Opening Reception Wednesday, May 23rd, 6 - 9 PM
Kids Only
Exhibition: Kids Only
Date: May 23rd, 2024 - June 6th, 2024
Artist: Jia Chen, Aislinn Feldberg, Lucy Rosa Blanca Garhiring, Qingchen(Alica) Han, Geena Kim, YooYeon Nam
Address: 13 Grattan St, #402, Brooklyn, NY 11206
A Space Gallery is thrilled to announce the opening of the Kids Only group exhibition, featuring six artists displaying their art pieces and performances in the second Artist Colony program. This time, young artists explored an abandoned healthcare center with their torchlights, capturing the naive perspective of kids and encountering surprises along the way.
Queens-born artist Aislinn Feldberg’s "Raving One's Series" consists of five pieces that reflect their bodily experiences
during this tour. Utilizing multiple media such as henna, soil, MAC lip pencil, and oil, she incorporates body organs into
different amalgamations. Astonishing mouths, bone joints, and hairy crevices, typically deemed inappropriate for children,
are reinterpreted as fragmented parts of her body, blending with the surrounding environment. This creates a grand,
dream-like experience reminiscent of a child's exploration of an unknown world.
Conversely, Yooyeon Nam’s pieces "Hide and Seek" and "Mice in Wonderland" emphasize an eerie and uncanny environment within the ruins. She intends to reflect the violent nature of children through the portrayal of her round-faced, noseless characters. Several photos shot on-site inspired her to remodel the imaginary scene of kids playing creepy games within the abandoned shelves. Both of her works depict fragmented body parts on the edges, leaving the central figures under dramatic lighting, which sets the stage for her spooky show.
Qingchen (Alicia) Han’s "Welcome Home" questions the concept of home within the ruined space. She was drawn to the remnants left behind: telephones, shower curtains, torn children’s book pages, exam papers, broken glass, and furniture.
A spray-painted message on the wall, “Never forget the souls who lived and died here," caught her eye and laid the foundation for her acrylic painting. She roams the crooked space like a newborn seeking their home.
Jia Chen’s photograph series "Ring-Ring Space" uncovers how these spaces preserve traces of their former inhabitants, exploring ruins as vessels of memory. Once these spaces are covered by vegetation, they develop their own networks,
starting to breathe, converse, and communicate. The audience is given complete freedom to experience this "ring-ring space" Jia has created. In this space, we can be children, elders, a gust of wind, a heron, or even visitors from another
planet, exploring and observing the flourishing vitality within.
South Korean artist Geena Kim’s mixed media piece captures moments where nature infiltrates these spaces, building its own life within the abandoned ruins. Through the childlike exploration of the site, she invites the audience to witness the intersection of decay and rebirth, where nature's resilience and beauty emerge from desolation.
Lucy Rosa Blanca Gaehring’s performance piece "Additions and Corrections'' is an abstract movement surrounding the idea of alienation as a consequence of capitalism. They collected a few relics from their excursion to the ruins. The two performers in this piece symbolize both the system as a whole and the individuals working within it. They are scared, in love, nonsensical, and inevitably meaningless. It is a show for like-minded artists and childlike adults.