HERE COMES SUMMER
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Opening: Saturday, June 4th, 6:30 pm - 9:30 pm
Exhibition: June 4th - July 5th, 2016
Artists:
Ania Tomicka, Douglas Alvarez, Edith Waddell, Emiko Woods, Jon Lau, Julianna Swaney, Junyi Wu, Liten Kanin, Maggie Chiang, Mariam Keurjikian, Nana Williams, Poul Lange, Shanghee Shin, Terri Berman, William Joseph Dunn, Yejin Oh
Window Installations by Amy Van Gilder
On Saturday, June 4th 2016, Flower Pepper Gallery is pleased to present, Here Comes Summer, a group exhibition featuring a wide-range of both talented local and international artists. With anticipation for summer growing by the day, this show kicks off the new season with work that is equally stunning and delightful. The artists’ styles themselves range from whimsical to ethereal, and from illustrative to photorealistic but every piece reveals the unique hand of the artist that created it.
Each one of Shanghee Shin’s striking pen and ink paintings divulges a new part of the Animamaly kingdom, a world created by Shin where animals take on human-like roles in the most entertaining fashion. For this exhibition, we are taken to a wildly exciting theme park where the habitants of Animamaly go for summer vacation. Each piece is filled with the most vibrant details and characters that all have a unique personality to match this whimsical world. Alternatively, her recent artwork-products have been featured in Barnes & Noble stores in the form of fantastical coloring bookmarks and puzzles.
Julianna Swaney also gives us a glimpse into a different world that is inspired by fairy and folk tales, animals, nature, and antique typography and design. Her work is charming and compelling in that each piece has a strong narrative. It is as if we are walking into a story mid-frame and it has already started to unfold. Her paintings range from sweet to mysteriously somber but it is easy to see that each piece is painted with sensitivity for her subject and an understanding of her characters and their emotions.
Likewise, Jon Lau masterfully tells stories that are inspired by nature, animals, and our interactions with them. All at once his work is lovely and loose, painterly and precise, with strokes and patterns that are uniquely iconic and his own. However, even though his work is bursting with movement, foliage, and detailed patterns, there exists a quiet voice that needs to be met with a still heart. Playful as it may be, there is a vulnerable sincerity in every mark that aches to be understood. Similarly, Maggie Chiang’s ethereal paintings utilize dreamy negative space to show the expansiveness of nature and highlight our relationship with it. Each piece depicts nature as a temple, and successfully gives us a feeling and a glimpse into a moment of deep connection with our miraculous world.
Ania Tomicka’s work is greatly connected to her own “search for answers about life and everything.” Her inspiration is rooted in her own experience and each melancholic character is an expression of this journey. Her work is honest and vulnerable and never seeks to mask any emotion, discovery, or struggle. In a similar way, Emiko Woods also uses her work as a means of self-discovery, allowing the research for each painting to overflow and affect how she experiences the world. Her illustrative paintings on top of topographical paper-cut backgrounds explore the sacredness of space and the quiet universal truths she discovers along the way.
This exhibition has something for everyone. All at once it is playful, melancholic, whimsical and elevated. It is full of experiences that express, entertain, and seek to understand. It relies on these past experiences to know that there is something exciting and beautiful coming. So get ready and get set, because Here Comes Summer.
The reception is open to the public and on view until July 5th, 2016. For purchase inquiries, or to request a VIP preview link, please email contact@flower-pepper.com
Email pr@flower-pepepr.com for Press Release
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Opening Night Photos by Amanda Marsh