Reinventing the Visual
Zheng Xuewu
Hayoon Jay Lee
Matti Havens
Charles Geiger
Harold Wortsman
Renée Magnanti
Bill Pangburn
Visakh Menon
Kyeung Mook Choi
10. 4. 2018 - 10. 18. 2018
Zheng Xuewu
Hayoon Jay Lee
Matti Havens
Charles Geiger
Harold Wortsman
Renée Magnanti
Bill Pangburn
Visakh Menon
Kyeung Mook Choi
10. 4. 2018 - 10. 18. 2018
Ray Gallery is pleased to announce Reinventing the Visual, a group exhibition of nine artists. The exhibition features works by Bill Pangburn, Charles Geiger, Harold Wortsman, Hayoon Jay Lee, Matti Havens, Renee Magnanti, Visakh Menon, Zheng Xuewu, and Kyeung Mook Choi. Working with different media, the nine artists bring individual styles and ideas to their practices. Viewed separately, the visually and conceptually divergent abstract and conceptual works exude individuality, yet by arranging them together in close proximity, Reinventing the Visual offers a chance to not only view different bodies of visual narratives in relation to each other but also to have an ocular experience in continued similarities of respective works.
About the artists:
Bill Pangburn studied fine arts at the Phillips-Universitaet, Marburg, Germany; Tulane University (BA); and Pratt Institute (MFA). He is currently the director of the Anya and Andrew Shiva Gallery, John Jay College, and has taught studio art at various institutions. He exhibits internationally and nationally, including such venues as the San Angelo Museum of Art; Museum of Contemporary Art of Crete, Rethymno, Crete; National Gallery, Sofia, Bulgaria; and Hebei Normal University Musuem, Shijiazhuang, China. His work is in the public collections of the Brooklyn Museum; the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts; and the Henan Museum, Zhengzhou, China; among others.
Charles Geiger studied painting at East Carolina University, and later science at Millersville University and has been meshing the two disciplines together into his painting practice. While working in a science research community, he developed an eye for the substructure of things and began a move toward a more science-referenced approach in his painting. His practice reinterprets nature using multi-layered scale shifts and “quasi-botanical” imagery as a painterly pictorial language set. The leaf, tree and rhizome become woven metaphors for healing issues of climate change; currently rising sea levels and arctic melting.
Harold Wortsman is a sculptor and printmaker based in Brooklyn, NY. His work, an edgy mix of freedom and clarity, can be found in public and private collections in the US and Europe as well as such American institutions as The Library of Congress, Yale University, The New York Public Library, The New York Historical Society, Smith College, Indiana University’s Lilly Library, Brandeis University, The Newark Public Library Special Collections Division, and the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum Print Archive. He studied at the New York Studio School with sculptor George Spaventa and painter George McNeil. Before that he got his BA in fine arts from Brandeis University where he worked with sculptor Peter Grippe and MOMA curator William Seitz. Solo exhibitions include his recent show of prints and sculpture at Art Mora Gallery, Chelsea, NY, and exhibitions at Central Branch Brooklyn Public Library, and Galerie Zimmermannhaus, in Brugg, Switzerland. Recent group exhibitions include: 2018 Tokyo-New York Clay Art Competition, Artists for Puerto Rico, The Clemente, Beauty on Paper, Art Mora Gallery, and a major clay installation at Industry City, Brooklyn.
Born in Daegu, South Korea, Hayoon Jay Lee obtained a BFA in sculpture from the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in 2007, and an MFA degree from the Rinehart School of Sculpture at MICA in 2009. Among her many honors and awards, Lee has received a Jacob K. Javits Fellowship award (2008) from the U.S. Department of Education, a Full Fellowship Artist in Residency Award (2012) from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, a best in show distinction award (2008) at the 14th International Exhibition at the SoHo 20 Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, and a Dapu International Art Award (2011) from the Northern Art Museum, Daqing China. Lee has participated in various artist residency programs: 99 Museum (Beijing, China: 2014), Gwangju Museum of Art (S. Korea: 2012), the Fine Arts Work Center (Provincetown, MA: 2009), the Vermont Studio Center (Johnson VT: 2009), Sculpture Space (Utica, NY: 2011), Art Farm (Marquette, NE: 2016), Byrdcliffe Artist in Residence Program (Woodstock, NY: 2012), and the Beijing Studio Center (2010) in Beijing, China. Her work may be found in the collections of the Gwangju Contemporary Museum of Art (Gwangju, Korea: 2017), the Henan Museum (Zhengzhou, China: 2010), the QCC Art Gallery (Queens, NY: 2015), the Community School of Maryland (Brookville, MD: 2004), Sculpture Space (Utica, NY: 2012), the Dapu International Art Center (Daqing, China: 2011), the FAWC (Provincetown, MA: 2009), and many private collections.
Matti Havens was born in the Netherlands and raised in the Finger Lakes region of New York. Furthermore, he has lived, studied and/or worked in Ecuador, Italy, South Korea, Switzerland and Poland. After earning his MFA in Sculpture from the Maryland Institute College of Art he had a six-month residency in Zurich, Switzerland in 2007. Havens currently lives in Sunnyside, Queens and studies printmaking at the Art Student’s League.
Renee Magnanti received her BFA in Fine Arts from SUNY Buffalo and her MFA from Tulane University. She lives and works in New York City and has shown her work there, as well as throughout the U.S., Europe, and Asia, in museums, universities, and private galleries. She is the recipient of several awards and grants including the Rumsey Traveling Fellowship from SUNY Buffalo, The Creative Artist’s Program grant from the New York State Council on the Arts, and a Textile Society of America conference scholarship for Textiles Close Up: Indonesia at the Yale University Art Gallery. Her current work in encaustic, prints, and print weaving is inspired by world textiles and often incorporates text. She is known for her singular technique of carving in encaustic as well as her distinctive approach for combining prints with weaving. Her work is in the collections of the Amarillo Museum of Art; Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art; Cornell University; National Gallery, Sofia, Bulgaria; Sanbao Ceramic Institute, Jingdezhen, China; Museum of Contemporary Art, Crete, Greece.
Visakh Menon is an artist from India, currently living in New York. His interdisciplinary practice spans drawing, video, installations & media art. He received his MFA from the Maryland Institute College of art in 2007. He is currently an Adjunct Lecturer at New York City College of Technology - CUNY, and works as an independent art director & interactive designer. Visakh has exhibited nationally and internationally including recent shows at the IFP Media Center, Fountain Art Fair, NY Film Fest, Openings Collective, DUMBO arts festival, Governor’s Island Art Fair, Spattered Columns (NY), Gallery Aferro (NJ), Digital Media City Gallery (Seoul) and included in the Rhizome Art Base. He was selected for the Mentoring Fellowship for Immigrant Artists at New York Foundation for the Arts in 2010 (NYFA).
Zheng Xuewu has become celebrated for creating an art of unorthodox methods that is in unique dialogue with quotidian Chinese imagery and language. In creating his works on paper, Zheng experiments with the techniques of printmaking and expands its possibilities. Recent exhibitions include Two Generations–20 Years of Chinese Contemporary Art, Melbourne International Fine Art and at multiple other venues in Australia (2012); The Century Document, Gwangju Museum of Art, Korea (2010); The 4th National Contemporary Printmaking Exhibition, Xian Art Museum, Shanxi, China (2010); From Nature to Mind, Museum of Contemporary Art, Beijing (2009); and Zheng Xuewu: Meditation, Art Projects International, New York (2008). Zheng Xuewu’s work is represented in major collections including the National Art Museum of China, Beijing; Kaethe Kollwitz Museum, Berlin; Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa; Beijing International Art Palace, China; Ringier International, Switzerland; Gwangju Museum of Art, Korea; Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill, NC; Guilford College, Greensboro, NC; University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Emory University, Atlanta; and Tsinghua University, Beijing.
About the artists:
Bill Pangburn studied fine arts at the Phillips-Universitaet, Marburg, Germany; Tulane University (BA); and Pratt Institute (MFA). He is currently the director of the Anya and Andrew Shiva Gallery, John Jay College, and has taught studio art at various institutions. He exhibits internationally and nationally, including such venues as the San Angelo Museum of Art; Museum of Contemporary Art of Crete, Rethymno, Crete; National Gallery, Sofia, Bulgaria; and Hebei Normal University Musuem, Shijiazhuang, China. His work is in the public collections of the Brooklyn Museum; the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts; and the Henan Museum, Zhengzhou, China; among others.
Charles Geiger studied painting at East Carolina University, and later science at Millersville University and has been meshing the two disciplines together into his painting practice. While working in a science research community, he developed an eye for the substructure of things and began a move toward a more science-referenced approach in his painting. His practice reinterprets nature using multi-layered scale shifts and “quasi-botanical” imagery as a painterly pictorial language set. The leaf, tree and rhizome become woven metaphors for healing issues of climate change; currently rising sea levels and arctic melting.
Harold Wortsman is a sculptor and printmaker based in Brooklyn, NY. His work, an edgy mix of freedom and clarity, can be found in public and private collections in the US and Europe as well as such American institutions as The Library of Congress, Yale University, The New York Public Library, The New York Historical Society, Smith College, Indiana University’s Lilly Library, Brandeis University, The Newark Public Library Special Collections Division, and the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum Print Archive. He studied at the New York Studio School with sculptor George Spaventa and painter George McNeil. Before that he got his BA in fine arts from Brandeis University where he worked with sculptor Peter Grippe and MOMA curator William Seitz. Solo exhibitions include his recent show of prints and sculpture at Art Mora Gallery, Chelsea, NY, and exhibitions at Central Branch Brooklyn Public Library, and Galerie Zimmermannhaus, in Brugg, Switzerland. Recent group exhibitions include: 2018 Tokyo-New York Clay Art Competition, Artists for Puerto Rico, The Clemente, Beauty on Paper, Art Mora Gallery, and a major clay installation at Industry City, Brooklyn.
Born in Daegu, South Korea, Hayoon Jay Lee obtained a BFA in sculpture from the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in 2007, and an MFA degree from the Rinehart School of Sculpture at MICA in 2009. Among her many honors and awards, Lee has received a Jacob K. Javits Fellowship award (2008) from the U.S. Department of Education, a Full Fellowship Artist in Residency Award (2012) from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, a best in show distinction award (2008) at the 14th International Exhibition at the SoHo 20 Gallery in Chelsea, New York City, and a Dapu International Art Award (2011) from the Northern Art Museum, Daqing China. Lee has participated in various artist residency programs: 99 Museum (Beijing, China: 2014), Gwangju Museum of Art (S. Korea: 2012), the Fine Arts Work Center (Provincetown, MA: 2009), the Vermont Studio Center (Johnson VT: 2009), Sculpture Space (Utica, NY: 2011), Art Farm (Marquette, NE: 2016), Byrdcliffe Artist in Residence Program (Woodstock, NY: 2012), and the Beijing Studio Center (2010) in Beijing, China. Her work may be found in the collections of the Gwangju Contemporary Museum of Art (Gwangju, Korea: 2017), the Henan Museum (Zhengzhou, China: 2010), the QCC Art Gallery (Queens, NY: 2015), the Community School of Maryland (Brookville, MD: 2004), Sculpture Space (Utica, NY: 2012), the Dapu International Art Center (Daqing, China: 2011), the FAWC (Provincetown, MA: 2009), and many private collections.
Matti Havens was born in the Netherlands and raised in the Finger Lakes region of New York. Furthermore, he has lived, studied and/or worked in Ecuador, Italy, South Korea, Switzerland and Poland. After earning his MFA in Sculpture from the Maryland Institute College of Art he had a six-month residency in Zurich, Switzerland in 2007. Havens currently lives in Sunnyside, Queens and studies printmaking at the Art Student’s League.
Renee Magnanti received her BFA in Fine Arts from SUNY Buffalo and her MFA from Tulane University. She lives and works in New York City and has shown her work there, as well as throughout the U.S., Europe, and Asia, in museums, universities, and private galleries. She is the recipient of several awards and grants including the Rumsey Traveling Fellowship from SUNY Buffalo, The Creative Artist’s Program grant from the New York State Council on the Arts, and a Textile Society of America conference scholarship for Textiles Close Up: Indonesia at the Yale University Art Gallery. Her current work in encaustic, prints, and print weaving is inspired by world textiles and often incorporates text. She is known for her singular technique of carving in encaustic as well as her distinctive approach for combining prints with weaving. Her work is in the collections of the Amarillo Museum of Art; Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art; Cornell University; National Gallery, Sofia, Bulgaria; Sanbao Ceramic Institute, Jingdezhen, China; Museum of Contemporary Art, Crete, Greece.
Visakh Menon is an artist from India, currently living in New York. His interdisciplinary practice spans drawing, video, installations & media art. He received his MFA from the Maryland Institute College of art in 2007. He is currently an Adjunct Lecturer at New York City College of Technology - CUNY, and works as an independent art director & interactive designer. Visakh has exhibited nationally and internationally including recent shows at the IFP Media Center, Fountain Art Fair, NY Film Fest, Openings Collective, DUMBO arts festival, Governor’s Island Art Fair, Spattered Columns (NY), Gallery Aferro (NJ), Digital Media City Gallery (Seoul) and included in the Rhizome Art Base. He was selected for the Mentoring Fellowship for Immigrant Artists at New York Foundation for the Arts in 2010 (NYFA).
Zheng Xuewu has become celebrated for creating an art of unorthodox methods that is in unique dialogue with quotidian Chinese imagery and language. In creating his works on paper, Zheng experiments with the techniques of printmaking and expands its possibilities. Recent exhibitions include Two Generations–20 Years of Chinese Contemporary Art, Melbourne International Fine Art and at multiple other venues in Australia (2012); The Century Document, Gwangju Museum of Art, Korea (2010); The 4th National Contemporary Printmaking Exhibition, Xian Art Museum, Shanxi, China (2010); From Nature to Mind, Museum of Contemporary Art, Beijing (2009); and Zheng Xuewu: Meditation, Art Projects International, New York (2008). Zheng Xuewu’s work is represented in major collections including the National Art Museum of China, Beijing; Kaethe Kollwitz Museum, Berlin; Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa; Beijing International Art Palace, China; Ringier International, Switzerland; Gwangju Museum of Art, Korea; Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill, NC; Guilford College, Greensboro, NC; University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Emory University, Atlanta; and Tsinghua University, Beijing.