2018-01-19
Female Group Exhibition
Occurring is a group exhibition featuring Jordin Chau, Karin Janssen, Nissa Kauppila, and Lena Li. Coming from varying backgrounds, the artists merge in the gallery to examine the interplay of personal spirit and experience. Personal interpretations of moments, movement, relations, and the fleeting character of living emerge as leading themes. Like a kaleidoscope, the exhibition captures the current experiences of the artists in static form, which have surely changed since the opening day. The resulting conversation between these young artists is contrasting and evocative, encouraging examination of how art redeems nature at its basest.
Take, for example, Nissa Kauppila’s examination of movement. Like a distorted snapshot, the animal appears in the process of digitization, disintegration, or emergence. “I find urban landscapes appealing and delicate nature just as appealing.” The juxtaposition of the hard, angular, streaks and delicate, natural forms provides opportunity to examine the contrast between the man-made and the natural; even in death the animals are graceful.
Jordin Chau’s work is the repeated examination of bisected fruits in varying states of decomposition. Never stating their likeness to genitalia, Chau frequently notes how close the images are to her well-guarded emotions. The paintings act as a mirror of a deeper state within her that otherwise may go overlooked. “I have a lot of emotions but I don’t want them to affect others. That is very contradictory, and I want to express them in my art.”
Opposite is the case of Lena Li, who’s paintings are hyper-colored with bold outlines for each of the forms. Taken from everyday life, Li’s paintings are freely associated emotions and expressions. There is a sensuality in the process she creates, which begins as an external experience, then internalized, and finally reproduced on canvas or through another medium. “Life is real. You are a real person and your feelings are real. You put something in and you get something back.”
As well, Karin Janssen’s work expands upon the balance of experience and nature. The work is almost otherworldly, yet kept in balance by the minute details of organic life, mashed, and suspended under great strain. “It is its own power that crushes it.” Janssen’s work revolves around this strength and resilience of her inner self, which in turn is manifested in forms of nature, counterbalancing itself in its diversity.
IINNOO Gallery is proud to present these four artists who capture moments within the contemporary evolving discussion on identity, especially for women in Shanghai and in the world. Indeed, there is some expectation built into a show entitled “a female exhibition.” What goes unstated is while all of the artists are female, that role of their life comes second to the work they research and create. Rather, the works stand as testaments to the difficulty of expressing the ever-changing relationship of the internal and external spheres, especially in the dynamism of the 21st Century.
By Peter Hagan