Current Art Gallery Exhibition
“Multifariousness”
Carol Kingston, Paintings
Seung Lee, Drawings
Chris Ann Ambry, printmaking
Kandi Spindler, mixed media
Olivia Castagna, photos
Apr. 21 – May. 9, 2021
Mizuma & Kips is pleased to announce the opening of “Multifariousness" a group show curated by artist Seung Lee. Comprising Lee’s current and former students, the show exhibits a wide range of mediums, generations, experiences, emotions, and backgrounds.
Each artist, though different in practice, explores the metaphysical world through either the reality surrounding them or through their own minds. Touching upon topics of memory, illness, natural and synthetic materials, the artworks displayed vary in their mood depending on the artist's intentions. The various artworks and tones emitted from each can be interpreted to represent different facets of the human condition. Human emotion ranges from negative feelings of despair and hopelessness to positive feelings such as joy. This parallel is represented by the assortment of artworks in this exhibit, just as it’s title suggests.
Carol Kingston Artist Statement
Our Selves may not be always interesting. Or comforting! We seem, sometimes, to dissolve into our environment - yet to remain still ourselves: rising, falling, resting - floating!
In a sense, painting is the expression, and the reflection, of a self that is often elusive, and a narrative that is abstract and allegorical. There is no beginning… there is no end. It’s just a tribute to the Space in between. But my paintings are also about paint itself - as expression of emotion to which viewers respond individually. As a painter, I want my viewer to respond - and to think! That is why I use the transparency.
Color is major in these works. Applied wet-on-wet, with brush, combs, hand-strokes, every line of dribble, or sign-enamel or oil, gloss or matte (for life has different surfaces) is the dialogue of a work itself that is never still... dictates change...
Chris Ann Ambery Artist Statement
I have always been intrigued by the evanescence of memory. For a brief moment in time, a thought, idea, person or thing can be all consuming. Eventually this will fade away into the recess of our memory seemingly forgotten until something triggers it and once again it is brought to the surface. My work is inspired by landscapes however, it is not renderings of specific places, it is a journey into the residual memories and emotions that have been imprinted on me from my experiences within those places.
My current body of work has been focused on solarplate etching and its wide range of uses. This non-toxic printmaking method is extremely versatile. Regardless of the medium I am working with; drawing is essential to my process. As I work intuition takes over and I think through my hands. Although many times I begin with an idea or an intention, as my work progresses, I allow it to take me on a journey and I am never certain of what the final outcome will be.
Kandi Spindler Artist Statement
My work explores the dynamic between synthetic and natural materials. I primarily work with acrylic, which is a plastic polymer, as well as handfuls of nail gems and sparkles. Unlike my purchased materials, my beach glass, shells and driftwood are hauled directly from the beaches of Brooklyn. The interplay between acrylic and natural materials bespeaks the relationship between urban residents and the natural world. Cities uniquely overtake the natural world while still existing within it, and the resulting hybrid is a dreamscape of optimism resting on hearty, old bones.
Seung Lee Bio
Seung Lee is a Korean-American contemporary artist and a Professor of Art at Long Island University Post. He is a director of Fine Arts and Graduate Studies. His paintings, drawings, and large-scale installations have been exhibited extensively in the US as well as internationally: China, Italy, France, Japan, Germany and Korea. He has received numerous reviews in the New York Times, Newsday, Radio Interview with RTHK (HONG KONG), Kyoto Times, Korea Daily News, Busan Daily, Art Word magazine, Art Price magazine, Art in Culture magazine, Art Price magazine, Art and People magazine, and selected for Woori Bank of Korea’s 2018 VIP Calendar.
Seung Lee received many awards; New York State Governor, Nassau County Supervisor, Suffolk county Supervisor, New Jersey City Mayor, and in 2011, Seung was awarded as “Best International Korean Artist” from Korean Art Association.
Seung has been an invited panelist in National Endowment for the Arts, Decentralization Grants for New York Artists, International Documentary Film Festival, Long Island Museum, Heckscher Art Museum, Islip Art Museum, International Nature Art Biennial, etc…
Olivia Castagna Artist Statement
Nameless, Faceless is a series of surreal self portraits depicting my struggles suffering from anorexia. Having an eating disorder is like having two entities in my mind, one is myself and the other is the eating disorder. It is a constant battle between these two entities and that is what I wanted to show in my series. I decided to portray anonymity, in order to show that anyone can suffer from an eating disorder and many will most likely relate. I also kept it anonymous because I often lose myself and it becomes hard to differentiate between the eating disorder voice and my own.