NYAB Event - “Leaps Into the Void: Shamanism, Meditation, Transcendence, Oblivion” Exhibition

“Leaps Into the Void: Shamanism, Meditation, Transcendence, Oblivion” Exhibition

Garis & Hahn

This event has ended.

Garis & Hahn present Leaps into the Void: Shamanism, Meditation, Transcendence, Oblivion, a group exhibitio n featuring mixed media work by an international roster of artists: Gwyn Joy, Sky Kim, Michael Maxwell, Joe Nanashe and Phoebe Rathmell. The five artists were selected for their distinct and compelling practices that explore and illustrate spiritual transc endence in their work.

Leaps into the Void… is a show united by the philosophical underpinnings and practical objectives of each artist’s own practice in addressing concepts related to meditation and altered mental states, physical and mental transcendence and Eastern and Western belief systems related to cycles of life.

Australian artist Phoebe Rathmell uses Seishin Toitsu meditation in the c reation of her abstract paintings that employ repetitive motion, extreme concentration, and durational acts to poetic and dizzying effects. The melding of mind and body is evident in her works, as her movement and physical actions become a primary conceptu al component to the work, rather than a mere means to an artistic end. A student of zen art philosophy and technique, Rathmell’s work is best understood in line with this school, whereby the essence of an artist is revealed through each brush stroke or act ion rather than the sum work produced.

Michael Maxwell’s mixed - media work examines the artist’s own inquiry into altered states of consciousness. Informed by his practice that actively engages hypnosis, trance and meditation, Maxwell works with the patte rns experienced during these moments of heightened mental focus and perspective as a continuance of the Modern concept of Universality in art. Informing his work with nuanced understanding of non - Western and indigenous cultures, as well as neurological sci ence, Maxwell is able to bring deeper understanding to these ideas, which were originally based on a colonial perspective of ‘primitive’ cultures in the 20th century. His Landscape Works featured in the exhibition directly reference sacred lands through di gitally manipulated explorations of energy and human consciousness at these sites.

Sky Kim uses the continuous repeating of gestures in her paintings to achieve a meditative state that captures not only the time spent in their production, but also the mo ments, emotions and memory experienced during her time with them. Kim’s work depicting the repetition of concentric circles, spheres and shapes like grains of rice can best be understood through the filter of her belief in cell memory and reincarnation, a personal subject for the artist who feels compelled by this line of metaphysical questioning after the loss of her twin sister at birth.

Gwyn Joy’s paintings and collages are shaped by his experience working with the Tlingit Indian tribe in Alaska. His s ubjects are people depicted with the features of animals, or animals that have taken human forms, referencing the shamanistic power to assume the identities and attributes of animals through anthropomorphic masks. His work explores the roles nature, solitu de, and asceticism play in humanity’s search for spirituality, religion and truth, and the use of metaphysical states to escape, figuratively and literally, from day - to - day reality.

These themes of cycles, transcendence and reinvention are echoed finally in Joe Nanashe’s work. His sculptural installation incorporates sound, structure, and light in examination of the role of fall and redemption, a major narrative device in Classical my thology and a recurring concept throughout the Western canon. His installation is created from mundane home repair products, like step ladders and work lamps, with a self playing keyboard scored by the artist to set the tone for celestial ascent.