the shape of mounds of rice occupying vast spaces underneath sacks of rice hanging in rows. These emotion-laden landscapes lay just beyond our reach; the extensive fields of rice seem to glow with their own inner light, yet each element of these constructs is formed by a single grain tentatively holding onto its place in the larger macrocosmic setting. Through interactive performances, she hopes to open a dialog with audiences, to create a new community of strangers, with eyes open...

Our Virus luminaire is a spherical luminaire with color filter attachment for indoor operation. The tubular sectional steel here has been arranged as a sphere, casting different tunn...

Abstract mixed media coastal landscape. Framed size: 16x20

Contemporary mixed media, acrylic and tissue paper on canvas by French artist, Georges Fernandes. Monogram signed to the bottom right and signed and dated 2000 to the reverse. Presented in plain wood frame with gold filet. A bold and colourful abstract in blue and gold. Tendrils of blue radiate from a central sphere and work their way across the rich gold textured background. The colour combination gives a richness to the painting, the gold background emphasising the near Yves Klein blue of the tendrils. This collage fits perfectly into the abstract genre with its focus on its formal qualities over and above its subject matter. Furthermore the artist experiments with vivid yet arbitrary colours, reconstructing shapes and rejecting three dimensional perspective. A fine example of non objective art...

Gaugin inspired 'montage' titled 'Manau Tupapau' (spirit of the dead watching) by French artist, Armand Avril. Signed and dated 2004 to the bottom right and mou...