Leo Park | Xu Yang ~ Two Solo Exhibitions at GR Gallery

 

 

 

Artist Leo Park

GR gallery is pleased to present “The Speed of Ice Cream” and “For The sake of Be who you Are” two concurrent solo exhibitions featuring Leo Park and Xu Yang. Both of these shows are the artists’ first solo exhibitions with GR and in New York.

The Speed of Ice Cream”, spreading form the entrance all the way through the central exhibition room, will be comprised of nine large format artworks on canvas and 5 drawings on paper. Appositely conceived for the event, this new body of works expands Leo Park’s visual vocabulary  with enhanced colors and symbols and deepen his discourse on the actualization of mythology and classic art.

Artist Xu Yang

Walking toward the space at the end of the gallery “For The Sake of Be who you are” will showcase a group of six new medium size paintings dubbed under the same title of the exhibition. Executed with Xu Yang’s signature Rococo inspired style, these works are advancing a reflection on identity and today’s society contradictions wrapped in a dream state setting.

Artist Leo Park

Leo Park’s paintings are a mix of enigmatic recollections, cultural symbols, classic and modern art references, history quotes and social questions. Summoning mythological beliefs and imaginaries, mixing it together with hyper contemporary objects and habits, Park creates mysterious yet alluring compositions, free from gravity and physics, encapsuled in an indeterminate time frame. His stories are often imbued with solemn and powerful rituals that determine the actions and relations between the characters, but a omnipresent aura of irony tones down the terms and recontextualize its structure.

Artist Xu Yang

With her oeuvre, Xu Yang has been evoking a world saturated by seemingly trivial desires always influenced by her personal interest such as childhood fantasies, fetish and identity. The glamour, the mysteries and the kinky atmospheres of the Rococo art movement serve just as much as a means of projection for a more actualized investigation on topics like body, sexuality and gender stereotypes. In her paintings, Xu Yang combines characters and atmospheres close to a romantic 18th century boudoir scene strengthen with lifted quotations and caustic comments on the contemporary society.

Leo Park: The Speed of Ice Cream and Xu Yang: For the Sake of be Who You Are will be on view from March 16 to April 9, 2022 at GR Gallery, 255 Bowery, between Houston and Stanton, NYC. RSVP for Opening Reception to be held on Wednesday, March 16 from 6-8pm.