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Thursday, March 28, 2024


Exhibition Public - USA & Canada

Asian Art in Unbound Perspectives Exhibition at Agora Gallery NYC!

Agora Gallery
530 West 25th St, Chelsea,
New York, New York, USA
Aug 26, 2016 To Sep 15, 2016


Detail: The original work of six talented Asian fine artist Gloria Bhargava, Jacky Cheng, Keiichi Yonemoto, Kenji Inoue, Koki Morimoto and Sherman Lin will be on display at Agora Gallery, NYC in Unbound Perspectives. The exhibition opens on August 26th, 2016 and runs through September 15th, 2016 with an opening reception on September 1st, from 6 – 8PM. Entrance is free.

Exhibition Dates: August 26, 2016 – September 15, 2016
Reception: Thursday September 1, 2016, 6:00pm - 8:00pm
Gallery Hours: Tues-Sat 11:00am – 6:00pm
Gallery Location: 530 West 25th St, Chelsea, New York
Event URL:
Gloria Bhargava - http://www.agora-gallery.com/artistpage/Gloria_Bhargava.aspx
Jacky Cheng - http://www.agora-gallery.com/artistpage/Jacky_Cheng.aspx
Keiichi Yonemoto - http://www.agora-gallery.com/artistpage/Keiichi_Yonemoto.aspx
Kenji Inoue - http://www.agora-gallery.com/artistpage/Kenji_Inoue.aspx
Koki Morimoto - http://www.agora-gallery.com/artistpage/Koki_Morimoto.aspx
Sherman Lin - http://www.agora-gallery.com/artistpage/Sherman_Lin.aspx

About Gloria Bhargava

Gloria Bhargava’s collages investigate culture from the singular perspective of someone who is both an outsider and an insider. Bhargava was given a Western education at an international school in her native Thailand. At school she learned about the virtues and pitfalls of American culture in recent history, while at home she lived, naturally, as a Thai citizen. Bhargava’s collage practice pursues the contradictions that arise when contrasting a sheltered upper class with the earthy world that keeps things moving.

Bhargava’s pieces are somehow both anecdotal and universal. She shows scenes: a living room, a group of generals at a table, two scientists talking. But the actions are loaded, and iconography plays an important role throughout. Those scientists are powering an entire city with what may be nuclear fission. The living room houses a child glued to the television. And racism in America is probed with great concern.

Bhargava was born in Bangkok, Thailand, where she continues to live today. She is also the artistic director for a new online investigative journalism publication.

About Jacky Cheng

Jacky Cheng makes art that is multicultural in every aspect of its being. While growing up in Malaysia, Cheng was introduced to the art of cutting and folding joss paper by her grandmother. “I owe the significant part of my practice to that process,” she says. “The practice and pride in knowing every single cut is of purpose and intent.” But that tradition takes on a new form in her works: a series of pieces that also show the influence of and her connection with the Aboriginal culture of northwestern Australia, where Cheng has lived, worked, and taught since 2006.

Trained as an architect, Cheng brings her cultural influences together in works that marry a strong feeling for structure and form with a dynamic sense of energy. In her pieces, the delicacy of cut paper exists alongside bold splashes of color and an adventurous, boundary-pushing spirit. The symmetrical regularity of the mandala can be seen, but that balance and harmony is juxtaposed with a variety of textures, a sensitivity to light and shadow, and an open-ended spontaneity that make each image feel fresh and contemporary.

About Keiichi Yonemoto

For Keiichi Yonemoto, landscape painting means depicting “the constant movement of nature.” Yonemoto uses the elements of water, air, and light to try and depict the invisible: time. Painting in acrylic, he uses grand images of rivers and waterfalls as his base. The water, out under the unending sky with no shore or manmade object in sight, whip themselves into crests and whirlpools that defy gravity. Yonemoto then weaves small currents of air and light in and out of the water's surface, creating a larger dance. Minute sprays and choppy waters suggest that time is moving both quickly and slowly in the world of the painting.

For all its passion and energy, Yonemoto’s work is rooted in pure technical skill. The compositions are geometrically precise. Each piece has a tightly defined palette, executed in detailed realism. Yonemoto knows how light hits water and how wind affects liquid moving at cross-currents, and paints these sophisticated images with a scientist’s accuracy.

Yonemoto was born in Tokyo, Japan and today lives in the city of Inzai, Japan. He has exhibited extensively in Japan.

About Kenji Inoue

Japanese artist Kenji Inoue states proudly that he is inspired by white flowers, butterflies, the summer, smiles, and rock 'n’ roll. In either acrylic or oil on canvas, he produces a remarkably fluid and diverse portfolio. Landscapes and figure studies are common and often blended themes in Inoue’s work, ranging from the traditional or the representational to the completely fantastic. The artist’s capricious styles are nonetheless united by a soft, hypnotic palette, and he often juxtaposes warm bodies against cool tones for a more striking contrast. Inoue’s paintings are sentimental and theatrical, exploring the drama of our subconscious through expansive and dark spaces, odd illuminations, and curious figures.

“My art has no meaning,” Kenji Inoue says, speaking to the value of free interpretation. “I never try to discuss my work. There is no additional value [to my words]." The artist avoids over-contextualizing his pieces for fear that explanations may interfere with the viewers' experiences of the work itself. His works can only be felt, not explained.

Kenji Inoue resides and works in Japan.

About Koki Morimoto

Japanese artist Koki Morimoto likens his painting process to the natural process by which plants emerge from the ground and grow, an evolution which is echoed in the elegant lines and shapes of his black and white acrylic compositions. The seductive curves and textures in these abstract canvases occasionally suggest such disparate subjects as landscapes or calligraphy, and their titles occasionally offer evocations of nature, but the works remain decidedly non-representational, focusing viewers' eyes on the visual and tactile properties of the thick, rounded brushstrokes and the interplay of light and dark areas in each image.
The dark, sinuous forms Morimoto's marks describe — to which he occasionally adds shades of color like pale blues, yellows, and dark browns — guide the eyes over the canvas, at times becoming bold and thick, elsewhere thinning out to reveal the white beneath. Each work takes the viewer on an optical journey of sorts, tracing a line over a white space, like a seed emerging from barren ground.

About Sherman Lin

Born in Sihui, China in the province of Guangdong, Canadian citizen Sherman Lin studied at the Central Academy of Arts and Crafts in Beijing, where he graduated in 1982. Originally inspired by teachers and local artists, Lin describes Chinese ink painting and traditional writing as “the cultural gene” within his work. Over time, he began to explore new aesthetics, blending his artistic heritage with Western techniques. Lin sees this exploration as a form of evolution, bringing him closer to a true expression of his inner self.

Lin’s blending of East and West is most evident in his choice of materials, which pairs traditional Chinese rice paper with acrylic paints. The geometric shapes dominating his paintings are roughly filled with color, taking on a distressed look. Lin’s current series, titled “Falling Mountains,” is an ode to nature, a first step in his mission of connecting the spiritual and the natural via a “celestial ladder.” When asked what significance art holds in this attempt at communication, Lin is eager to respond: “Art is the expression of humanity’s purest love.”

About the Exhibition

Unbound Perspectives - Exploring Mediums and the World at Agora Gallery

Agora Gallery presents Unbound Perspectives, a group exhibition highlighting work that presents reality with heightened aesthetic possibilities. Bringing together no fewer than eighteen artists, the exhibition is an eclectic mixture of photography, painting, and sculpture. Some pieces present subtler, updated forms of surrealism: familiar objects and figures taken out of context and placed into new environments, or classic art historical tableaux with present-day icons swapped in. Other pieces are rooted in abstraction and approach the familiar from the opposite end of the spectrum. There are investigations into color, line, and texture, all as they relate to depicting things from the real world – and especially, imagining them differently. Every work in Unbound Perspectives shares the tension of seeing foreign elements integrated with everyday things. The exhibition celebrates the new and the unexpected, with eyes forward but always carrying knowledge of the past.

About Agora Gallery

Agora Gallery is a contemporary fine art gallery located in the heart of Chelsea’s fine art district in New York. Established in 1984, Agora Gallery specializes in connecting art dealers and collectors with national and international artists. The art gallery’s expert consultants are available to assist corporate and private clients in procuring original artwork to meet their organization’s specific needs and budget requirements. With a strong online presence and popular online gallery, ARTmine, coupled with the spacious and elegant physical gallery space, the work of our talented artists, who work in diverse media and styles, can receive the attention it deserves. Over the years Agora Gallery has sponsored and catered to special events aimed at fostering social awareness and promoting the use of art to help those in need.

Phone No.: 212.226.4151 ext. 202
Contact Name: Olga Ku
Contact Email: [email protected]
Site URL: http://www.agora-gallery.com/exhibitionannouncement/Unbound_8_26_2016.aspx

Keiichi Yonemoto - Constant Movement of Circulation II
Keiichi Yonemoto - Constant Movement of Circulation II
13.5''x9.5''
Acrylic on Canvas

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