ART15 LONDON - cynthia-reeves.com · CYNTHIA-REEVES Projects and the New York City Parks...

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Art15, London’s newest and f reshest art fa i r, draws gal ler ies f rom Asia and Europe as wel l as a smal l number of se lect ga l ler ies f rom the US. For th is year’s exhib i t ion, Cynth ia-Reeves wi l l be featur ing a large-scale, suspended stone insta l lat ion by Korean sculptor JaeHyo Lee, as a contr ibut ion to the publ ic art exposi t ion at the fa i r. The curated works at the stand cont inue the d ia log establ ished in the e legant work of Mr. Lee, emphasiz ing innovat ive use of mater ia ls , a sense of l ine and a strong phi losophica l thes is.

Lee is a master at tak ing the mundane and turn ing i t into something unexpectedly t r iumphant: here, the mater ia l of choice is stones, which, env is ioned in a new way become an explos ive mot i f wi th t remendous energy and power. Rather than dismant l ing each sculptura l component and creat ing a hybr id aesthet ic, JaeHyo Lee’s works emphasize h is mater ia ls ’ essent ia l nature. Often min imal ist ic, Lee’s typica l ly monumenta l work centers around c i rcu lar mot i fs . Of the art ist ’s work, ar t cr i t ic Jonathan Goodman wrote in Sculpture Magazine: “Al lowing the mater ia ls to speak to h im, [Lee] bui lds se l f -conta ined wor lds that myster ious ly communicate wi th the i r outer surroundings. . .Texture is deeply important to Lee, who emphasizes the façade of the wood, crosscut and planed to reveal the character of the gra in. The sur face thus reveals the character of i ts making, becoming indicat ive of the creat ive process and hold ing interest by i tse l f . ” (Sculpture Magazine, The Possib i l i t ies of Nature, May, 2009).

Lee graduated f rom Hong-Ik Univers i ty in 1992, and is the pr ize winner of the Hankook I lbo Young Art ists Award in 1997; the Osaka Tr iennia l Award in 1998; the Kim Sae-Jung Award in 2000; the Sculpture in Woodland Award in 2002; and the Japan Hyogo Internat ional Compet i t ion Award in 2004. His work is inc luded in the permanent col lect ions of the Nat ional Museum of Contemporary Art , Korea; Hyogo Prefecture Museum of Art Japan; Metropol i tan Art Museum, South Korea; Busan and the Osaka Contemporary Art Center, Japan. Most recent ly, h is work was inc luded in the Museum of Art and Design’s inaugurat ion exhib i t ion, Second L ives, and was the subject of a solo exhib i t ion at the Montgomery Museum of F ine Art , Montgomery, AL. In 2013, the art ist debuted h is f i rst publ ic art insta l lat ion in New York Ci ty, Lotus, a 20-foot wood tower insta l led in Union Square – a col laborat ive exhib i t ion by CYNTHIA-REEVES Projects and the New York Ci ty Parks Department.


Anita Glesta’s v ideo pro ject , WATERSHED, wi l l be on v iew as a publ ic art pro ject in London as part of the Tota l ly Thames River Fest iva l in September. The pro ject is concerned with c l imate change and i ts impact on our oceans and r iverways. The v ideo content juxtaposes imagery of jewel- toned f ish wi th educat ional content on how water leve ls are impact ing ecosystems at a l l leve ls: human and mar ine. The pro ject we have se lected to feature at the fa i r is SPIN, a t r i -screen insta l lat ion with imagery of revolv ing doors as a metaphor for ceaseless, and of ten random, movement in the urban landscape.

Glesta’s work has been insta l led in publ ic spaces as wel l as gal ler ies, museums, and nonprof i t spaces in New York and internat ional ly. Solo Exhib i t ions have inc luded White Columns Gal lery, White Box, Black and White Gal lery, Sculpture Center, the Queens Museum, and other gal ler ies and museums. A h ighly recognized art ist in the publ ic rea lm, Glesta has worked on severa l large-scale internat ional pro jects. In 2010 the Genera l Serv ices Administrat ion Art and Archi tecture program commiss ioned a permanent outdoor integrated landscape sculpture for the Federa l Census Bureau Bui ld ing in Washington, DC. The mult i -media pro ject , Guern ika, was shown at the Sackler Museum in Bei j ing in 2013, hav ing t rave led f rom the Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCAK) in Krakow, Poland in 2012.

Er ic Slayton is the master of min imal in sculptura l forms. His funct ional ar t hews to a more Japanese aesthet ic, so f ine ly craf ted and pared down are the forms. The proport ions, however, are where he expresses h is decidedly new approach to funct ion, as wi tnessed in the recent ser ies of powerfu l , low-s lung benches - one of which wi l l be shown at the Longhouse in Southampton, NY, th is coming season. Here at the fa i r, the gal lery has chosen h is vert ica l concrete sculptures – understated in form, ce lebrat ing the mater ia l to i ts fu l lest advantage, a l lowing the concrete to prov ide the color, the texture, the v isual interest . The rusted stee l foot ings suggest earth, and a l l at once the concrete is a mater ia l wi th great warmth and depth.

(paragraph on background for S layton)


Amer ican sculptor Jonathan Pr ince has evolved an expansive conversat ion on contemporary sculpture, beginning with h is successfu l Torn Steel ser ies. The new Liquid State sculptures cont inue to test the physica l boundar ies of r ig id i ty and f lu id i ty of sta in less stee l , forming the mater ia l into wave- l ike undulat ions through extensive handwork and expert weld ing techniques. An array of patterned l ight and shadow is the unexpected g i f t of th is h ighly ref lect ive sculptura l form.

The art ist has mainta ined h is passion for sculpture throughout h is d ist inguished and diverse profess ional career in the arts and sc iences. Pr ince completed a doctorate at Columbia Univers i ty and post-doctora l studies at the Univers i ty of Southern Cal i forn ia. Recent exhib i t ions inc lude an insta l lat ion of monumenta l stee l works at the Sculpture Garden at 590 Madison Avenue, New York in 2011; permanent insta l lat ion of h is iconic work, L ightBox, as part of the Jul ie and Edward J. Minskoff col lect ion in New York Ci ty; the acquis i t ion of Vest ig ia l B lock by the new El i and Edythe Broad Art Museum in Michigan; an exhib i t ion of Torn Steel works at Chr ist ie’s Sculpture Garden at 535 Madison Avenue, New York in 2012; an insta l lat ion at Dag Hammarskjo ld Plaza in New York Ci ty in 2012-2013; and, L IGHT/ DARK, an insta l lat ion of b lack Cambr ian grani te sculpture at Hudson River Park, New York Ci ty in 2013.

Dawn Black recent ly opened a show of new work at the gal lery’s venue on the campus of MassMoCA. Inc i tements of Fol ly is an exhib i t ion of socia l ly poignant paint ings that takes a candid look at the personi f icat ions of “ fo l ly” wi th in the broader context of Black’s pr imary themes: dynamics and imbalances of power; the constructs of ident i ty and se l f awareness; and, depict ions of the socia l ly absurd.

Dawn Black’s award winning thes is, Conceal Pro ject , is the work featured for Art15. A montage of int imate, exposi tory portra i ts, th is is an ongoing inqui ry that has been on v iew at The Columbus Museum in Georgia, (2012), fo l lowed by subsequent t rave l ing exhib i t ions with the Museum of Paper and Watermark in Fabr iano, I ta ly (2013); Fundacion Pedro Cano,Blanca, Spain (2012); Weatherspoon Museum, Greenboro, North Carol ina (2013); and the Ogden Museum of Southern Art , New Or leans, LA (2013).

Black received an MFA in Paint ing and Sculpture in 2001 f rom the Univers i ty of Iowa, and has been awarded severa l prest ig ious res idencies around the country; Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, McCol l Center for the Arts, Lawndale Arts Center, and the V i rg in ia Center for the Creat ive Arts. Her work has been prof i led in Art Papers, Art in Amer ica, New Amer ican Paint ings, The Washington, and The Advocate.


Lianghong Feng l ives and works in Bei j ing, pursuing the language of abstract express ionism through the lens of a color ist . His saturated palet te, enr iched by the complex layer ing and dr ipping of paint , g ives a d ist inct ive edge to h is canvases. Tra ined in the both China and the Uni ted States, h is work incorporates the thes is of abstract ion combined with the sensib i l i ty and disc ip l ine of ca l l igraphy. Dur ing the ten years he l ived in New York Ci ty in the 1990s, Feng began distort ing the shapes of the urbanscape, in d i rect react ion to the prevalent graff i t i he saw in Brooklyn. This inspi red a non-cul tura l and “ i r rat ional” form of paint ing. Whi le Feng of ten a l lows h is work on a paint ing to develop organica l ly and intu i t ive ly, he is constant ly looking for the “ images”, or what he terms the d i fferent v isual e lements of h is work, and to e laborate re lat ionships among them. This is part of h is process of f ind ing the paint ing’s art ist ic perspect ive, harmony.

L ianghong Feng was recent ly the subject of a major mid-career retrospect ive at Bei j ing’s Ins ide Out Museum (2011) and the White Box Museum of Art (2013), where h is paint ings f i l led three f loors of exhib i t ion space. Considered one of China’s leading contemporary voices in Abstract Express ionism, he is a f requent exhib i tor at the Ul lens Center for Contemporary Art (Shanghai ) . Feng’s internat ional and museum exhib i t ions inc lude: Brot Hulger Kunsta l le (V ienna) , Bei j ing Wor ld Art Museum (Bei j ing) , Today Art Museum (Bei j ing) , Yonghe Art Museum (Bei j ing) , Perdue Univers i ty ( Indiana) , Yuan Art Museum (Bei j ing) , among others. His works are in the permanent col lect ions of the Dana Farber Inst i tute (Boston) , Duke Energy Col lect ion (Char lot te ) , White Box Museum of Art (Bei j ing) , among others.

An explos ion of color and object is the point of Thomas Jackson’s photography, but h is work shows toward a marvelous humor, as the v iewer is met wi th an unexpected and improbable tableau. He uses nature as h is backdrop, against which he fabr icates h is whimsica l and confounding composi t ions. Whi le the art ist re l ies on d ig i ta l photography to rea l ize h is creat ive v is ion, he cont inual ly t r ies to f ind that balance between organica l ly a l lowing images to cohere, and retouching or edi t ing h is images to achieve the composi t ion he is af ter.

Thomas Jackson earned a B.A. in History f rom the Col lege of Wooster and has spent much of h is career in New York as an edi tor and book rev iewer for severa l magazines. His at t ract ion to photography books led h im to exper iment wi th a camera, in i t ia l ly shoot ing Gary W innogrand-inspi red street scenes, then landscapes, and f ina l ly the insta l lat ion work he does today. Jackson was named one of the Cr i t ica l Mass Top 50 in 2012, and won the “ insta l lat ion/st i l l -l i fe” category of PDN’s The Curator award in 2013.


Shen Chen, a Chinese art ist whose meditat ive works draw f rom his d isc ip l ine in ink brush drawings, works nonetheless in bold color, lay ing in tonal studies s ide by s ide for an ombre effect in h is paint ings. Shen has been exhib i t ing h is min imal ist works in museums and gal ler ies in Asia, Europe and the Uni ted States to great accla im. Of th is latest work -- and Chen’s studio pract ice in genera l -- ar t cr i t ic Robert Morgan, who has studied Chen’s work for a decade, wr i tes in the art ist ’s cata logue: “ In contrast to other important Chinese art ists l iv ing or who have l ived in New York, Chen funct ions sole ly as a painter. He is very c lear about h is posi t ion. He is committed to paint ing as a form that g ives h im the space and t ime to do what he wants and to express what he needs…..He is a painter, speci f ica l ly an abstract painter, intent on work ing with the sur face, us ing acry l ic paint the way he was t ra ined to use ink.” Robert Morgan, “Paint ings in Memory of T ime and Inf in i ty” , 2014.

Shen Chen is a Chinese painter who now l ives fu l l t ime in New York. He earned h is BFA f rom the Shanghai Academy of Theater in 1982, and an MFA at Boston Univers i ty in 1989. Since the 1980s, Chen was among China’s burgeoning pioneers of abstract paint ing and exper imenta l ink paint ing. His career spans severa l internat ional museum exhib i t ions inc luding: Shanghai Art Museum, Ningbo Museum of Art Nat ional Art Museum of China (NAMOC), Roma Academy of F ine Arts, Rome, I ta ly ; Today Art Museum, Bei j ing, China; Nantong Museum of Art , Nantong, China; San Shang Museum of Contemporary Art , Shanghai , China; Shanghai Univers i ty Museum, Shanghai , China; Queens Museum of Art , Queens, NY; Zhendai Museum of Modern Art , Shanghai , China; Hexiangning Museum of Contemporary Art , Shenzhen, China; X i Hu Art Museum, Hangzhou, China; Doulun Museum of Modern Art , Shanghai , China; Museum of Chinese in Amer ica, New York, NY; Singer Museum of Art , S inger Laren, Nether lands; Kuntsmuseum Bochum, Bochum, Germany; and Kunsthal le Reckl inghausen, Rechl inghausen, Germany.


S H E N C H E N

Repeat ing the same techniques or same methods with in an image is centra l to my concept of the making of paint ings. The process of making a paint ing is as important as a completed paint ing i tse l f . S impl i fy ing my images, which of ten appear as strokes or l ines, and pur i fy ing colors into most ly b lack and whi te are part of an art ist ic ideology that ref lects my personal phi losophica l be l ie fs and my Chinese cul ture background.

My recent paint ings, acry l ic on canvas, indicate the development of my changing sty le. I use se l f -made wide brushes and work on canvases that l ie on the f loor. I pa int images that of ten show over lapping brushstrokes repeat ing themselves vert ica l ly ; the image consists of a f ie ld of myst ica l l ines and patterns in gray wi th foggy tones. A range of textures seems to f loat to the sur face of the canvas, wi th marks that look more l ike rubbings, drawn l ines, or wood-block pr ints, than brushstrokes. The l ines or patterns are d istant to each other in the depth beyond the f lat sur face, and are d issolved downward or upward into a t ransparent space that energizes the v iew. Many of the composi t ions resemble t radi t ional Chinese ink paint ing: the use of b lack (“yong mo”) as a pr imary color and the use of empt iness (“ l iu bai” ) as inner space are centra l to my esthet ic. I t ry to recreate the beauty and the myster ious power of Chinese ink paint ings even though I work wi th Western mater ia ls and formats.

Inev i tably, my personal exper iences, consist ing of a phys ica l , emot ional , and spi r i tua l journey t rave l ing between the East and the West, have been incorporated into a more poet ic and abstract sty le. I somet imes th ink that my work aspires to involve an abstract sty le wi th a phi losophica l not ion of contradict ions, known in statements such as “ less is more, fu l l is empty—this is my way of making art .

-Shen Chen


Shen Chen, 3223813, 2013, acrylic on canvas, 64” x 48”


Shen Chen, 32707-13, 2013, acrylic on canvas, 64” x 46”


Soo Sunny Park’s work combines an ongoing invest igat ion into natura l sc iences with exper imentat ion in large-scale sculpture and insta l lat ion. Her work of ten responds to speci f ic s i tes and plays wi th scale to foster v iewer interact ion. Through the e lements se lected for her pro jects, she addresses quest ions of st ructure, rhythm and pattern, and geometr ies, creat ing a l iminal , interst i t ia l space. The re-purposed mater ia ls , such as str ing, p last ic cups and chain l ink fence, create an unexpected - and unexpectedly beaut i fu l - env i ronment. The exper ience of the intended space tota l ly upends the v iewer’s assumpt ions about day-to-day mater ia ls , and about art i f ic ia l env i ronments. ect ive, t ime, and presence.

The art ist has opened exhib i t ions of large scale insta l lat ions, Vapor Sl ide, at the Cranbrook Art Museum; Captur ing Resonance was insta l led at the Rice Univers i ty Museum in Houston, Texas in Apr i l 2013. Park is a tenured professor of Studio Art at Dartmouth Col lege in Hanover, New Hampshire.

S O O S U N N Y P A R K


Soo Sunny Park, Apperception (#2 on the wall), 2015, wood, plastic, aluminum, pollish, paint, 31” x 31” x 4”


Soo Sunny Park, Apperception (#2 on the wall), 2015, wood, plastic, aluminum, pollish, paint, 31” x 31” x 4” (detail)


J O N A T H A N P R I N C E

Pr ince wr i tes: “Steel is . . . an addi t ive process; segments can be attached to the core mater ia l . As such - I am very exci ted by the not ion that one can penetrate space by the addi t ive process of stee l fabr icat ion in ways that could never be done in stone carv ing, where the sculpture’s ent i re mass must be present in the in i t ia l stone block. This is actual ly the reason I was in i t ia l ly interested in explor ing stee l as a medium. A point of interest in my work is the idea that even though the stee l work was created in an addi t ive fashion, the sculpture has of ten been reduced f rom the complete form or geometry.”

This contradict ion in apparent form and process is shown to great example in one of Pr ince’s s ignature works, Vest ig ia l B lock, which is now on permanent v iew at the new El i and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State Univers i ty. His recent works, done ent i re ly in sta in less stee l , p lay the pol ished sur face of unblemished sta in less against the intended rupture of manipulated stee l to excel lent effect . Pr ince recent ly exhib i ted Torn Steel , a ser ies of three of h is monumenta l works, at the Sculpture Garden at 590 Madison Avenue in New York in 2011-2012. Addi t ional ly, Pr ince’s newest work, G2V, was on v iew at Dag Hammarskjo ld Plaza outs ide of the Uni ted Nat ions through Apr i l 2013. A min i- retrospect ive of the art ists’s b lack grani te sculptures and funct ional ar t is on v iew at ABC stone in Brooklyn, NY. The art ist l ives and works in western Massachusetts.


Jonathan Prince, Basin, 2014, high chromium stainless steel, 18” x 44” x 44”


Paint ing should be a form of express ion, unrestra ined, f ree ly express ive, and re leas ing what the art ist usual ly appreciates. This needs whole-hearted concentrat ion, and captur ing each unintent ional effect in paint ing, so that the impromptu deta i ls could become the foundat ion and the objects of narrat ion of paint ing language, and become the meditat ive e lements af ter being perceived by “ret ina”, as i t ’s considerat ion of another form

I have to go around the inherent knowledge and concepts, and enter the unknown terr i tory of se l f . Th is course is actual and stra ight forward. I have to d iscover and correspond to var ious possib le doubts, and make express ions pure. Among these is not an indiv idual ’s wi l l fu l and arb i t rary subject ive wish, but the changefu l and mutual ly penetrat ive cause-and-effect re lat ionships between heart , hand and paint ing. Hence, I don’t want to purposefu l ly pursue a certa in pattern, and would rather present each deta i l in paint ing, rea l , natura l and meaningless, just l ike the inherent appearance presented by the object .

- L ianghong Feng

L I A N G H O N G F E N G


Lianghong Feng, Untitled, 2014, oil on canvas, 59” x 59”


Thomas Jackson was born in Phi ladelphia, Pennsylvania and grew up in Prov idence, Rhode Is land. After earn ing a B.A. in History f rom the Col lege of Wooster, he spent much of h is career in New York as an edi tor and book rev iewer for magazines. I t was h is part icu lar interest in photography books that led h im to p ick up a camera, f i rst shoot ing Garry W inogrand-inspi red street scenes, then landscapes, and f ina l ly the insta l lat ion work he does today. His work has been shown at The Center for Book Arts in New York, the Governors Is land Art Fa i r, the Gal lery at Eponymy in Brooklyn and Industr ia Superstudios in New York. Jackson was named one of the Cr i t ica l Mass Top 50 in 2012, and won the “ insta l lat ion/st i l l - l i fe” category of PDN’s The Curator award in 2013. He l ives in San Francisco.

T H O M A S J A C K S O N


Thomas Jackson, Cheese Balls, 2014, archival digital print, 30” x 38”


Thomas Jackson, Cups no. 2, 2014, archival digital pigment print, 30” x 38”


Er ic pul ls f rom his passion for nature in creat ing h is min imal ist , organic, sculptura l p ieces. For the past 6 years, he has been designing and fabr icat ing out of h is studio in Greenpoint , Brooklyn, us ing an assortment of bold “rec la imed” and “ industr ia l ” sourced mater ia ls . Each piece is t ru ly unique by h ighl ight ing the r ichness of tones and textures embedded in h is d iscern ing mater ia l pa l let . Slayton’s creat ive inspi rat ions were der ived f rom his interest in nature that st retches back to h is chi ldhood. Growing up on Long Is land’s north coast, S layton recal ls being happiest when explor ing the pockets of forest that stubbornly remained in h is suburban surroundings. Here he could c l imb ancestra l t rees, catch sunning turt les and snakes and wonder at the unto ld myster ies a l l around. Summers were eager ly spent in the Adirondacks of upstate New York, where backpacking and canoeing in the wi lds served to deepen h is affect ion for and understanding of the natura l wor ld. His fascinat ion and menta l focus grav i tated toward nature’s “micro deta i ls” of patterns, colors, textures and shades.

E R I C S L A Y T O N


Eric Slayton, Two Columns, 2013, concrete and steel, 77” x 9” x 7”


Dawn Black’s gouache, watercolor, and ink drawings of people pul led f rom the Internet and var ious per iodica ls are meditat ions on concealed ident i ty. “The pract ice of masquerade, especia l ly i ts ro le in re lat ion to ident i ty is fasc inat ing to me,” she says. “Of part icu lar interest is a d isguise’s abi l i ty to engender the wearer powerfu l through c landest ine anonymity and paradoxica l ly i ts abi l i ty to a l low the concealed to be h is or her authent ic se l f . ” Her “Conceal Pro ject” (2008-present ) is a col lect ion of portra i ts of indiv iduals wear ing costumes or masks, which, Black bel ieves, reveal the wearer’s bel ie fs about authent ic i ty and s incer i ty. These drawings const i tute a bank of characters for Black, which she later integrates into the more deta i led narrat ives of her larger sat i r ica l drawings.

D A W N B L A C K


Dawn Black, Conceal Project Grid 242, 2013, watercolor and ink on paper, 7 1/2” x 5 1/2”


Dawn Black, Conceal Project: Set 1, 2014, gouache, watercolor and ink on paper, 7 1/2” x 5 1/2”


Dawn Black, Conceal Project: Set 2, 2014, gouache, watercolor and ink on paper, 7 1/2” x 5 1/2”


Dawn Black, Conceal Project: Aesthetics, 2014, gouache, watercolor and ink on paper, 7 1/2” x 5 1/2”


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ART15 LONDON - cynthia-reeves.com · CYNTHIA-REEVES Projects and the New York City Parks...

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