Dorothy Circus Gallery is proud to present a four artist exhibition, already home to DCG: Chinese-American painter Luke Chueh with his new body of work entitled Ciao, French sculptress Clementine De Chabaneix with her series entitled Memories of the Future, and double-solo show by the Italian painter Silvia Idili, and Japanese painter Tada Koiichiro.
They will present a brand new series in both venues, in Rome and London.
Opening this new exhibition path will be the delicate ceramic sculptures by Clementine de Chabaneix could be described as an animist tale taking shape. Each with its own unique story and personality, her sculptures are inhabitants of the world that exists between dream and reality. They invite the viewer to join them in this realm and explore their imagination. Through perfect balance and elegant chromatic combinations, they pull on the strings of our purest feelings. This particular series, entitled Memories of the Future, represents the idea of a dreamlike future. Chabaneix’s scenarios star a variety of combinations of symbols and creatures, such as shamans riding dragons, a woman resting on a world-shaped disco ball, and large animals as keepers of metal flowers, vestiges of ancient gardens in a hypermodern world with the purpose of exploring the relationship between humanity and its environment. It is notable how in her recent work, Chabaneix has, with originality and exquisite technique, picked up from where her grandparents, Les Lalannes, had left off. There is, in fact, a poetic resonance within artists’ symbologies and narratives.
Awe and contrast are key to interpreting the bizarre scenarios depicted by contemporary painter Luke Chueh. His new solo show entitled Ciao, inspired by his imminent Italian journey attending the show in Rome, brings again on the art stage the juxtaposition of “cute” and “bitter” to new levels. Masterfully balancing a dose of irony and desperation into an overall adorable visual, walking on the thin edge between comedy and tragedy, it is impossible not to get obsessed with Chueh’s bear portraits. Similarly to the one of Clementine De Chabaneix, Chueh’s work presents a strong duality between modernity and classical references. A minimalistic composition presents a white bear gazing intently at a black bear’s head he is holding, conveying strong Hamlet references while remaining simple and modern. Other short-range monochromatic portraits form a series of images that closely reminds old analogue photography prints, some blurry, some textured, some exactly in focus, all perfectly suggestive.
Following will be the gorgeous geometric portraits of Silvia Idili. Idili uses geometric shapes as a way to embellish the protagonists of her artworks. These shapes dress and mask the character’s faces symbolising the past, our memories, and the lessons we learnt from these. They appear in form of sharp, geometric shapes, generating the complex structure that is each of our unique, kaleidoscopic, visionary minds. In a mix of suggestions and spiritual, emotional and psychological tension, Idili's portraits write the diary of the contemporary man who gets lost in the complexity of reality and finds himself in the transcendent.
Last but most definitely not least, is the soft oil on canvas technique by Tada Koiichiro, whose monochromatic portraits reign in the canvases’ foreground looking the viewer straight in the eyes. Characteristic of Koiichiro's delicate figures is his characters’ magnetic gaze. Hypnotic, like a water reflection, serves as a doorway toward inner worlds, home to secrets and fears.
