Summer Solstice: Untold Stories | June 1 - June 22, 2021 | Thursday, June 3, 2021 6-8 PM Reception

Summer Solstice: Untold Stories June 1 – June 22, 2021 Reception: Thursday, June 3, 2021 6-8 PM 530 West 25th Street, New York, NY

Agora Gallery is thrilled to announce our upcoming exhibition Summer Solstice: Untold Stories. The seven featured artists are bringing their talents from around the world in a showcase of diverse mediums, styles, and range of techniques operating in today’s art market. The collection of works, composed of photography, painting, and mixed media, explores the inherent energies within artistic dialogue. Each artists’ unique works join together to challenge viewers to investigate the stories that lay beyond the surfaces of the works. Through abstracted canvases, surrealist compositions, and manipulated images, the artists offer unique visuals and perspectives to share their stories with the audience.

Summer Solstice: Untold Stories Hector Anchundia Carol Brown Maurizio D’Andrea Sarah Shinhyo Kim Ashton Lally Susan Shade Erin Wang

Hector Anchundia Hector Anchundia is a self-described neo-expressionist whose primary subject is the female figure. Inspired by the likes of painters’ Picasso, Van Gogh, and Tamayo, Anchundia is intrigued by movement and form in the human body; specifically how body language can exude both power and confidence and how the eyes can evoke real, palpable expression. At the beginning of his artistic career, Anchundia was focused on creating pieces that captured a naturalistic sense of the human body, but after coming to New York City in the late 1970s, he began experimenting with more abstracted depictions.

A talented draftsman, Anchundia uses his work to represent the inherent romanticism in all worldly concepts, from the creation of our universe to the modern-day; he wants each of his viewers to interpret and discover their own understanding of his work. Regarding his color palette, Anchundia is grounded in his tropical roots and often employs bright, bold reds, oranges, and yellows. Anchundia has participated in exhibitions at venues such as the

View more of Hector Anchundia’s artworks on this exhibition

Abstracto y Figuras, 2021 Acrylic on Canvas 42” x 40”

Carol Brown Named one of the “Top Artists To Watch” in 2018 by ArtTour International, Carol Brown is a New York-based artist and filmmaker, originally from Birmingham, England. Her work has been featured in British Vogue, Condé Nast, British GQ, and other renowned design and fashion publications. Brown began her career in independent film, which colored her approach to art and storytelling.

Using nature as her primary source of inspiration, Brown strives to capture beautiful moments of everyday life. Each of those moments contains and evokes a reverential awe for the majesty of nature; a connection and feeling of oneness with the world inside of us. Often the theme is moody and contemplative, reflecting on memories of emotions past felt, people once known, or where her emotional focus once dwelt. Working on canvas and acrylic, she recreates the textures and tones of the environment and brings a vivid realism and authenticity to the work. Whether on film, canvas, or print, her art looks at familiar and obscure sights in nature in a more abstract way, finding hidden layers in the beauty and complexity we often overlook.

View more of Carol Brown’s artworks on this exhibition

As They Gathered, 2019 Mixed Media on Acrylic 23.5” x 31.5”

Maurizio D’Andrea Italian artist Maurizio D’Andrea’s first forays into painting began in his adolescence. Initially drawn to the realistic depiction of landscapes, he quickly adopted a more abstract approach, investigating the ongoing dialogue between the conscious and subconscious minds.

In his maturity, the artist straddles very different techniques, ranging from more traditional mediums, like acrylic and oil, to generative art, experimenting with artificial intelligence, neural algorithms, Vonoroi diagrams, and fractal images. As a sculptor he molds porous blocks of concrete into three-dimensional projections of his paintings. As a video artist he envisions futuristic scenarios populated by robots amongst vestiges of human life. Across these diverse forms of expression, movement is a predominant theme, revealing the emotional undercurrents of the artist’s restless psyche, while bold chromatic juxtapositions betray his inner vitality and strength. His visions, through drawings, create fantastical landscapes, becoming poetry in the eye of the beholder.

D’Andrea was born just outside of Naples, Italy, at the foot of Mount Vesuvius. After going on to study volcanology and geological studies, D’Andrea infuses the explosive impetuosity of Mount Vesuvius in all his creations. He garnered recognition and awards for his work and has recently been selected by one of Italy’s most revered art critics, Vittorio Sgarbi, for a group exhibition on landscape art. A scientist, musician, artist, and poet, he embodies the spirit of the modern Renaissance man.

View more of Maurizio D’Andrea’s artworks on this exhibition

Soul in Motion, 2020 Acrylic on Canvas 23.5” x 23.5”

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. A talented eyewear and accessory designer, she was shortlisted as a finalist for the prestigious CFDA Award. After many years in the fashion industry, in 2014 Kim made the leap to becoming a full-time artist.

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.

View more of Sarah Shinhyo Kim’s artworks on this exhibition

Peace(Dove), 2017 Acrylic & Ink on Canvas 36” x 36”

Ashton Lally Connecticut based contemporary artist Ashton Lally focuses on the manipulation of oil and acrylic colors and texture in each of her paintings.

She believes in creating images that transcend the viewer into a place of peace and beauty, allowing one to see each piece with their own interpretation.

Lally has had an innate understanding of color since childhood. Growing up, she learned to draw from her artistic grandfather. She experienced making floral designs and arrangements from her grandparents’ flower store, and was exposed to the beauty of the colorful and graphic influences from her father’s hometown in South Africa. After studying art in high school, Lally went on to obtain her BA in studio arts from Trinity College in Connecticut and took art classes and art restoration when she lived in Florence, Italy.

The artist’s oeuvre is entirely abstract, but handles themes inspired by beauty in nature such as water and florals. She mixes her own paints to create unique color palettes, which are then poured onto each canvas in layers. As she expertly balances color with negative space, she manipulates the paints into ethereal scenes with rich texture and elegant movement.

Ashton is currently on the board of the West Hartford Art League and sells her art through her website, local stores and boutiques, and in accepted exhibitions.

View more of Ashton Lally’s artworks on this exhibition

King of Jungle, 2021 Acrylic on Canvas 24” x 24”

Susan Shade Artist Susan Shade draws inspiration from the abstract expressionist period in her personal style, as seen in her spontaneous brushstrokes and hypnotic color fields. She focuses on tone, gesture, and markings to capture the energy of the texture and color. Her art communicates a sense of escapism, striving to arise curiosity and create an emotional connection with the viewer, through meanings, ideas, and images.

Susan holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Fashion Merchandising and a Master’s Degree in Textile Design and Weaving. A resident of Berkley, CA, she discovered her affinity for painting by delving into the vibrant literary and artistic community of North Beach, in San Francisco. Susan’s love for textiles has informed her exploration of surfaces, textures, and colors on canvas through a combination of layering, scraping, and blending techniques. Viewing her paintings as a manifestation of hope, she wishes to transmit optimism and love for art through an ever-developing body of work.

View more of Susan Shade’s artworks on this exhibition

Daylights, 2021 Acrylic on Canvas 16” x 20”

Erin Wang Erin Yueying Wang, a renowned photographic artist, chose to pursue her autobiographical reality through the use of photographic technique and imagery. Wang has an academic background in Landscape Architecture from Chongqing University and a BFA in Photography from Rhode Island School of Design. She documents her artistic rhetoric through her traveler’s lens, absorbing the changing scenery of daily life. These fleeting moments in time act as her autobiography; snapshots of her life, her childhood, and her travels. Through the camera, she shares her questions about the meaning of life.

Wang expertly manipulates the photograph of ’reality’ by playing with shutter speed. She combines the use of technology like drones, scanners, projectors with traditional printmaking techniques into her process, layering manipulated images atop traditional photos. Main influences of Wang’s artistic process include Japanese Manga and Anime, Ancient Chinese art, and Abstract Expressionism. The artist has been recognized by Saatchi Art 2021’s “100 New Voices” and was named the Saatchi Art 2020 Rising Star.

View more of Erin Yueying Wang’s artworks on this exhibition

Land Mark III, 2021 Photograph on Fine Art Paper 22.5” 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.

Opening receptions are held once a month, giving you the opportunity to meet the artists and view a variety of original artwork. Visit our website and subscribe to our mailing list to stay up to date on all events and happenings – www.Agora-Gallery.com/mailinglist

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