Morton Fine Art presents ‘Timeless Remnants’ featuring Maya Freelon Asante, GA Gardner and Choichun Leung
By ARC Magazine Sunday, September 21st, 2014
The abstract artwork in Timeless Remnants combines elements of “inherited” collective memory consisting of pre-existent forms and each artist’s individual experience of life, colored with her/his unique culture, personality and life events. The featured artists (including Maya Freelon Asante, GA Gardner, and Choichun Leung), hail from varied countries of origin, and bring forward bountiful travels and experiences from around the world. The exhibition opens September 26th and will be available to view through to October 17th, 2014. Read more on the exhibition and artists below:
Jung stated that “in addition to our immediate consciousness, which is of a thoroughly personal nature…there exists a second psychic system of a collective, universal, and impersonal nature which is identical in all individuals. This collective unconscious does not develop individually, but is inherited”. Timeless Remnants explores that which resonates within the collective and individual memory and aims to elicit universal emotional response through techniques of script, mark making, composition, palette, texture, layering, energy and tensions present in the artwork.
About Maya Freelon Asante (Chapel Hill, b. USA): Maya Freelon Asante is an award-winning artist whose artwork was described by poet Maya Angelou as “visualizing the truth about the vulnerability and power of the human being,” and her unique tissue paper work was also praised by the International Review of African American Art as a “vibrant, beating assemblage of color.” She was selected by Modern Luxury Magazine as Best of the City 2013 and by the Huffington Post’s “Black Artists: 30 Contemporary Art Makers Under 40 You Should Know“. Maya has exhibited her work nationally and internationally including Paris, Ghana, and US Embassies in Madagascar, Italy, Jamaica, and Swaziland. She has been a professor of art at Towson University and Morgan State University. Maya has attended numerous residencies including Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, the Kokrobitey Institute and Brandywine Workshop. She earned a BA from Lafayette College and an MFA from the School of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
About GA Gardner (Trinidad, b. Trinidad): Gardner’s work is a visual representation of the proliferation of media and information in contemporary society and the resulting cacophony of messages it engenders. The goal of his work is to dissect and neutralize the white noise found in these forms of media and create cohesive stories that integrate his cultural background as an immigrant from Trinidad and Tobago living and working in the USA. He presents a Caribbean aesthetic in his art by utilizing colors, textures, and environments as the lens through which he sees urban contemporary life in America, weaving his cultural identity back into the fabric of our society. GA Gardner began his professional art career in New York City, creating and exhibiting large format 3D computer fine art in 1996. Gardner studied fine art at San Francisco State University, California, from which he earned both his Bachelor’s of Arts and Master’s of Arts degrees. Gardner crafted mixed media art and animation at The Ohio State University, Columbus, where he earned a Ph.D. in Art Education in 1995. Gardner has served as a professor of art and animation at various universities, including William Paterson University (Wayne, New Jersey); University of the District of Columbia; and George Mason University (Fairfax, Virginia), and has been a lecturer at The Ohio State University.
About Choichun Leung (New York, b. UK): Leung’s “Diplopia” series of paintings occurred after losing partial eyesight in 2013 and living with double vision for a period of half a year. During this time, her perspective as a visual artist changed drastically – she no longer saw detail in objects clearly, had no spacial depth of vision, saw contrast and light intensely and sounds became more acute. Moving objects were blurry as her eyes could not synchronize to follow movement. The work in this series is an expression of what she experienced visually; when everything overlapped, and was blurry, intertwined and complex. Her “Diplopia” paintings are a record of the new way of seeing, which made her question her perception of reality of the senses, where loss created a new meaning of abstract impressions and color. She was raised in Wales, born to a British mother and Chinese father. Leung earned a degree in 3D design specializing in metalsmithing in the U.K., and later operated a metal studio fabricating her vessel designs and percussion instruments. Leung participated in the Ray Man Chinese Orchestra in London, performing Chinese classical and folk music. She later studied Buddhist Symbolism at the Yungang Caves Archaeological Site in China. This is her fourth exhibition at Morton Fine Art in Washington, DC.
Exhibition: September 26th- October 17th, 2014
Opening Night Reception: Friday, September 26th, 6pm-8pm Morton Fine Art, 1781 Florida Ave NW, Washington, DC 20009, United States
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– See more at: http://arcthemagazine.com/arc/2014/09/morton-fine-art-presents-timeless-remnants-featuring-the-work-of-maya-freelon-asante-ga-gardner-and-choichun-leung/#sthash.TvTrmkOZ.dpuf
Tags: 1781 Florida Ave NW, abstract contemporary art, African American Art, ARC Magazine, Caribbean art, Choichun Leung, Contemporary, dc, Diaspora, GA Gardner, Maya Freelon Asante, MFA curators, MFA Gallery, morton fine art, washington
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Morton Fine Art: curator's notes 