Lucid Dreamscapes
October 3 – October 24, 2023
Reception: Thursday, October 5, 2023, 6-8 PM
530 West 25th Street, New York, NY
Agora Gallery is pleased to announce Lucid Dreamscapes, a group exhibition of contemporary paintings, photographs, and sculptures by a selection of local and international artists. The pieces explore subconscious imaginings that blur the line between dream and reality, investigating new possibilities of forms, texture, and color.
Pushing the envelope of traditional mediums, the artists in this exhibition conjure surreal atmospheres that blend the extraordinary with the familiar. Recognizable objects such as vessels, roses, and animals inhabit improbable landscapes where gravity is optional and colors reach a dramatic peak–with pitch-dark blues, rich purples, opulent reds, and vibrant yellows and greens. Ordinary items acquire a symbolic meaning, such as a solitary skull floating in mid-air, which denotes annihilation after humans’ careless exploitation of nature.
Others envision worlds of fluid shapes and vivid color blends, where boundaries are imperceptible. Abstract photocomposites play with opacity, abstraction, and image layering to explore concepts of visibility and transparency, while other images capture fleeting evolutions of inks and oil from a macroscopic perspective.
Skillfully capturing the elusive nature of dreams, the works invite the viewers to experience the ethereal landscapes that exist beyond the waking world.
Lucid Dreamscapes
Sabine Bachem
CY
Howard Harris
Sarah Shinhyo Kim
Syoichi Kobayashi
Jim McCormick
Martine Michaud
Yuji Mostafavee
Jungwon Park
Robert Pennino Puebla
Yoshiki Uchida
Sabine Bachem
Sabine Bachem is a figurative oil painter based in Germany. Brushing up against Surrealism and Magical Realism, Bachem’s work is dreamy yet full of dramatic pathos. Her paintings weave powerful narratives where literature, mythology, and symbolism intertwine. Subjects of exploration have included the seven deadly sins, Dante’s circles of hell, and John Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost. Bachem’s versatile thematic inquiry is paired with a curiosity for pushing the boundaries of traditional supports and mediums: cutting holes of various shapes into linen canvases, hanging paintings unstretched from a rod, or painting over old prints.
Her latest work is a series of triptychs exploring the correlation between culture and nature. The panels form a recurring narrative that places images of idealized natural beauty alongside prevaricating human interventions. When the natural and artificial clash against each other, death and destruction ensue, as symbolized by piles of debris, shipwrecks, or close-ups of animal and human skulls. She says “My artistic preoccupation is a continual engagement with the structure of the human mind that, confronted with the peripheral environment, automatically begins to order, constructing an artificial, but for the human psychology comprehensible pattern. This process of ordering is a mechanism which bridges the passage from the alien to the familiar, from fear to the comfort zone, from nature towards culture.”
Bachem was trained at the Steiner Waldorf School in England, where her family briefly relocated. A highly prolific painter, she has exhibited her work extensively in Europe and Asia.
!NO ONE BOARDS LIFE AND AVOIDS TURBULENCES!, 2023
Oil on canvas
90.5” x 161.5”
50°20’48.3138” X -5°9’15.0718” (Seine!), 2023
Oil on canvas
98.5” x 189”
CY
Cyrielle Shoorens, aka Cy, is a French abstract painter based in Cossonay, Switzerland. Working on large canvases, she lets herself be transported by the rhythm of music and the flow of her intuition. Acrylic paint, chosen for its quick drying time and versatility, is the perfect complement for the artist’s impulsive and ebullient temperament. Expressive palette knife applications form dynamic patterns that reflect her emotional fervor and forge compelling tactual pathways.
If music is her muse, nature is her nourishment. Daytime communion with the outdoors is essential for Cy, who takes long strolls by the lake or in the woods to replenish her creative well. When night falls, she revels in the silence and soft glow of the town, painting away till dawn. Her work is reflective of her love of nature and the nocturnal, particularly the water element, which translates into a palette dominated by navy blues and deep purples.
Pulsating to the cadence of melodies, nature, and her own heartbeat, Cy infiltrates people’s emotional realm, awakening powerful memories and associations.
Age d’Homme, 2019
Acrylic on canvas
39.5” x 29”
Baltic Sea, 2023
Acrylic painting on canvas framed 39.5” x 39.5”
Survol, 2019
Acrylic on canvas
47.5” x 39.5”
Howard Harris
Howard Harris is an American Techspressionist artist who skillfully combines technology and aesthetics to expand the viewer’s experience of photographic art. He explores dimensional photography, influenced by quantum physics, chaos theory, and op art. Blending media, color, and abstraction, his work attempts to recreate the dynamic perceptual experience with all its hidden complexities. In his patented process, the Denver-based artist uses a single, often abstracted, image layered over itself with a subtle grid printed on a clear acrylic surface and superimposed over the base image. The resulting visual phenomenon infuses the image with dimensionality and fluidity. The combined image is affected by such changes as the viewing angle and light. Perceptual mechanics are only part of the equation. Equally essential are universal principles of design that produce qualities we perceive as beauty. The artist says, “In any given moment, what we see reflects both our inner state and a synthesis of outer qualities—light, color, movement, space.”
Harris graduated from the Kansas City Art Institute and the Pratt Institute, earning a master’s degree in industrial design. Harris has spent his career negotiating between art and design, creating within others’ parameters, as his desire to create for others often overpowered his desire to create for himself. He now has shifted his motivation to create for himself first.
Deeply interested in the principles of design that produce beauty and aesthetics, Harris’s work elevates the art of photography and displays a deep understanding of abstraction.
Blanka Storm, 2023
Digital sublimation print on aluminum
36” x 54”
Blanka Winter, 2023
Digital sublimation print on aluminum
30” x 54”
Sarah Shinhyo Kim
Sarah Shinhyo Kim is a Korean-American artist currently living and working in the United States. She studied Fine Arts at Cornell University and earned her BFA in Fashion Design from Parsons School of Design.
As a way to explore human communication and relationships, Kim’s work focuses on the increasing popularization of ‘emoticon’ pop-imagery in the past decade. While these images, known colloquially as ‘emojis,’ are vehicles of individual emotional expression, their universal and semantically rich nature allows us to transcend cultural and linguistic barriers. In her work she aims for the harmonious consolidation of various emotions and expressions. She begins by drawing clusters of emoticons portraying different states of mind. She then overlaps and connects them to form a unified larger image. Her message is simple; despite everyone’s uniqueness and differences, balance and harmony can be achieved in human relationships.
All of Us are Eggs, 2023
Acrylic and resin on canvas 36” x 24”
Past and Present I (Rain), 2023
Acrylic, resin and rice paper on canvas 40” x 30”
Past and Present II (Cherry Blossom), 2023
Acrylic, resin and rice paper on canvas 40” x 30”
Social Networking, 2023
Acrylic & ink on canvas 30” x 48”
Syoichi Kobayashi
Syoichi Kobayashi is an abstract acrylic painter based in Japan. Raw and immediate, his expansive canvases translate sensory inspiration into tangible form. Residing in rural Japan with his wife, son, and pets, Kobayashi distills his perceptions—human, animal, and botanical—into his pieces, contemplating universal themes of mortality, existence, and global dynamics.
Kobayashi’s creative process commences with a seed of thought, progressing to sketched outlines and layers of acrylic paint on canvas, meticulously building from thin to thick textures. His artwork gains narrative depth through the incorporation of hemp string, paper, and sand.
Kobayashi’s evolution from figurative to non-representational and from oil to acrylic has breathed new creative life into his work. As his practice continues to unfold, he remains dedicated to pushing the boundaries of artistic expression, cultivating a distinct visual language that captures the essence of his experiences and emotions.
Pandemic, 2019
Acrylic on panel
38” x 55”
Reiwa, 2019
Acrylic on canvas
21” x 18”
Blue Sun, 2019
Acrylic on panel 27” x 20”
Jim McCormick
Jim McCormick is a photographer whose work lies at the intersection of science and art. With a background in medicine and biology, he has developed a unique artistic voice that combines chemistry, physics, and photography to capture fleeting evolutions with a macro lens. Similar to a science laboratory, McCormick’s studio is filled with vials, flasks, and petri dishes containing odd-colored liquids and fuming substances. By using four elements–oil, inks, glass, and air–he conducts experiments that produce infinite and unique variations of form and texture, revealing microscopic structures that are imperceptible to the naked eye. He explores how light bends, reflects, and refracts on the surface of these materials and examines alterations in color and density based on motion and speed. The spectacular images produced by McCormick’s insightful artistry probe territories that are as arcane as they are accessible. McCormick pushes the boundaries of habitual perception, seeking to move the viewer beyond their normal experiences and open new avenues for diversion and discovery.
Aztec Watcher #2, 2022
Aluminum metal print floating mount with semigloss finish 32” x 40”
Surface of the Aquatic Universe #2, 2022
Aluminum metal print floating mount with semigloss finish 32” x 40”
Surface of the Aquatic Universe #1, 2022
Aluminum metal print floating mount with semigloss finish 32” x 40”
Martine Michaud
Canadian photographer Martine Michaud, also known as Mishô, experiments with opacity, abstraction, and image layering to explore concepts of visibility and transparency in her work. Within her oeuvre are reportage, street photography, portraiture, and abstract photocomposites. Within her portraiture, she allows herself to be captivated by the subject before her, ably capturing their character, personality, and emotions in the moment. She is known for her expert use of light and shadow, aesthetic dynamic, line and shape, and perspective. She challenges her viewers to gain a new understanding of what is presented to them, and to dive deeper into the subject matter.
Michaud has published two books on photography, Bhutan, Lotus et Dragon (2014), and Heritieres de Bouddha (2017). The artist has won impressive awards for her work in her artistic career, and exhibited her work in group and solo exhibitions in major cities around the world.
Translucid Territories: Red, 2011
Fine art paper, mounted on aluminum 54” x 36”
Translucid Territories: Cyan, 2011
Fine art paper, mounted on aluminum 54” x 36”
Translucid Territories: Orange, 2011
Fine art paper, mounted on aluminum 54” x 36”
Yuji Mostafavee
Yuji Mostafavee creates large acrylic paintings of edenic environments that offer a muchneeded escape from the artificial milieu of city life. Every year Mostafavee would travel to Mexico for a few months to get a taste of tropical paradise. During the Covid pandemic, she decided to recreate her personal exotic sanctuary with a collection of vibrantly colored paintings featuring lush vegetation and wildlife. A former fashion designer, Mostafavee is heavily influenced by haute couture, keeping up with contemporary trends and patterns. Harnessing Mostafavee’s expert handling of color and compositions, her designs exude the sophisticated glamor of a Chanel purse or a Hermès scarf. They recreate exclusive ambiances where the viewer can indulge in a bit of forbidden luxury.
As an undergraduate, Mostafavee studied fashion design at Parsons School of Design in New York and architecture and interior design at Waseda University in Tokyo. She earned a Master’s in Fashion Design and Fashion Marketing at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, South Korea. When working in fashion, she designed John Varvatos and Ralph Lauren collections and creative presentations, and was involved in award-winning exhibitions and fairs in New York, Hong Kong, and Japan. Mostafavee works and lives in New York City.
Harmony 2, 2023
Acrylic on canvas 40” x 30”
Harmony 3, 2023
Acrylic on canvas 40” x 30”
Harmony 4, 2023
Acrylic on canvas 40” x 30”
Harmony 9, 2023
Acrylic on canvas 30” x 24”
Harmony 10, 2023
Acrylic on canvas 30” x 24”
Jungwon Park
Aestheticism and serene energies are central in South Korean photographer JungWon Park’s images. The quantity of surrealness is an instant call to attention, while also acting as an invitation for one to submit and repose. His rare shots require several minutes of longexposures and–preferably–a cloudy day, raindrops included. Minimalism attends each scenic view Park captures with his medium format or pinhole camera, and quietness instills both inside and outside the pigment prints on fine art paper. Forgotten, dilapidated docks lead into waters so still, they appear solid; a lone fish possessing iridescent scales swims into a hazy backdrop; two barren trees reach for one another, but never touch for all eternity. These visuals and many more are the pleasant calculations of Park’s making.
The photographer lives close to the sea with his family in Busan, South Korea. There, he finds great personal comfort and artistic inspiration. Park is a doctor and outside of work and photography, he also enjoys reading philosophy. His professional goal is purely to touch the hearts of others. “That’s the moment you meet another world,” he says. “I want to show you my world; it may change your world. Come and feel.”
221114_1_1, 2022
Analog film, pigment print on fine art paper 40” x 40”
230116_1_9, 2023
Analog film, pigment print on fine art paper 40” x 40”
230116_2_8, 2023
Analog film, pigment print on fine art paper 40” x 40”
Robert Pennino
Robert Pennino is a contemporary abstract artist from Montreal, Canada. Distilling the beauty of his natural environment, Pennino’s paintings are an intuitive flow of acrylic and spray paint, which he dynamically molds into contrasting textures and palettes.
Central to the artist’s work is the message of embracing the present moment. He emphasizes the importance of seeing life as a celebration and being grateful even amid challenges. His new perspective was influenced by a family member’s battle with illness–reflected in his collections titled Relentless and New Beginnings–which led him to devote himself entirely to creating art professionally.
Although firmly rooted in fluid abstraction, Pennino believes in the power of creative expansion. True to his creed, he continues to experiment with new styles and mediums, finding ever-new founts of expression in the everyday.
Cappucino 3, 2023
Acrylic on canvas 48” x 48”
Flow 24, 2023
Acrylic on canvas 48” x 48”
Evolve, 2023
Acrylic on canvas
48” x 60”
Flow 12, 2023
Acrylic on canvas 48” x 48”
Flow 18, 2023
Acrylic on canvas 48” x 48”
Puebla
Puebla is a self-taught Neo-Cubist painter of Cuban-Portuguese descent residing in Ireland. Blending visual elements from Cubism as well as Cuban culture and the Afro-Cuban religion, Puebla offers a poignant account of his country’s social situations, while pushing the boundaries of the Cubist aesthetic and offering a revitalized perspective.
Working across various mediums such as oil, acrylic, India ink, and paper, he creates captivating pieces that fuse urban landscapes with vibrant Caribbean elements, symbolic motifs, and a rich palette of colors. Within his art, one can perceive a reflection of the environment and the ever-evolving nature of Havana, as Cubism continues to thrive and convey its powerful message.
Time is also a recurring theme in Puebla’s work. Explored as an additional dimension, it serves as the axis of the pictorial narrative. By presenting different events occurring simultaneously, Puebla emphasizes the multiplicity and interconnectivity of our lives. The artist’s intention is to convey that life unfolds as a sequence of moments, and the future can take varied paths depending on the decisions made at any given instant.
Mom Francisca, 2022
Oil, acrylic and India ink on canvas 36” x 24”
My Time Machine, 2023
Oil, acrylic and India ink on canvas 40” x 30”
Yoshiki Uchida
The founder of Kanamono Art, Yoshiki Uchida works in the Japanese form of kanamono–translated as hardware–and includes forty-eight types of objects, such as pliers, screws, and many other similar items. With these materials, he constructs puzzle-like sculptures derived primarily from the animal kingdom. His work is large, looming, and grows less discernable the closer one gets, leaving the viewer with a sense of discomfort from the jarring difference of perception.
During his childhood, his father’s company was a supplier of metal hardware for the construction industry. As a result, the artist grew familiar with different kinds of kanamono (metal objects). As a boy, he struggled with conventional studies. Rather than using regular textbooks, he preferred learning from illustrated books about animals and insects. He was often out catching loaches and insects in the river, while his peers were studying for university entrance exams.
Recently, Kanamono Art has embraced traditional Japanese technology to preserve the endangered skills of artisans. My goal is to raise awareness about these exceptional crafts and pass them on to future generations through various approaches. Creating opportunities for people to learn about and take action in supporting these artisans would bring immense satisfaction.
Volatile_1, 2023
Washi (Japanese paper) & foil
43”
x 30”
Fake the Spirit, 2023
Washi (Japanese paper) & foil
30” x 41”
Territory, 2023
3D Bronze 24” x 24” x 1.5”
Unstable, 2023
Washi (Japanese paper) & foil
38” x 26”
Volatile_2, 2023
Washi (Japanese paper) & foil
43” x 30”
Gallery
hopping in New York
Agora Gallery is located within the heart of the Chelsea Arts District with available hours from Tuesday – Saturday 11 am - 6 pm.
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Chelsea, New York City
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