Something Sacred
Ji Yong Kim • Paul Rinaldi • Stephen Niccolls • Karen Schifano
November 2 - December 2, 2012
IHGallery is pleased to present the paintings of Paul Rinaldi and Ji Yong Kim in the main gallery, Stephen Niccolls in the East Wing and a window installation by Karen Schifano. Each artist in Something Sacred investigates the soft yet powerful way art often functions as a focus for human contemplation and spiritual reflection. Ji Yong Kim's densely surfaced architectural abstracts belie his interest in Asian Buddhist temples, specifically those found in Myanmar where he spent his adolescent years. Beginning each painting with the shape of a pagoda (stupa), Kim breaks up these vessel-like structures then tracks over them with gold leaf, a material he uses because of its historical association with spirituality. Rinaldi's buttery encaustic diptychs reference Piet Mondrian and Agnes Martin in their geometric purity while beautifully pointing out the cleansing role emptiness can offer; the viewer gets a pause, a moment of silence, some respite. The gallery windows this month feature Karen Schifano's "interventions", deceptively simple installations made by a meticulous masking of shapes with ordinary tape; never failing to challenge our perception of what's interior and what's exterior, what's private and public, what's sacred and profane. And this month IHGallery premiers the new East Wing of the gallery- an intimate space that highlights Stephen Niccolls small abstracts in oil.
Ji Yong Kim • Paul Rinaldi • Stephen Niccolls • Karen Schifano
November 2 - December 2, 2012
IHGallery is pleased to present the paintings of Paul Rinaldi and Ji Yong Kim in the main gallery, Stephen Niccolls in the East Wing and a window installation by Karen Schifano. Each artist in Something Sacred investigates the soft yet powerful way art often functions as a focus for human contemplation and spiritual reflection. Ji Yong Kim's densely surfaced architectural abstracts belie his interest in Asian Buddhist temples, specifically those found in Myanmar where he spent his adolescent years. Beginning each painting with the shape of a pagoda (stupa), Kim breaks up these vessel-like structures then tracks over them with gold leaf, a material he uses because of its historical association with spirituality. Rinaldi's buttery encaustic diptychs reference Piet Mondrian and Agnes Martin in their geometric purity while beautifully pointing out the cleansing role emptiness can offer; the viewer gets a pause, a moment of silence, some respite. The gallery windows this month feature Karen Schifano's "interventions", deceptively simple installations made by a meticulous masking of shapes with ordinary tape; never failing to challenge our perception of what's interior and what's exterior, what's private and public, what's sacred and profane. And this month IHGallery premiers the new East Wing of the gallery- an intimate space that highlights Stephen Niccolls small abstracts in oil.