NYAB Event - Ahhi Choi “My Eyes”

Ahhi Choi “My Eyes”

bcs Gallery

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The curvilinear movement in the work of Japanese artist Ahhi Choi is both buoyant and ecstatic, expressing the innate sense of adventure the artist possesses. This sense of adventure prompted Choi on a Tom Sawyer-esque sojourn through the Western United States following his college graduation. Choi explored the expansive network of National Parks, from Death Valley to the Grand Canyon to Yellowstone. It was during this stateside excursion that the artist developed an intimate bond with the grandeur and majesty of nature. Upon his return to his home city of Kobe, a malaise set in over Choi, it was the cramped and overcrowded lifestyle of urban Japan which was causing him to feel nostalgic. Taking the flashes of inspiration that the artist experienced in day-to-day life he began to take ink to paper forming an abstract diary of his adventures. Letting his hand move organically across the page, Choi would interpret the silhouettes, pictures, words and letters from the well of his memory into energetic lines that are ubiquitous in his work.A few years ago a friends of Choi’s saw particular potential in his work and for a birthday present gifted him a canvas and an easel, this is when his work began to grow exponentially. Choi began to infuse color into his instinctual shapes and forms using acrylic on wooden board. This contemporaneous aesthetic is indicative of the fact that Choi never received formal schooling in fine art, preferring adrenaline infused activities over holding a paintbrush. It is this non-codified and composition-free style that induces Choi’s work with an appealing quality.

When people ask the artist, “What does this work mean?” or “What is this an image of?” Choi responds that it is an inscription of the mental state he was experiencing when he created the work, the intrinsic meaning more or less forming during the physical production or afterwards. However, due to the art being created according to Choi’s guttural sense and emotions, the audience should come to appreciate the paintings and drawings likewise, without limiting the work with confining titles and words.