(TENAFLY, NJ) -- Acc gallery presents an invitational exhibition, Dissonance and Harmony: "Collage, Art as an Object" from May 9-25, 2023. Artists include Doris Neidl, Sual Robbins, Jae Hi Ahn, Julie Sim Edward, Jihoe Koo, Injoo Hwang, Eunyi Lee, Yunmin Lee. The exhibition is curated by Jihoe Goo.
From the Baroque Rococo period to the Neo-Gothic period, it changed to the Romantic period. Art, which pursued perfect harmony on the canvas through rational screen composition and scientific approach, entered the era of romanticism. I became interested again in this era.
We believe that history is changed through all streams of human creativity and flexible thinking that deviate from existing stereotypes. The paintings that came as a light of hope do not fit perfectly like neoclassical works, but they comfort people and help them find harmony in their souls.
I thought of the world as a big canvas. And I wanted to find out how the dynamism and diversity, collision and harmony, and dissonance and harmony that occur within the canvas are created and realized through the artists, and express them through works and exhibitions.
Since I live in New York, where more than 143 languages and cultures form a unique harmony, I wondered how the dissonance of differences in the city creates the power of harmony.
It's amazing to think about each person's life. Life is created and history is created through the appearance of each person's life. Based on these stories, I wanted to exhibit works that show the process of moving from dissonance to harmony in a formative way.
Just as moments and coincidences, places and encounters, and memories and experiences created in life gather to become a story and history, I thought the collage work method was similar.
I thought that the series of processes of tearing, cutting, pasting and adding images, encounters with different materials and the harmony created within them, and the work process of overlapping images can be felt similar to the flow of time that creates each of our lives.
Exhibition plan: Artists discover that art formative harmony can be achieved in his field through encounters of disparate materials, objects, different techniques, images, photos, and backgrounds.
Through this exhibition, we discover that the relationship between different opinions, different cultures, different languages, different lives, and various encounters is ultimately human and art.
And as an exhibition planner, I hope this exhibition will serve as an opportunity to contemplate how our lives can live harmoniously in art amid such dissonance.
Artists show how to draw works in a collage method and object in various media such as photography, drawing, installation, printmaking, how to apply other media to the work, and how the artist expresses his story and history in a formative way through this process.
Doris Neidl
Doris Neidl, "In the beginning there was the breath of nature"; 9 collages, each 4.7 x 6.1 inches, 2023
“In the beginning there was to breath of nature” (2023) is a poem written by my college and friend John Sims. The small collages are part of a bigger work that could be interpreted as a chessboard (he loved to play chess) or like an alphabet, which in turn is intended to express his and my love of words.
"My work is often inspired by books and poems. For me, the artistic examination of a text, is an attempt to create an analogy to a literary work, as a correspondence to its philosophical problematic, its poetics, its structure and its truthfulness to life. However, the image should also be able to exist without the the text. I often work on series, which usually extend over longer periods of time, often years. I revise them, I come back to them. The repetiton of a theme gives me the chance of artistic growth, of graphic 'surpassing oneself.' I work on woodcuts, etchings or collages at the same time. I am rarely 'done' with something. Is there ever that point where you can say you've reached your goal? For me doing art means to let go expectations and ideas, get involved with new ideas and at the same time reinvent old ideas. The Austrian Autor Ernst Jandel once wrote: "What I want are poems that don't leave you indifferent." What I want are Works of Art that don't leave you indifferent."
Saul Robbins
Saul Robbins, New York City (White Light Meditation 241),2012Scratched Drawing onChromogenic Fuji Print, 13x19
"Where’s My Happy Ending?
A friend once said that everyone has their own tragedy... this is mine.
Where's My Happy Ending? intends to be as subjective as it is provocative, navigatingand interpreting the world of medically assisted fertility treatments and the range of anticipation, promises, and disappointments as experienced by prospective parents.
After too many tests and procedures, and more emotional upheaval than we care to recount, this collection of photographs, drawings, and ephemera is the closest I have come to making sense and taking control of this extremely challenging and personal struggle.
After many years of trying, my wife became pregnant and gave birth to our very healthy son, Theodore. While this series loosely chronicles the struggles and desires we held so closely and privately, what began as a series of playful snapshots and naïvely obsessive drawings has become a uniquely meaningful and enduring creative process.
Saul Robbins is interested in the ways people interact within their surroundings and the psychological dynamics of intimacy. His photographs are motivated by observations of human behavior and personal experience, especially those related to loss, unity, failure, and the latent potential residing in traditional photographic materials and personal history. Robbins is best known for “Initial Intake”, which examines the empty chairs of Manhattan-based psychotherapy professionals from their clients’ perspective, and
“How Can I Help? – An Artful Dialogue”, a pop-up office into which he invites strangers to speak with him about anything they wish for free, and in complete confidence."
Robbins’ work has been exhibited and published internationally. He received his MFA from Hunter College of the City University of New York, where he studied under Roy DeCarava. He is Adjunct Professor of Photography at International Center of Photography, NYFA, and SVA and consults privately about communication strategies and professional development for artists. His work can be viewed at: www.saulrobbins.com and @Saul.Robbins.
Jae Hi Ahn
Ahn JaeHi - "Connected"
"Connected", the installation project, is based in part of collections from Metropolitan Museum of Arts and New York Botanical Garden. This project is focused on dynamic intercultural heritages and communities in NYC. By collecting, studying, and painting images of traditional Korean earrings from MET and orchids from NYBG, I created these watercolor works as the part of the large installation including multicultural heritage pieces and orchids. Through "Connected", I hope all the races of human unite and this project will help people on easing hatred to other races and appreciate dynamic cultural surroundings.
"My work is focused on community well-being and human relationships to nature, racism and sexism. Through creating multidisciplinary arts in the field of installation, sculpture, ceramic, and watercolor painting, I try to connect human and nature, and different cultures and different races together across the community in NYC."
Jae Hi Ahn’s work has been presented widely in New York at venues that include Sunroom Project Space, wave Hill, Bronx; Chashama, NYC; Steinhardt Conservatory Gallery at Brooklyn Botanic Garden; Broadway Windows at New York University; The Field Sculpture Park at Art Omi, Ghent; Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, NYC; LMCC’s Arts Center at Governors Island; and Nathan Cummings Foundation, NYC.
She has been awarded grants from the Puffin Foundation, Brooklyn Arts Council Community Arts Regrant (NYCDCA), Urban Artist Initiative Fellowship, and has participated in residencies at Stone Quarry Hill Art Park, Cazenovia, NY; Ragdale Foundation Residency, Lake Forest, IL; LMCC Swing Space, New York, NY; and Sculpture Space Residency, Utica, NY.
Julie Sim Adward
Julie Sim Edwards
"My collages are intimate in size and are meant to be experienced close up. They may be narrative or suggestive. I relish the spontaneous process of instinctive play without knowing whether it will result in wonderful visual chaos or composed lyrical poetry. Collaging is perfect for my creative process.
My recent work is a map of a personal journey, both literal and figurative. They are often compact in size and presentation, and I incorporate tearing, gluing, painting, stamping, scratching and mark-making to convey my experience, and perhaps to trigger memories or resonate with the viewer's own journeys."
Jihoe Koo
Title : Series of ‘My favorite things’.,Medium : Drawing with white pen, painting, collage on the hardboard gift box. Size : 17”x 17” Year : 2023.
" I work in multiple media, from printmaking to illustration to installation art. I am interested in exploring time and memory with my print series _ "Childhood Memories" and Collage series _'My favorite things" about childhood and self-rediscovery. My pieces begin as a collage, then incorporates drawing and print through photography, linocuts, stencils, pencils, inks, markers, painting, white pen, and thread. It depicts all kind of the inner emotional state through the child's gestures, mood, memories, places and "my favorite things". The children in my works are colorfully dressed, but their faces have no color; they could be anyone, everyone, reminding viewers of their own childhood. I believe that my works will be a bridge sharing "empathy “with people. Children become a mirror."
Jihoe Koo was born in Seoul, Korea and moved to France for her study. She earned Diplome from École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, section de la gravure in Paris, France and MFA in printmaking from Sung-shin Women’s University, Seoul, Korea. She had solo exhibitions and has participated in numerous national and international exhibitions including the 5th Sapporo International Print Biennale Exhibitions, Sapporo, Japan (2000), Mentoring Program for Immigrant Artists Project, NYFA, New York (2010), Dumbo Arts Festival in Brooklyn, New York (2011), the 6th Governors Island Art Fair, New York (2013), NYFA Curatorial exhibition ‘ Borderless: In Perspective’ curated by David Terry, Germany, Berlin (2017), ‘We The People’ curated by Heng-Gil Han and initiated by KAFNY, Ozaneaux ArtSpace, New York (2018), ‘Branch to Branch’ projects at New York Public Library (2017-2019) and Studio Anise showroom Art Series Exhibition Curating Project, New York (2019). Jihoe Koo is a New York based artist whose work spans multiple media from printmaking, sculpture, illustration and installation art.
Injoo Whang
"Boundless_0321",14 x 18 x 2 in, watercolor and sumi ink on paper, cut and collaged
"In my work, I explore the supposed binaries of the individual and the collective, of positive and negative spaces, of simplicity and complexity. I imagine their interconnectedness through drawings, paintings, collages and installations using sumi ink and water based paints on paper. My work starts from a single pattern, cut-out paper or mark making that I repetitively accumulate to create a larger whole. When tiny and seemingly insignificant individual pieces are gathered together, they generate a powerful collective body filled with visual illusions. Labor-intensive and meditative processes pay homage to invisible time and labor."
Injoo Whang received a BFA in Korean traditional painting from Hong-Ik University in Seoul, Korea, and an MFA from Parsons School of Design, NY. She has been a fellow at Vermont Studio Center, VT with a full fellowship, Constance Saltonstall Foundation, NY, the Anderson Center for Interdisciplinary Studies, MN, Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, NE, and PS 122, NY. Whang has been awarded Urban Artist Initiative grant in NY and participated Artist as Entrepreneur Boot Camp at NYFA, NY. Her work has been exhibited in numerous venues including Queens Museum of Art, NY; LA Artcore, CA, McColl Center for Visual Art, NC; Lee Gallery, Clemson University, SC. Whang currently lives and works in Cherry Hill, NJ.
Eunyi Lee
"Salsa",2022, 14x 18in,mixed-media stitched fabric work on canvas
Eunyi Lee graduated from Ewha Womans University with a major in Sculpture, Seoul, Korea. For the past 20 years, she has taught art to students of various ages, from kids to adults, and students with visual impairment or developmental disabilities.
Working predominantly with recycled fabric, Eunyi Lee has made sewn dolls in the same shape but in various patterns and sizes and often hangs hundreds of them from the ceiling to create one giant installation piece. Her work also includes mixed-media stitched fabric work on canvas.
Yunmin Lee
Joy of Reincarnation, 8.5x12inch, 2023, Mixwd mwsia on paper
"My ego moves through the world of dreams and imagination in my paintings. I often don't worry about what to draw, instead allowing the work to be filled and created with ever-changing emotional curves. The process of painting is a desire for something beyond everyday life, filled with illogical and sensuous expressions. I am drawn to the beauty of the unknown, and I believe that art can be a way to explore and express the mysteries of the human psyche. My paintings are often abstract, but they are always grounded in my own personal experiences and emotions."
She graduated from Sunhwa Arts High School, bachelor in Art Education at Hanyang University, and master in Fine Arts at Sejong University. Since 2008 she has continually worked on paintings, and had 5 private exhibits and participated in many group art exhibitions. Her recent art trend is to pursue various collage styles in paintings.
Acc gallery is located at 17-19 Washington St. 2nd fl (CVS Building) in Tenafly, New Jersey. Acc gallery specializes in modern and contemporary art. Acc gallery represents and supports international contemporary artists in painting, drawing, photography, video, sculpture, and installation. The gallery continually seeking for talented and exciting emerging artists to explore and expand the possibilities of their work.
