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Associated Press
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Associated Press
THE BLANC Gallery Presents Leave it Ajar —— A Duo Exhibition by Kyung Kim and Ruoxin Sun
New York, United States, August 11, 2025 -- Leave it Ajar brings together the distinct yet interconnected practices of artists Kyung Kim and Ruoxin Sun in a poetic exploration of fragmented, looping, and elusive dreams and memories. Featuring a series of works that span paintings, sculptures, installations, and artist zines, the exhibition draws viewers into the delicate tension between knowing and forgetting. Presented at THE BLANC Gallery from August 15 to 29, the show offers a layered dialogue between abstraction and narrative, presence and absence. Kyung Kim's paintings on clear-primed linen transform oil paint into a sensorial language, where memory, both personal and historical, slowly surfaces through layers of soft, analogous colors. Her inspiration stems from cherished objects, aged Korean landscapes, traditional architecture and porcelain, each imbued with quiet resonance. The paint is drawn inward, soaked into the fabric like recollections rising gently to the surface. This creates a quiet space where time, temperature, sound and scent seem to mingle. Her abstracted forms invite moments of stillness, calm and contemplative intimacy. Complementing this, Ruoxin Sun's work delves into the fragility of representation itself. Through 3D printed sculptures, installations, and repetitive textual forms, she employs transparency, residue, and surface tension not merely as visual elements but as conceptual tools probing how narratives fracture and resist closure. Sun's pieces expose moments when systems collapse under their own logic, revealing the seams where meaning unravels and may be reconfigured. Through this unraveling, she opens a space for reclaiming agency, urging viewers to reflect on how stories are built and where they fall apart. Located at 15 E 40th Street in the vibrant heart of New York City, THE BLANC is a dynamic hub for contemporary art, offering five distinct gallery exhibitions and events. Designed to accommodate large-scale, boundary-pushing installations, THE BLANC fosters cross-disciplinary collaboration and invites visitors to experience art as a transformative platform. Expansive street-facing windows blur the line between inside and out, inviting passersby to pause and engage with the works on view, offering moments of calm and reflection amid the city's relentless energy. Together, the artists create an atmosphere that lingers between abstraction and narrative, material and immaterial. Echoing motifs drift across the show like recurring dreams, open-ended, quiet and gently disorienting. THE BLANC's large street-facing windows become an active part of this experience, allowing the work to converse with the urban environment. Pedestrians catch glimpses of the show from the sidewalk, where the installation invites a rare moment of pause and reflection, offering a soft interruption to the city's constant movement. Leave it Ajar is not only an exhibition, but a journey through memories and layered textures. Visitors are encouraged to discover moments of intrigue, stillness, and playful reflections as they follow the show's looping and recurring visual threads. About Kyung Kim: Kyung Kim is a South Korean-born painter currently based in New York. She translates sensory memories into paintings by capturing the invisible sensitivities of sound, temperature, and time experienced in the natural landscapes of Korea. Through this exhibition, Kyung will introduce the poetic sensibility of these ephemeral memories. About Ruoxin Sun: Ruoxin (Rosina) Sun is a Chinese-born artist based in Brooklyn, NY. Her practice moves between object-making, writing, and digital processes to explore unstable meanings and broken systems. Often engaging translation across media, languages, and memories, she materializes the tensions between personal experience and cultural structures. Contact Info: Name: Blair Email: Send Email Organization: THE BLANC Gallery Website: Release ID: 89166881 In case of identifying any problems, concerns, or inaccuracies in the content shared in this press release, or if a press release needs to be taken down, we urge you to notify us immediately by contacting [email protected] (it is important to note that this email is the authorized channel for such matters, sending multiple emails to multiple addresses does not necessarily help expedite your request). Our dedicated team will be readily accessible to address your concerns and take swift action within 8 hours to rectify any issues identified or assist with the removal process. We are committed to delivering high-quality content and ensuring accuracy for our valued readers.
Globe and Mail
16-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Globe and Mail
Language of Visibility: Asian Art Community Redefining Ways of Seeing
On May 10, 2025, the Li Tang Community and THE BLANC collaboratively launched Language of Visibility, a series of exhibitions and events celebrating the growth and achievements of the Asian art diaspora over the past five years. At the center of Language of Visibility is the group exhibition Collective Marks and Strokes of Imagination, which brings together thirty-one artists and collectives. The exhibition presents a rich body of work spanning video, painting, installation, performance, and multimedia experimentation. Collective Marks and Strokes of Imagination reflects on the five-year journey of the Li Tang Community since its founding in early 2020 and marks another critical milestone following its third-anniversary retrospective, Echoes of Home, held on Roosevelt Island, New York. This exhibition highlights the ongoing investigations of artists from diverse backgrounds as they continue to push the boundaries of creativity and aesthetic expression, navigating the complex intersections of globalization and identity. Language of Visibility is not only a dialogue proposed by the Li Tang Community and THE BLANC to the Asian art diaspora but also a critical inquiry into the 'language of seeing.' British critic John Berger argues in his monograph Ways of Seeing (1972) that seeing is not a neutral act of perception but a constructed process—one shaped by ideology, systems of power, and cultural context. What we 'see' is often no more than a projection of the knowledge and beliefs we have internalized within a social system. In an age overwhelmed by images, it has become increasingly critical for artists to develop new languages of seeing grounded in their cultural backgrounds and lived experiences. In addition, 'seeing and being seen' has remained a central concern for the Asian art diaspora within the globalized contemporary art system. The Language of Visibility examines how images and artworks are perceived and, more importantly, interrogates who holds the power to see and to be seen. How should the Asian art diaspora be presented, interpreted, and understood? Visibility here becomes a form of active visibility, differentiated visibility, and existential visibility—a way of interpreting and seeing that emerges from within complex multicultural structures. Amy Park's work, We All Have a Thirst for Connection, draws from multiple disciplines, including fashion design, material studies, and sculptural language. Through techniques such as weaving, interlacing, layering, and stitching, she integrates traditional textile craftsmanship into contemporary canvas. Park's practice often explores the emotional bonds and relationships between human beings. The use of soft materials and repetitive movement also carries specific cultural significance—through the interplay of line and texture, she gazes back to the traditions of female labor and material use in East Asian art history, ultimately transforming them into a new visual language that embodies emotional flow, layered identity, and cultural memory. Ami Park, We All Have a Thirst for Connection, Cotton rope, yarn, and fabric on canvas, 36 x 36 x 1.7 in, 2021 Cheng Gong's series Culinary Canvases places fresh meat and seafood, sourced from everyday life in New York's Chinatown, into the composition of Western oil painting. In his work, Stir-fried Pork with Pepper, daily ingredients from home cooking—pork knuckles, pork belly, chili peppers, ginger, and garlic—are presented in a floating and surreal state. Set against a backdrop reminiscent of Dutch still life, crimson fabrics and a symmetrical, grounded tabletop generate a tension and visual restraint, incorporating these ingredients with a sense of ritual and gravity. Food is not only an inseparable part of cultural identity but also a material vessel for memory, migration, and belonging. Through reconstructions of 'table scenes,' Gong evokes the sensory world of the immigrant gourmand while prompting viewers to reflect: What is the taste of home? Cheng Gong, Culinary Canvases-01. Stir-fried Pork with Pepper, Medium format digital camera, 38.55 x 34 x 2 in,2023 Sao Tanaka's Imitation of Nature #02 integrates the philosophical and conceptual elements of traditional ink painting with the visual language of modern art. Drawing on the brushwork of classical landscape painting, she constructs rhythms in which emptiness and fullness, distance and proximity coexist. Within the temporal and philosophical dimensions embedded in ink art, Tanaka intentionally 'breaks' into the elegant scene with a rainbow-colored waterfall, allowing the sensory intensity and freedom of modernism to disrupt the peace of traditional landscapes. This deliberate 'displacement' and 'visual paradox' inserts historical motifs into a contemporary context marked by restlessness and uncertainty. The final presentation speaks of a disruption derived from the encounter of Eastern and Western painting techniques, past and present—a visual gesture that signals a forward step, grounded in the return gaze. Sao Tanaka, Imitation of Nature #02, Material Sumi ink, gold, paint acrylic oil paint on mulberry paper, 30 x 21 in, 2025 Alongside the leading exhibition Collective Marks and Strokes of Imagination, three independent curatorial projects were added to offer diverse perspectives on Language of Visibility. Phil Cai's Open Kitchen – Fusion expands the definition of 'installation' into a more philosophical and dynamic form of experimentation, blending text-based practices with critical reflections on the dislocated status of Asian contemporary art within the global art landscape and system. Chiarina Chen's from the settled edge transforms the traditional white cube gallery wall into a time-specific, multimedia, memory-infused canvas that presents the displacement experienced by immigrants. Seoyoung Kim's Tracing… … … showcases artists' investigations into materiality as a means of representing social structures, histories of labor, and the characteristics of cultural symbols, reflecting the tensions and nostalgia between collective narratives and individual memory. In addition, the Li Tang Community and THE BLANC have jointly organized five artist salons and a series of performance art events. According to Webson Ji, the Li Tang Community director and the curator of Collective Marks and Strokes of Imagination, 'Li Tang Community is not interested in forming an elite club or hierarchical structure. It is more like an open playground—a space for dialogue, collaboration, and joyful exchange for all Asian diaspora creatives. It is a place to gather because we care—for art, for each other, and for the stories we carry.' Li Tang Community 5th Anniversary Exhibition Location: THE BLANC, 15 E 40 St, New York Time: May 10 – May 30, 2025 Curator: Webson Ji Artists: Abhishek Tuiwala, Ami Park, Anh Đào Hà, Ari Fu Hong, Catherine Chun Hua Dong, Cheng Gong, Chengtao Yi, Danyang Anna Song, Ellie Kayu Ng, Han Qin, Hannah Bang, Jiannan Wu, Jingyi Wang, Kimin Kim, Larry Li, Nix Liu Xin, Paul Mok, Sao Tanaka, Se Young Yim, Sin-ying Ho, Sizhu Li, Sophie Ruoyu Zhang, Suki Violet Su, Timon I, Xianglong Li, Xin Song, Xinan Helen Ran, Yang Mai, Yue Zhou, Zhen Guo, zzyw Community Friends: Accent Sisters, A Space Gallery, Fou Gallery, RainRain Gallery, Site, Tutu Gallery, VillageOneArt, 7s Art THE BLANC x Li Tang Community Independent Curatorial Projects from the unsettled edge Curator: Chiarina Chen Artist: Cheeny Celebrado-Royer Open Kitchen – Fusion Curator: Phil Zheng Cai Artists: Anh Nguyen, Felisa Nguyen, and Huyen Tran Tracing… … … Curator: Seoyoung Kim Artists: Eun Lee, Janette Oh, and Basharat Ali Syed THE BLANC x Li Tang Panel Discussions Panel #1 – 'Unpacking Visibility' Moderator: Chiarina Chen Speakers: Ami Park, Han Qin, Sizhu Li, Zhen Guo Panel #2 – 'Between Seeing and Sensing' Moderator: Webson Ji Speakers: April Z, Lynn Hai, Seoyoung Kim, Vic Fu Panel #3 – 'Transcultural Echoes' Moderator: Vivienne Speakers: Suki Violet Su, Abhishek Tuiwala, Ellie Kayu Ng Panel #4 Moderator: Webson Ji Speakers: Phil Zheng Cai, Seoyoung Kim Panel #5 Moderators: Phil Zheng Cai, Seoyoung Kim Speakers: Huyen Tran, Felisa Nguyen, Basharat Ali Syed THE BLANC x Li Tang Community Events 1. Accent Sisters Performances Poem Reading – 'Reverberation as Recognition' Readers: Alice Liang, Cynthia Chen, Eva Chang, Ginny Li, Tenny Liu, Madeline Zuzevich, Yağmur Akyürek, Winifred Dongyi Wang Moderator: Cynthia Chen 2. A Space Gallery Artist Critique Artists: Ruoyu Gong, Steffie Chau, Daria Fontaine Pasquali, Chanya Vitayakul, Iris Guan Moderator: Rena Kexin Zhang 3. Guqin Performance Yinze (Frank) Wang 4. Artist Performance Hannah Bang 5. 7s Art Tea Ceremonies Kevin Ge, Jing Zhao, Chenguang Hu Event Planning & Director: Webson Ji Event Manager: Adrian Cameron Event Coordinator: Sophie Ruoyu Zhang Visual Designer: Adela Sun Poster: Li Tang Community Photography: THE BLANC Co-producer: THE BLANC Written by Huixian Dong *Huixian Dong, Ph.D., is a curator and art historian specializing in contemporary Asian art. Media Contact Company Name: Li Tang Community Inc Contact Person: Webson Ji Email: Send Email Phone: 4047476323 Address: 228 Park Ave S #164818 City: New York State: NY Country: United States Website:
