Agora Gallery, located at 530 W. 25th St. in Chelsea, is pleased to present A Collective Exhibition: Contemporary Art at its Best. The exhibition presents sculpture, Chinese art, landscape paintings and paintings in the abstract, surrealist and magic-realist strain by artists from all over the world. What fascinates Norwegian artist Tore Hogstvedt most in the quiet beauty of nature is its ability to change from one moment to the next. In dedicating himself to careful observation, Hogstvedt not only describes what nature looks like, but lets us know how it feels to be there.
Painted with a caring and empathetic delicacy, Angela Perry's flowers float forth from the depth of the canvas like soft sheets of light pealed from the soul. Full of mystery and tantalizing presence, the coiling folds and curves of the images dance with flirtatious grace, as if quivering in a silent wind of fervent thoughts.
For Serbian artist Nikola Nicolic, her work is self-affirming, a record of her interactions with nature, its shapes, and spirits. Her unselfconscious use of non-traditional hues evokes the fauvist agenda of self-expression, a driving force behind her creativity.
Karla Caprali’s works are supernatural windows into imagined worlds. These surrealist, magic-realism inspired provinces map tumultuous landscapes filled with vivid personal symbology.
Jolanta Paterek takes her viewers on a cyclical journey called “Purification”, which can stir a negative or positive transformation. She randomly couples a modified bathtub, a painting and a black box, the fusion of which awakens a striking impression in its audience.
Aware that he can never truly escape the inherent ethnic influences that inform his work, Chinese artist Zhang Ge embraces them, incorporating their iconography into each piece. The result is a successful union between the delicate art of traditional porcelain painting and contemporary theory.
Melanie Prapopoulos’ extensive experience with different cultures has created a unique mixture for her artistic vocabulary. She has fused ideas of dance and strong lines to lead the eye to venture upward in her expression and to bring a sense of comfort and openness to accepting the shapes.
In Kenji Inoue’s paintings, the viewer can see the canvas underneath the masterfully painted colors, and the effect is like seeing a face behind a mask, a bone beneath flesh. The awareness that Inoue grants his viewers is inspiring; when the viewer can participate in the process of art-making, the end result is that much more meaningful.
Levi Parsley paints fantastic landscapes filled with strangeness and wonder. Working in the Surrealist style, Parsley draws his subject matter entirely from his imagination and creates extraordinary dream worlds for his viewer.
The Collective Exhibition: Contemporary Art at its Best will be on display June 28 – July 19, 2006.
IMAGE
Zhang Ge
3" Golden Shoes
Porcelain
24" x 43"
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