Lara Bandilla, Neusser Straße Gürtel, Cologne, 2011

Lara Bandilla, Shanghai Cologne, 2011

Lara Bandilla, Cologne Wilhelmstrasse in Autumn, 2010

Lara Bandilla, Einheitsstrasse Cologne, 2011

Lara Bandilla, Breathe, 2012

May 2013

Of Time and Light

Lara Bandilla’s paintings narrate the light and movement of time and space. Her work is haunting and touching. The observer looks at the snapshot of a moment while simultaneously a room into infinity opens. The paintings serve as gateways for a journey into endlessness. The resemblance to photography leads to a high objective recognition value that catapults almost immediately into the subjective world of personal recognition.

Bandilla’s exceptional representation of light evokes memories of specific times of the day or year. But such memories are not tangible, they trickle through the fingers and are replaced by timelessness. Like a film still, the paintings capture snapshots of a movement, yet extend far deeper. Because of their impossible superimpositions they become the basis for an encounter with oneself, or “Sein.” The emotions evoked by the work are concrete, but impossible to name or define. They recall and awaken memories of certain moods and moments where life stands still. Moments without faces or facts, made of impressions and perceptions.

Lara Bandilla displays her philosophical view of everyday life. She offers the spectator the possibility to experience himself in a new way and give his personal point of view a different direction.

Bandilla was born in Hamburg, Germany. She started working as an actress when she was sixteen but after marrying the philosopher Joachim Koch she moved to Rome, Italy, where she started studying autodidactic painting and trying different medias and materials. In 2001 the Kleist Museum in Germany showed her interpretation of Penthesilea, the drama by Heinrich von Kleist. In the following years Lara Bandilla gave birth to two children and moved to Cologne, Germany, where her husband died of a severe illness. In 2011 she moved from Cologne to Berlin, where she currently lives. At the end of 2012 she started working on her project New World.

To view more of Bandilla’s work, visit www.larabandilla.de.

Melanie Kehoss, Nothing Single, 2012

Melanie Kehoss, May Days, 2013

Melanie Kehoss, Early November, 2012

Melanie Kehoss, May Days, 2013

Melanie Kehoss, Late January, 2013

Melanie Kehoss, Illicit Celebration I, 2013

Melanie Kehoss, Benedict’s Decree: Denial of Nature I, 2013

Melanie Kehoss, Rare Monogamy, 2012

May 2013

Intergrowth

Cut paper elegantly balances simplicity and complexity: simple because an artwork may consist of only one sheet of paper, complex because the artist can transform that sheet into a design as fine as lace. When put to rice paper, the hand-held blade creates a crisp, controlled, yet gestural line.

Like Jewish, Mexican, and Chinese paper-cutting, these pieces relate to celebration. The banner format, reference to cross-cultural holidays, and inclusion of romantic poetry all suggest special occasions and rituals. Images from nature serve as symbols of these traditions, while suggesting the organic way in which cultures grow and merge.
Born and raised near Milwaukee, WI, Melanie Kehoss received an MFA in printmaking from University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2007 and a BA in studio art from Lawrence University in Appleton, WI in 2002. She has lived and practiced art throughout Wisconsin, Southern California, and the DC metro area. Her observations of life in these diverse regions inspire her artwork, which explores every-day rituals and the influences that continually form and re-form culture in the United States. Kehoss is now a lecturer at Georgetown University and instructor at Arlington Art Center.

To view more of Kehoss’ work, visit www.kehoss.com.

Michael Platt, Taking Back Brisbane, 2013

Susanna Thornton, Athena from MYTH series, 2002

Gloria Kirk, Watching Out, 2006

Charles Sessoms, To Cross the Great Waters, 2012

Rebecca D’Angelo, Grandma D, 2012

Muriel Hasbun, Study for X post facto (.01 -.09), 2009

May 2013

Of a Place and Time: Photographic Memories and Imaginings

Recollections of places visited, both far and near, people known, and those never met but have only been spoken about, form the foundation of the exhibition Of a Place and Time: Photographic Memories and Imaginings. It explores individual and collective imaginings of the cultural and familial alongside the ‘true’ recounting of family histories told by elders, old photographs and other tangible ‘evidence’ left behind. Objects, symbols, as well as other non-related individuals, at times, become surrogates for those family and friends no longer here. They are voiceless, unable to tell their own tales.

These six artists, Rebecca D’Angelo, Gloria Kirk, Muriel Hasbun, Michael Platt, Charles Sessom, and Susanna Thornton, have been influenced by their travels, both actual and speculative cultural encounters, as well as their personal relationships with loved ones, present and past. The ‘retellings’ created by each relay the factual, as best as can be remembered, and imagined fantastical scenarios of varied domestic tableau, landscapes, and portraits presented here.

To read more about the Millennium Arts Salon, visit www.millenniumartssalon.org.

Hsin-Hsi Chen, LUX I, 2012

Hsin-Hsi Chen, LUX II, 2013

Hsin-Hsi Chen, LUX III, 2013

Hsin-Hsi Chen, LUX IV, 2013

Hsin-Hsi Chen, Grotto, 2011

April 2013

LUX

By using the most basic materials—pencil on paper and wood—Hsin-Hsi Chen continues her commitment in ‘pencil drawing’ to present illusionary and riddled paths in her 3D structures. Chen’s new series, LUX, is an evolution from her previous work.

In this series she merges drawing, light, shadow, illumination and a new material, polystyrene. Surreal and illusionary light and shadow versus real light and shadow are constructed from 3D architectural papers and wood forms to create confusion, suggesting that the complex paths in our lives are somehow linked to each other. They compress the surreal and real worlds together, and are released into different dimensions at the same time—such as illusions annex and extract these ineffable thoughts into the real world. The untouchable and invisible time and space overlap the unpredictable challenges and growths in the universe as the light symbolizes the unknown, illuminating those mysterious elements and sources of life. The shadows created within and from the structures reflect the soul of the human being—without soul, living beings can’t exist. It’s the symbol of real existence, which also reflects the directions and paths that we’re going through in our lives.

To view more of Chen’s work, visit www.hsin-hsi-chen.com.

Jung Min Park, The C Cross Street, 2009

Jung Min Park, The Square, 2009

Jung Min Park, The Rest Area, 2008

Jung Min Park, The Unique Garden, 2009

Jung Min Park, X, 2008

March 2013

The City Stories

Jung Min Park is interested in observing and experiencing the relationships between cities, nature and people. Working from her own experiences with the many places she has lived she has found that her imagination takes over and creates a story, or a separate life for these places.

In looking back on these cities she personifies both urban and natural objects and encapsulates their existence within a single memory. These memories are then visualized with natural and man-made objects to form cities. The shapes and colors are borrowed from diverse angles and perspectives and then reassembled in a distorted fashion to maximize the surrealist illusion.