Exhibitions

Luce Gallery is proud to present the second Solo Exhibition at the Gallery by Connie Harrison.

In Wanderings, large-scale panels invite viewers to immerse themselves in her visual realm, while also magnifying tiny details from the more-than-human world beyond the recognisable. Her work touches on both the power and the fragility of the environment, speaking to a sense of nature as simultaneously allencompassing and vulnerable, and inviting a reassessment of the complex relationships between self and other, person and place, and abstraction and figuration.

Harrison begins each composition with a base layer of a bright colour, which will sing through the subsequent layers. She then adds a layer of clear wax before painting in a linear representation of her first compositional element, which is generally the form of a leaf of flower, a tiny detail of a landscape magnified to fill the picture plane. After another layer of wax, she adds a contrasting composition which intersects with the first, spatially segmenting the canvas with two images that together dissolve into near-abstraction.

She then begins to add layers of paint using pointillist or impressionistic brush techniques, often in earthier or more autumnal colours. This muddies or grounds the original fresh base shade, which nevertheless continues to shine through vibrantly like light wherever she scrapes back into the surface, which she does with a scalpel between coats of paint. There is an ongoing process of covering and uncovering at work in which colour plays a key role, turning the complex composition into a multiplicitous and yet harmonious set of relations.

Harrison’s process has sculptural elements to it, particularly where she scores back into the paint to reveal underlying lines and colours, anchoring and unifying the work. She sees herself as carving a wandering path through her painterly surfaces, seeking a route among the textures and hues of the image. This is echoed in the experience of viewing the work, in which the eye is led into the expanse of the picture plane and taken on a journey in many directions at once, replete with shortcuts, dead-ends, and re-emergences. Throughout these prismatic paintings, there is an elision of the distance between foreground and background, playing with the traditional spatial rules of painting, unfolding into multifaceted organic geometries. Despite being landscape-like, the works eschew a horizon line or central vanishing point, eluding definitions of scale; these could be close-ups of a garden border or views of the earth from far above, as romantically intimate as they are distantly topographical.

These paintings require extended looking; details and relationships emerge they longer they are observed. Harrison is interested in inviting viewers to consider alternative viewpoints, something that is echoed in her own process of turning the works upside down during her painting process in order to gain a different perspective on the composition. There is a tension at play within this body of work, between light and dark, foreground and background, vibrancy and quiet; constantly unfolding into further complexity, her dynamic paintings have an ungraspable quality, as though hovering just out of reach between figuration and abstraction.

Bio‍

Connie Harrison (b. 1993, UK) is a British artist who lives and works in London.

She graduated with First Class Honours in Fine Art from Chelsea College of Arts, London, in 2016, after completing a Foundation course at New College Nottingham.

Recent exhibitions include Strata Nino Mier Gallery New York, 2025, Fifteen Years Luce Gallery, Turin, 2024, Phantasmagoria IBF Contemporary London, 2024, New Now Guts Gallery London, 2024, Bloomscapes Luce Gallery Turin, 2024, and Reverdie Arusha Gallery Edinburgh, 2023.

Wanderings marks her second solo exhibition with the Gallery.

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Luce Gallery is proud to present ‘Hansel, Gretel and Barbie on a Bike’, a solo exhibition by Michael Alexander Campbell (b. 1999, Cambridge, England; lives and works in New York).

The works present a cast of characters, blending mythical and contemporary cultural figures, where both the likes of the Pied Piper and Barbie appear. Some of these myths are updated and invite new interpretations: Queen Nefertiti seems to be wearing sunglasses, and Lady Godiva is dressed in fine garments.

‍The Dusk of Downtown

‍by Hannah Wikforss-Green

‍Manhattan becomes a necropolis in August. Much of what you see, hear, and feel outside consists of the drip-drop, white-noise acrid heat plume blasting from AC units hanging by a thread out of tenement windows; the streets are emptied by provincial deserters and by locals retreating to the cooler confines of their walk-up apartments. Your sweat smells like deli meat and cigarettes, and you crouch in front of the cold fridge light which illuminates your kitchen at 5 a.m., cooling yourself off with leftover lo mein while trying to counter martini-induced dehydration with tepid $1 Poland Springs. But for me, the memory of the thick, hot air of summer 2023 is cut through with the noise of Michael Alexander Campbell clinking Bob Dylan’s Ballad of a Thin Man on the grand piano on the second residential floor of Julian Schnabel’s big pink Palazzo Chupi on West 11th Street.

I met Michael that summer, when he was working on huge psychedelic-looking paintings in the basement garage of Palazzo Chupi. Large canvasses laid unstretched on the floor, and colorful slashes of oil paint made out abstract shapes that somehow invited you into a world which was both strange and familiar. He would eventually be employed by Julian as well, and we quickly became friends, matching each other’s ability to spew rambling non sequiturs and indulging a shared obsession with various cultural scenes throughout New York’s history. We both lived Downtown – Michael in the East Village, I on the Lower East Side – a 20-minute walk door to door.

Michael came to New York at a peculiar point in time, painting against the backdrop of a strange culture. I call the years between 2022 and 2025 in New York the “intercrisis period,” the brief intermission between the pandemic and Trump 2.0. New York, a city known for being a progressive oasis in an increasingly nationalist United States, has not remained unaffected by political developments. Downtown – particularly around my immediate area, which some refer to as Dimes Square –suddenly seemed overrun by crypto-worshipping groypers who had appointed themselves standard-bearers of a new, post-woke literary and artistic subculture that had emerged during the pandemic.

Nestled on the border between Chinatown and the Lower East Side, Dimes Square has come to be known as a physical place as well as a subculture. Division Street dead-ends into Canal Street – a diagonal exception to Manhattan’s otherwise iconic north-south, east-west grid system – creating a triangular square filled with outdoor seating belonging to various bars and restaurants. The area is known for its exquisite cash-only $4 dumpling joints, bodegas with scratch-off lottery tickets as well as fake diamond-studded dildos, and voluntarily starving, unbearably hip, irony-pilled writers and artists with a penchant for coining provocative slogans.

When Michael was new to New York, I would schlep him around to various readings, openings, and parties in Dimes Square. We went to The Shop, right at the foot of the rust-colored Williamsburg Bridge on Delancey Street, a sort of blind pig saloon that doubled as the headquarters of an insect extermination business, seemingly ripped straight from William Burroughs’ Naked Lunch. Late nights were spent in Chinatown and Little Italy at pop-up parties with Catholic converts in constant conflict with most of the seven deadly sins. At Sovereign House, down the block from my old apartment, you’d be assaulted with information on the blockchain by extremely wealthy crypto dudes financing readings for poets exploring reactionary themes. We didn’t like the politics, but we liked that there was a scene.

Michael treated his apartment as if it were a hotel room, spending most of his time either roaming the cracked sidewalks of Downtown or working on large canvases on the black-painted rooftop of his Avenue B apartment building, where he stored his paints and brushes in a treasure chest. If I wanted company, I knew he wouldn’t be far off. We’d head to diners early in the morning, share a plate of pancakes, and revel in that solemn conviction that we were experiencing the nexus of some sort of something.

Michael would constantly collect images, which he continues to use as reference material to this day – reworking and reinterpreting them in paint, abstracting the visuals while preserving their general form and composition. His camera roll is filled with photos of the city, tchotchkes he spots in antique shops, and screenshots of things and people on Instagram (…and sometimes even Hinge…).

His method of collecting and storing reference material is uniquely contemporary, yet the way he synthesizes it pays homage to the greats of the past.

2022–2025 felt like the last iteration of Downtown – the dusk of a culture that had always existed in Manhattan south of 14th Street and north of the Financial District, one that Michael and I managed to catch just as it was coming to an end. With dramatic cultural and political shifts in the U.S., and the cost of living rebounding to even greater heights after the brief period of cheaper rent during the pandemic, I became acutely aware of the impermanence of this scene – and of Manhattan’s ability able to host any scenes at all.

Only time will tell what the lasting legacy of the Dimes Square scene will be, but its quality as a playful (if occasionally sinister) force – experimenting with high and low, social media-and-internet themes, and irony – has left an indelible mark on the artists like Michael, who spent some of their formative years bopping between readings and gallery openings within that physical and cultural geography.

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‍Bio

‍Michael Alexander Campbell was raised in Switzerland and studied Fine Art at Lancaster University in England before apprenticing with Julian Schnabel in New York. His large-scale oil paintings distort photographic sources until only their essential composition remains. What persists is the narrative, evoking myths and fairy tales where stories endure even as characters shift and fade. Campbell’s exhibitions include group shows and residencies across Europe and the United States, as well as his first solo exhibition at Casa del Popolo in New York (2025). His work is luminous and vibrant, combining gestural, expressive marks with precise, classical brushwork to produce paintings that seem at once punk and traditional.

‍“Ultimately, if you know what meaning you are trying to suffuse into your paintings before you make them, they will be either didactic or unoriginal. The meaning will be there whether you like it or not.” 

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We are pleased to announce The Branch Will Not Break, the second solo exhibition by Yowshien Kuo with Luce Gallery. Opening September 11, the show presents a selection of new paintings.

“In the new year, I began each morning looking back on the nostalgia of my earliest painting lessons. I reached for materials first introduced to me as a young art student in Taiwan – bamboo and mop brushes, black ink, rice paper, and water. Recruiting the philosophical and physical antecedents of a calligraphic discipline. Various ratios of water and ink permeated, glided, and blotted the underweight paper – an improvisation. Messy and wet, a guided but liberated unpredictability of heavily saturated achromatic depths, inkblots, solidified into surreal landscapes of roaring clouds, laser horizons, and wild flora. The result of these studies shared a communal dialogue with Chinese Tang Dynasty paintings, whose influence is notably evident in the shared cultural hybridity of 18th-century Literati paintings that bridged Chinese and Japanese values. Literati painting has its origins in China, and can be translated as scholar painting. It is more interested in personal erudition and expression than in literal representation by encouraging spontaneity as a virtue of sincerity. Facing an expanding and modernizing Western world, the orthodox literati style was no longer tenable, yet it did not disappear. Rather, it adapted, always refashioning itself. Subsequent iterations are multifarious and complex. So capacious is the discipline, my appetite for nostalgic musings is imbued by the wayward ink and cultural hybridity of the literati approach.

Weightless bamboo brushes sodden with ink, the mighty gossamer paper transcending through time, culture, and geography. Attuned to the perennials of calligraphy, landscape, flora, fauna, and the collaborative pedigree synonymous with literati painting. Transported, I awoke, squinting up at the chinks of beaming sunshine, listening to the susurrations of wild grass and the sweet, earthy scent of petrichor. An elusive cafuné is tender and gentle in my hair and at my fingertips. The directives and coarseness of the quotidian world are absent in these idylls. Here, I can claim this respite as my own; in this temporal order, skeleton keys are done away with, for doors with keyholes do not exist in the celestial manifestations of the mind. Unbounded, I can sense an archaic past and simultaneously an enduring future.

When clouds flower in the light of one’s own mind, to traverse in the inner landscape amidst the new demands and mandates that whittle reality becomes a rare and necessary inversion. Cynicism is easy; hope is challenging. Wayfaring through the milieu, flustered by lost door keys, the footing is mercurial and precarious, so I reach for the branch that will not break; trust is sturdy and stronger than it often appears. Relying on the muscle of self-introspection granted to me by the cosmos to recalibrate the tale told by an idiot. Gazing upward in ascension, I am warmed by the horizon and unfettered by the walking shadow beneath me; an abjection of the sound and the fury of the modern world. Emboldened by literati acumen, I peer through the looking glass, refashioning myself to grasp and embrace. As God’s finger gives life to Adam, I imagine him awakening from emptiness and saying, “…My God – It’s full of stars!”. As nature is beholden to humankind both in the eyes and in the mind, anything and anyone I touch can be a steadfast branch”.

Yowshien Kuo (b. 1985) is a St. Louis-based artist working primarily in painting. His work blends his personal experiences as a Taiwanese American with historical references and criticism to comment on social and racial inequality, cultural constructs, sexuality, and the human condition. Kuo graduated with an MFA in 2014 from Fontbonne University in St. Louis, Missouri. Most recently he was the recipient of Great Rivers Biennial Arts Award 2022-23, having a solo exhibition at The Contemporary Art Museum in St. Louis. His artwork has also appeared in many publications including New American Paintings #149 in 2020, where he was prominatley featured on the cover. Kuo has exhibited throughout the United States and Europe, including a number of art fairs.

Notes

The information on Literati artwork comes from the book, “Literati Modern”, Bunjinga from Late Ado to Twentieth-Century Japan. The Terry Welch Collection at the Honolulu Academy of Arts. Paul Berry and Michiyo Morioka. Published by Honolulu Academy of Arts. 2008. Along with references by China Online Museum, “Literati Painting”. https://www.comuseum.com/painting/schools/literati-painting/ and “Landscape painting in Chinese Art”, Department of Asian Art. October 1, 2004. Metmusuem.org.https://www.metmuseum.org/essays/landscape-painting-in-chinese-art.

The word cafuné is Brazilian-Portuguese (pronounced / ,ka-fu- ‘ne /). The website languagedepartment.com describes cafuné as, “…a force of affection, of tenderness, but most importantly it's a calming force…”. https://languagedepartment.com/beautiful untranslatable-words-from-around-the-world10/.

I am deeply moved by the phrases “Clouds are flowering” and “The is the light of the mind”, which both come from Sylvia Plath’s poem, The Moon and the Yew Tree, dated October 22, 1961.

The phrase “…celestial manifestations” comes from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlett Letter, 1850.

“The Branch Will Not Break” is the title of a poetry collection by James Wright published in 1963 by Wesleyan University Press. This collection is often considered a new direction for Wright. “…encompassed a startling mix of careful detail and surprising leaps of thought and structure in loose and open verses.” – https://poets.org/book/branch-will-not-break.

The lines, “creeping in this petty pace from day to day”, “The tale told by an idiot”, and “sound and fury” come from Macbeth’s speech: “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow” by William Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth. Ref. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/56964/speech-tomorrow-and-tomorrow-and-tomorrow.

“Through the Looking Glass” is a book published by Lewis Carroll in December 1871, a sequel to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The theme of his imagined entering into a strange new world was an inspiration to me in this work.

The image I had in mind for the description, “God’s finger gives life to Adam,” is none other than Michelangelo’s fresco referred to as The Creation of Man in the Sistine Chapel, c.1508-1512.

The phrase, “My God – it’s full of stars!” Caught my attention in Tracy K. Smith’s poetry collection, Life on Mars, published in 2011 by Graywolf Press. The author notes, “The title 'My God, it’s full of stars' is adapted from the quote from Arthur C. Clarke’s novel, 2001: A Space Odyssey…” This enhances the lines for me as I am inspired by Stanley Kubrick’s film of the same title as the novel. The themes of time travel and our relationship to the cosmos are congruent with the exhibition.

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We are pleased to announce Refuge Poétique, the long-anticipated second solo exhibition by Delphine Desane with Luce Gallery. Opening July 16, the show presents a selection of new paintings and an installation that recalls the environment of the artist studio. Deeply autobiographical and brimming with iconographic details, each painting addresses relationships—with herself, her son, and her grand return to her native France. The work displays the artist’s new appreciation for hue, depth, and extended narrative while maintaining her popular elegant portraiture motifs. Viewed collectively, these paintings radiate a colorful ‘warmth’ and offer poetic reflections that feel both deeply personal and universally resonant.

A French phrase, Refuge Poétique translates to “poetic refuge”, referring to a tranquil place of solace where the mind can escape daily hardships through poetry— or in this instance, the poetic qualities of painting. As this solo show marks a pivotal stylistic shift in Desane’s practice, the title aptly describes her personal desire to create a haven for deeper introspection—one that explores the layered dimensions of identity and legacy within the context of her rich heritage. The show serves as a lyrical and aesthetic summation of her recent emotional and intellectual journey.

Her compositions, once characterized by stylized figures and abstracted landscapes rendered in a restrained Fauvist palette, now adopt a more realistic approach. Naturalistic portraiture, shading, and volumetric depth define this new phase, alongside detailed symbolism and iconography drawn from personal memories, spiritual symbolism, and cultural heritage. From the traditional compositions of Virgin and Child in Christian iconography to vivid chromatic harmonies reminiscent of the post-impressionist Paul

Gauguin, the artist has sought out traditional French references to embrace a more expressive visual language to better communicate the complexity of her emotions on canvas.

This shift was shaped in part by her relocation from New York City back to Paris. While living in New York, Desane was drawn to the minimalism of Donald Judd and Isamu Noguchi—an aesthetic that mirrored her pandemic-era experience of urban solitude and provided visual relief from the challenges of co-parenting and fast-paced rhythms of city life. For Desane, emotions needed to be conveyed simply, distinctly, and efficiently on canvas. In contrast, her return to Paris prompted a deeper reconnection with nature, culture, and memory. The resulting works lean into organic form and layered narrative, moving away from

minimalism toward intimacy, fullness, and self-reclamation.

In Sleeping Beauty—one of the show’s most emblematic and arresting paintings—a woman in elegant repose appears in slumber, her head resting gently on her arm. Behind and surrounding her, a lush mango tree unfolds into a dreamscape where a distant French provincial home emerges. Within this imagined world, layered symbols reflect Desane’s ideal sense of ‘home:’ the mangos, a staple on her Haitian-immigrant family table; a peacock, a common sight in French parks; an airplane overhead, alluding to her proximity to an airport and current day job; and blooming cherry blossoms, a nod to her fascination with Asian aesthetics. Solid black biomorphic shapes call to mind the surrealist forms of Jean Arp, whose work she regularly seeks out on museum visits. Painted in rich, tropical hues, Sleeping Beauty radiates ‘warmth’—a home-like sense of comfort that Desane seeks both personally and within her practice.

Dreams, a recurring motif in her oeuvre, here become more vivid, grounded, and reflective of her present interests. Here, the viewer is invited to explore this inner landscape, and in doing so, consider their own dreamlike escapes of ‘home’.

The strength of Desane’s artistic practice lies in its fearless openness to journey inward. Her work is a site of self-exploration—a space where the complexity of identity as well as its internal and external judgment are exposed for all to contemplate. She dares to expand her identity beyond simplistic labels and embrace its layers and constant state of flux by conveying a more personal message through her paintings. By confronting these themes in a visually lush, symbolically rich language, she not only poses existential questions for herself but also creates space for viewers to contemplate their own interior lives and perhaps the ways they are perceived by others. In this way, her work forms a Refuge Poétique—a place of rest for the soul amid life’s perpetual reckoning with identity.

Delphine Desane (b. 1988, France) is a painter and sculptor whose portraiture interweaves autobiographical elements of identity such as motherhood and Black womanhood within broader diasporic narratives of African and Caribbean heritage. A self-taught artist, she rose to prominence after her work appeared on the cover of Vogue Italia in January 2020. Her work has since been exhibited internationally, including at Canada and Pace Gallery (New York), Taymour Grahne (London), PENSKE Projects (Los Angeles), and Luce Gallery (Torino). Her paintings are held in the collections of the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden (MACAAL) in Marrakech, and numerous private collections across Europe and the United States.

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We are thrilled to introduce Nobuhito Nishigawara, debuting his first solo exhibition with Luce Gallery Qualia.  Opening May 8, the show will display unique ceramic artworks, including a custom installation conceived specifically for the gallery space. Deeply conceptual and autobiographically, each intricate work reads like a visual diary entry, capturing moments of deep introspection in elegant forms. By combining advanced ceramic techniques, Nishigawara translates personal spiritual and mental relationships of change, reflection, and neutrality into alluring physical vessels rich in texture and hue. Viewed collectively, the detailed sculptures in Qualia create a mood-altering state of calm, inviting viewers to pause, observe, and—ideally —learn more about themselves through their unique reactions to each work and its spatial placement.

Both the series and exhibition title, Qualia, engages with the Japanese concept of MA - the pause, the space between - inviting a quiet reflection through intentional ambiguity. Each instance is deeply personal and unique, whether it’s our reaction to the color red, the resonance of music, a pungent smell, or the sting of cold weather. The range of interpretations make our human experience profoundly individual. Nishigawara uses this concept as a framework to explore and question his fundamental experiences and to search for a definition of self.

As a Japanese immigrant who has lived abroad since the 1990’s, Nishigawara often grapples with questions of identity— especially, what is it to feel Japanese? Many of the works on view stem from memories of his time in Japan, drawn from hazy recollections or old photographs. These memories are often translated through color: deep blues evoke the Pacific Ocean or vibrant cloudless skies; black recalls volcanic stone or the darkness of earthquakes; red as accents in temples; while soft pinks infer cherry blossoms in bloom.  As an inherently ambiguous concept Qualia mirrors his own multi-faceted identity. It is within this duality that he defines himself - MA in between inner self and outer self.

Material experimentation, hue, and texture are essential to his practice and to his deeper investigation of the ceramic medium. Each sculpture becomes a composition in clay—a specific thought or moment captured in physical form. Just as thoughts shift and mutate, so too does the material during firing: shapes may slump, colors change unpredictably, and textures melt. These changes are welcomed, serving as reminders of the illusion of control and the value of embracing the unpredictable nature of thought made tangible.

In Qualia #7, we see a harmonized mixture of piled clay ribbons and dewdrop textures accentuated by shades of pink unfurl across a pale white disk. While its precise emotional source remains ambiguous, viewers may interpret it as a merging of two perspectives: a tightly wound strand of long, rambling ‘thought’ atop a surface scattered with beaded droplets, perhaps representing jumbled or fragmented memories emerging from beneath. The viewer is encouraged to explore these contrasts, drawing their own conclusions and reflecting on why their thoughts wander where they do.

The strength of Nobuhito Nishigawara’s work lies in his boundless curiosity —both in his commitment to ‘qualia’ and in the expressive capabilities of clay. His diaristic exploration of visceral memory, identity, perception, and contemplations of philosophical vastness transforms the physicality of clay into complex and alluring vessels of thought. For Nishigawara, the material poses as a type of therapist—anchoring him, focusing the mind, and translating complex emotional terrain into abstract, tactile forms where there is no limit for exploration and experimentation.

Nobuhito Nishigawara (Japanese, b.1974) is an Anaheim-based artist working in ceramics. He began his artistic studies at the University College of Fraser Valley, British Columbia, later earning a BFA in ceramics from Kansas City Art Institute and an MFA from Arizona State University. His work has been featured in notable solo exhibitions throughout the United States including the Bakersfield Museum of Art in California, as well as numerous group exhibitions internationally. Nishigawara is a distinguished Professor of Ceramics in the department of Visual Arts at California State University in Fullerton, where he currently leads as head of the ceramics program. His work is held in private collections worldwide.

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Luce Gallery proudly announce Landskap, an exhibition of paintings by Swedish born, Norway based, painter Peter Mohall. This is his fourth solo exhibition with the gallery and will be on view in Turin from March 21 – April 25, 2025.

As the Swedish lingual title implies, the exhibition thematic concern is with landscape painting. The coruscating landscapes of rural Scandinavian countryside captures the regional scenery, while the saturated imagery recalling the aesthetics of Post-impressionism, with embedded references to both regional painters like Helmer Osslund, Aleksi Gallen-Kallela and Willi Midelfart as well as idiomatic movements like Les Nabis, die Brücke, and Fauvism.

The specific material qualities of the traditional medium of choice, utilizing tempera grassa paint on jute canvas, along with a particular painting style, a sensitive brush handling and visual references, generates a distinct imagery that reveal a comprehension of the medium and it’s inherent art historical properties. Which is leading us to a tentative conclusion that the subject matter is subordinated by a conceptual inquiry into the medium.

The supporting evidence for this assumption comes in form of thick brush strokes sticked to the «window glass» of the illusionary window into the pictorial dimension. The brush strokes are «floating in the air» between us and the motif, causing our focus shift in and out between the pictorial dimension and the flat surface. The perceptual conflict destabilizes the narrative reading of the painting, leaving us with perceptual challenges searching for visual codes to decipher.

First thing we notice about the brush strokes are that they contain the colour index of the painting. Mohall invites us into his artistic process by sharing the palette. A point of interest is the opportunity to study the change of optic values of a colour from isolation compared to inclusion within the context of surrounding colours in the motif.

An interesting insight about the process is that Mohall has to calculate the numbers of colors to use in a painting in advance. Areas needs to be retained in order to properly attach the brush strokes directly onto the canvas. The brush strokes are often arranged as a grid, a note to the modernist method, or in alignment overlaying the motif.

Furthermore, the brush strokes are identical. Mohall has developed a signature strategy utilizing cast brush strokes in an inquiry into a medium-specific investigation of the relationship between the painterly authentic and automation. First deployed in a formalistic setting on empty canvases, the cast brush strokes thematize the gesture alluding the fusion of two modernist strategies; the brush stroke as subject matter and repetition. Mohall adapted the strategy using figuration as backdrops, innovating an imagery of complexity, multi-layered, with internal painterly discussions and perceptual challenges. A conflict between two image forms where traditional perception interacts with the implementation of modernist strategies.

Peter Mohall (b. 1979, Löddeköpinge(SE), lives and works in Nesoddtangen(NO) graduated from the Oslo National Academy of Fine Arts. He has exhibited throughout Europe, Asia and the United States, including solo shows with Luce Gallery, Turin, IT, Nino Mier, Los Angeles (US), Koki Arts, Tokyo(JP), Pablo’s Birthday, New York(US) and QB Gallery Oslo(NO). His work has been acquired by numerous collections such as Fondazione 107, Turin, IT, Central Bank of Norway, Oslo, NO; and JP Morgan Chase Collection, US, among others, as well as public commissions in both Oslo and Drammen.

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We are pleased to introduce Rachel Hakimian Emenaker, debuting her first solo exhibition with Luce Gallery, The Wind Will Carry Your Traces. Opening January 30, the show will feature eight batik paintings made from melted wax and hand applied dye. Through this unique approach, the artist reimagines and integrates ‘craft’ with the painting medium. Her composite cityscapes and interior scenes of everyday life convey profound familial and cultural histories, reflecting her diasporic upbringing. Hakimian Emenaker leans heavily into rich earth tones punctuated by vivid pops of burgundy, lemon, chartreuse, and indigo, heightening the visual impact of each composition. Her paintings are defined by thin yet saturated washes of dye, contrasted by crisp white linework that animates figures and details throughout each canvas. Together, the works in The Wind Will Carry Your Traces invite viewers to witness how diasporic histories and memories are integral in everyday life, fostering connections within communities.

The exhibition’s title, The Wind Will Carry Your Traces, poetically suggests how deeply held values and memories travel with us, shaping who we are no matter where we call home. Hakimian Emenaker’s ability to seamlessly blend Eastern and Western art traditions reflects her multicultural background and artistic journey infusing her work with remarkable depth. Of Armenian descent, she moved frequently during her formative years, living in Suriname, Russia and now the United States. This rich confluence of influences informs her work, drawing from European painting traditions, Armenian religious iconography, Soviet-era cinema, and ‘craft traditions’ from the Middle East and South America.

Having studied painting in undergraduate school, she gravitated toward the batik techniques she learned while growing up in Suriname, eventually integrating these methods with Western-style narrative compositions on canvas. Batik, a traditional Indonesian craft, involves creating intricate designs by applying melted wax to fabric and dyeing it in layers. The artist begins her process by drawing with melted wax to create distinctive, permanent lines on the canvas. As an unforgiving medium, wax leaves no room for error; every gesture—whether intentional or accidental—becomes a permanent element of the composition. After the wax dries, five to ten layers of dyes are applied with watercolor brushes, followed by a washing process to refine the colors. The canvas is then washed to remove the wax, leaving behind the crisp white lines that define their work. The final steps include drying, steaming the canvas flat, and attaching it to a stretcher, giving the piece a traditional painting appearance. This meticulous process is not only a technical feat but also a poignant metaphor for the artist's exploration of memory and cultural preservation.

A defining feature of Hakimian Emenaker’s work is the crisp white lines, which she describes as a form of “resistance.” Created by the wax’s resistance to dye, these lines give each painting a bold and cohesive structure. For the artist, this resistance symbolizes resilience in the face of erasure. The lines embody how people preserve and adapt cultural traditions, reconstructing memories into new forms that anchor them in a new home.

her seminal painting, Traces, a wide main street winds through a vibrant village nestled in the hillside, where terracotta tiled-roofed buildings, postwar apartments, and octagonal churches coexist. A family strolls along a sidewalk while two women converse nearby, standing near a large puddle that shares the town’s reflection and energy. Here figures are painted entirely from recollection, often referencing family members or acquaintances, making each encounter deeply personal yet universally resonant. As with all the artist’s paintings, this scene is reconstructed from fragmented memories, family stories, and vivid descriptions, forming a collective diasporic memory brimming with detail and artifacts. The rolling hills in the background could easily symbolize inherited memories of Kessab, Syria, where ancient churches rise above towns, or evoke the lush green hills of Los Angeles in springtime, seamlessly blending past and present. The painting captures the essence of the diasporic experience: a liminal space where the boundaries of time and place dissolve, allowing distinct cultural and historical influences to coexist in one richly layered composition.

The strength of Hakimian Emenaker’s work lies in her ability to harness the labor-intensive nature of their medium to emphasize its conceptual depth. Each scene she creates feels as though it could exist anywhere, everywhere, and nowhere all at once, creating this intersection of familiarity and vagueness where memory is most at home. Hakimian Emenaker layers diverse architectural styles and distinct cultural objects that embody the diasporic experience, illustrating how individuals adapt to new environments by bringing familiar elements of Eastern and Western cultures, as well as regional nature motifs, into their new lives. Her paintings present a convergence of cities, aesthetics, and past worlds, blending them into a seamless recreation of diasporic memory. These works invite viewers to consider how memories and cultural fragments persist, transform, and coexist in new spaces, encouraging deeper engagement with the vibrant and multifaceted nature of the diasporic experience.

Rachel Hakimian Emenaker (Armenian-American, b. 1992) is a Los Angeles-based artist working in painting, installation, craft, sculpture, sound, and textiles. In 2024, she earned an MFA from the University of California, Los Angeles. Her work has been featured in solo exhibitions at the UCLA Broad Art Center, Los Angeles (2024), and the American University of Armenia, Yerevan (2017), as well as in group exhibitions throughout California, including at the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego (2017). Emenaker is the recipient of the 2024 Dedalus MFA Fellowship in Painting & Sculpture and the 2023 UCLA Elaine Krown Klein Fine Arts Scholarship. Her work is included in international private collections.

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We are thrilled to introduce Connie Harrison, debuting her first solo exhibition with Luce Gallery titled, Bloomscapes. Opening October 24th, the show will feature eleven paintings incorporating her signature technique of layering wax paste and oil paint with incised lines. On view through December 20th, these abstract landscapes expose a deeper aesthetic beauty and celebration of nature’s complexity. Harrison employs an array of bright saturated hues - from rich jewel tones to glowing neons to soft pastels - pushing beyond the traditional landscape palette to captivate the eye. Her layered compositions are dense with lush vegetation, now featuring flowers, enlivened with quick rhythmic brushstrokes or carved directly into the surface, unveiling their inner beauty. Together, the paintings in Bloomscapes beacon viewers to wander through the awe inspiring forest nooks, uncovering overlooked details and encouraging peaceful reflection.

Harrison begins her artistic process by photographing Britain's ancient woodlands, lush garden scenes, and flower elements. She uses digital technology to overlay magnified floral outlines onto the landscapes, simultaneously working between these two compositions: distrorting and abstracting into one cohesive resolution. Her paintings often start with bright, almost neon underlayers that form an inner light, upon which she builds layers of oil paint and wax. This process creates a rich, velvety texture, while her technique of excavating the layers mirrors the natural cycles of growth and erosion - like seedlings bursting through the forest floor or heavy rain showers unearthing ancient sediments.

For Harrison, materiality is essential to her work. She sought a medium that could balance complexity with flatness, and texture with sculpted elements. Inspired by the rhythmic brushstrokes of French Impressionists, the saturated hues and flat compositions of Austrian Symbolist Gustav Klimt, and the techniques of atmospheric abstractions of American modernists like Helen Frankenthaler, Harrison developed an individualized bold approach. She masterfully balances intense color, opacity, and texture, by exposing wax and pigment with brushes and a sculpting stylist.

In her seminal work, Mirage at Dusk, pale pink rocky paths traverse through patches of goldenrod, periwinkle, and deep-violet flowers, while blades of magenta and dark turquoise grasses seem to emerge from beneath the rocks. All paths lead toward a dense wooded area, appearing as a kaleidoscope of hues, with an indigo sky looming through the forest canopy. In the background, dappled leaves echo the delicate petal structures in the foreground, while the smooth plane of the dark sky contrasts with the light-toned flatness of the rocks, instilling balance and harmony. Harrison’s potent colors, converging pathways, and vigorous brushstrokes infuse the painting with vibration, revealing a once concealed inner life force.

The strength of Harrison’s work lies in her abstract approach to landscapes, using the familiar subject to ‘organize’ her compositions and ultimately become vehicles for the sublime. She skillfully capitalizes on the duality of nature as both a refuge for a sensory relaxation and restoration, as well as a powerful force that presents great complexity and rhythm to inspire awe and wonder. Each experience coexists within the ‘bloomscape’, inviting viewers to wander through multiple paths of discovery and foster a deeper appreciation of nature's hidden beauty, escapism, and vitality.

Connie Harrison (British, b.1993) is a painter based in London, known for her vibrant, textured landscapes layered with oil paint and wax. Her process of excavation reveals the underlying depths of her compositions, metaphorically reflecting nature’s rhythms and life cycles. Harrison graduated with honors in 2016 from Chelsea College of Arts in the United Kingdom, after completing a foundational education at New College, Nottingham. Her work has been exhibited internationally including Dallas, Edinburgh, London, Los Angeles, New York, and Turin.

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We are pleased to present Intimate Gaps, the first solo exhibition for Shanee Roe at Luce Gallery.  Opening September 20th, the show will feature nine paintings — many incorporating collaged elements — on view through October 18th. Roe's paintings explore intimacy, interpersonal relationships, and power dynamics through vibrant characters that highlight the tension between connection and disconnection. Her works portray clumsy, playful attempts to bond, while revealing the underlying anxieties and emotional struggles within close relationships. Using a saturated palette, Roe's figures are both ‘cute’ and disturbing, featuring large, boulder-like heads with wide, glaring eyes designed to evoke both compassion and unease. Together, the paintings in Intimate Gaps expose the often overwhelming nature of our existential feelings of loneliness, fostering important conversations about dynamics that shift from playfully warm to distant and potentially abusive.

The exhibition’s title, Intimate Gaps, with the use of sense of humour and “silly” situations  describes the abyss between bodies seeking closeness the visceral yearning for connection. These ‘gaps’— though physically slight— become chasms of apprehension. They represent the very absence of what we desire to feel fulfilled.

In each painting, Roe stages intimate moments where her characters make clumsy, often playful attempts to connect. Yet, the physical exaggeration of closeness only amplifies the emotional disconnection and awkwardness of the figures. Nudity plays a crucial role in this, symbolizing raw vulnerability and exposing individuals in their most primitive, innocent form. Roe often portrays her male figures as disembodied heads, reflecting her belief that the nude male body can be intimidating. Their immobility makes them appear harmless and open to connection, yet at other times, it leaves them vulnerable and helpless. This creates a disconcerting dynamic where attempts at physical connection cannot be fully resolved through the body. These heads also reference an art historical prescient, the vicious severed male heads in the paintings of late-Renaissance artist Artemisia Gentileschi, evoking violent associations. This contrast with the soft, gentle, and playful treatment of Roe’s bodiless figures adds an intriguing layer of complexity to her work.

Her compositions, often derived from her line drawings, take on new life in their transition to painting. Roe likens her use of incorporating bold, saturated colors to a melody added to a poem, building tension and creating atmosphere, while her collaged elements add texture and depth, further animating the rawness of each emotion. Stylistically, Roe draw inspiration from contemporary figurative painters such as Nicole Eisenman and Dana Schutz, as well as the humorous caricatures and emotional intensity of paintings by artists like Canadian-American painter Philip Guston and the German Expressionists, such as George Grosz.

Rather than offering clear narratives, Roe creates scenes that invite viewers to observe and ask questions. She sees her role as setting the stage, layering tension and amusement, while allowing viewers the freedom to interpret the complexity of these intimate relationships through their own experiences. Her playful yet probing approach encourages viewers to explore the dynamics of relationships, seeking motives and discovering nuance in the details.

The strength of Roe’s work lies in her ability to disarm serious subject matter through humor, encouraging deep engagement and reflection. By tapping into the psychological complexities of intimate relationships, she instills a sense of compassion and insight into the emotional landscape of connection and the tension of distance.

Shanee Roe (American, b.1996) is a Berlin-based interdisciplinary artist whose practice spans painting, collage, drawing, and animation. Her figurative paintings delve into interpersonal dynamics, examining various modes of intimacy—from misery to passion— while exposing complex power relations between genders. Roe navigates the spectrum from overt sexuality to compassion with nuanced sensitivity and humor. In 2023, she graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna studying under Daniel Richter. Roe has also participated in prestigious artist residencies, including The Cabin in Los Angeles, which culminated in a solo presentation. Her work has been exhibited widely throughout Europe and North America, in major cities such as Berlin, Dallas, Leipzig, Los Angeles, Miami, Mexico City, New York, Tel Aviv, and Torino, among others.

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We are pleased to announce the highly anticipated Coro a Bocca Chiusa, Francesco Pirazzi’s first solo show with Luce Gallery. Beginning June 27th, six paintings and two charcoal works on paper mounted on canvas will be on view through August 2nd.

Pirazzi's distinctive use of dramatic light within cityscapes and landscapes illuminates the mystery of each scene. In this series of new works, the artist cautiously navigates the changes to his environment after relocating to Turin from Florence. What unfolds are observations from a distant high vantage point, gradually pulling in closer from painting to painting. Thoughtfully placed lampposts, trees, and buildings set the stage for narratives that feel unusually familiar yet lost to time and space. When viewed together, the artworks in Coro a Bocca Chiusa evoke a sense of mystery, enticing viewers to examine each scene for the subtle cracks in reality and to question each illuminated path.

The exhibition’s title, Coro a Bocca Chiusa (The Humming Chorus), is inspired by the song of the same name from Giacomo Pucci’s opera Madame Butterfly. As a student, Pirazzi’s art instructor would play classical music while they painted, and when looking for a title that encapsulated the theme of this show, this just fit. He appreciated the mental image this song creates of many people singing with their mouths closed, creating an intimate collective hum radiating from within. Much like a humming choir, his paintings convey emotion without words and vibrate with intention.

In these paintings without people, the narrative power is turned over to the inanimate objects. His actors are the trees, street lamps, buildings, and vacant streets, which are anthropomorphized to create conversations, giving them personalities and a strong presence. Each scene is enhanced through his theatrical spotlights and subtle use of natural or exaggerated sunlight light to guide or illuminate the story. Although his scenes were initially based on real places around Turin, Pirazzi created his compositions from memory, divorced from the original image, distilling the objects and surroundings into their simplest forms. Historically, his style seems to recall the atmosphere and intrigue of American social realist Edward Hopper, the shifting reality of Italian painter Giorgio de Chirco, and the tenebrism and dramatic illumination of Baroque artists like Rembrandt and Caravaggio.

In the seminal painting, Simulazione (2024), the viewer’s perspective has shifted noticeably closer to an observed vacant playground. Here, we are invited — or perhaps lured — inside the fenced enclosure through a gate blown slightly ajar. At the entrance, a red wooden horse ride on a spring is angled toward us as if distinctly aware of our presence. Pirazzi often uses children’s toys and playground sets in his works, appreciating that to a child with an active imagination, they are ‘real,’ and thus, for the artist, they become animated within this world. The entire scene feels artificially lit during a cloudy afternoon as if a bright spotlight from above has bathed the entire park. The suspicion of being watched is furthered by the three windows of the nearby building, their shades lifted to varying heights, through which we can only see darkness. Even the trees feel sentinel-like, reminiscent of the fighting trees from The Wizard of Oz, waiting to spring to life. But perhaps this is all just a racing imagination, and instead, the story intended is simply a deserted playground waiting for someone to give it life again. In either interpretation, Pirazzi’s compositions are an invitation to observe, interpret, and draw your conclusions — the mystery is our reality.

Pirazzi’s compositions dwell in the space between physical existence and perceived reality. The strength of his work lies in his uncanny ability to create a layered world that blurs the distinctions between familiar, foreign, and slightly ‘off.’ Instead of providing a distinct narrative, he illuminates the elements we should question rather than provide us with the answers. The only thing that is ever certain is the mystery.

Francesco Pirazzi (Italian, b.1994) is a painting and drawing artist who lives and works in Turin, Italy. His surreal yet quiet Italian-inspired land and cityscapes explore the profound power of light, refocusing the viewer's experience of reality to evoke both familiar and mysterious sensations. In 2018, Pirazzi graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence, studying painting under Master Adriano Bimbi. His work has been exhibited throughout Italy, and internationally, including the Augustenborg Project in Augustenborg, Denmark; Cob Gallery and The Artist Room in London, UK; The Hole Gallery in New York, NY.

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Luce Gallery is thrilled to announce our special anniversary group presentation, Fifteen Years.
This show celebrates the gallery's milestone and features new works by a selection of the artists we work with, including Dominic Chambers, Ryan Cosbert, Robert Davis, Derek Fordjour, Connie Harrison, Yowshien Kuo, Hugo McCloud, Johanna Mirabel, Peter Mohall, Demarco Mosby, Ludovic Nkoth, Collins Obijiaku, Zéh Palito, and Francesco Pirazzi. Opening May 16, the exhibition showcases the incredible talent and diversity of artistic style of our artists, some of whom have been with us since the inception of our gallery, as well as recent additions to the program. This show honors our partnership and journey with these artists, whether they have already achieved career stardom or are just beginning to make their mark. Fifteen Years offers a profound moment of pride and reflection, encapsulating Luce Gallery's mission to discover and support international emerging artists, enriching our ever-expanding gallery program.

With director and founder Nikola Cernetic at the helm, Luce Gallery's mission has always been to seek out new talent and provide spaces for their artworks to gain a wider audience. In a recent interview, Cernetic explained:

"I opened Luce Gallery in a very romantic way, and to this day, that spirit persists. I've never chosen an artist solely for a commercial reason; I ask them to join my program because I love and believe in their work and vision. Searching for these artists and being the first to discover them is perhaps the most interesting and rewarding part of my job as a gallerist. What distinguishes Luce from other galleries today is really our strong program of international artists and consistent discovery of new artists."

Over the years, the gallery's roster has been assembled to include artists from more than eight countries, including many hailing from the United States. The program currently excels at painting, displaying the full breadth of this medium from dynamic abstraction to hyperrealism, palpable textures to seemingly invisible brushstrokes, and often incorporates elements of mixed-media or collage used to heighten conceptual meanings. With a strong focus on providing under-recognized artists with a platform to exhibit and a partnership to provide support, we are always searching for unique talent with a distinctive quality from around the globe and in every medium.

To date, the gallery has hung seventy-seven exhibitions, participated in sixty-five art fairs across Europe and North America, and helped organize several well-received institutional shows for our artists, including a recent solo show of Zéh Palito's work at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Querétaro in Mexico. Luce Gallery has distinguished itself through its unwavering commitment to emerging artists for fifteen years, and this show encapsulates that vision.

Included in the nineteen newly made artworks on view are a selection of works by artists who have collaborated with the gallery the longest, including a 1970's inspired portrait by Robert Davis, two floral still-life paintings —composed with his signature single-use plastic technique—on panel by Hugo McCloud, a tranquil leisure landscape by Peter Mohall, and featuring a playful sculpture by Derek Fordjour of upturned legs precariously balancing a glass yellow ball. In recent years, other noteworthy artists such as Dominic Chambers, Ryan Cosbert, Yowshien Kuo, Johanna Mirabel, Demarco Mosby, Ludovic Nkoth, Collins Obijiaku, and Zéh Palito have joined the fold. Each brings a distinct 'language' of painting incorporating elements of surrealism, portraiture, and abstraction, expressing the complexities of race, gender, humanity, and memory. Additionally, the newest members to the program include two artists inspired by the landscape, Connie Harrison creating dense abstracted gardens both painted and excavated from oil and wax layers, and Francesco Pirazzi harnessing the mysterious nature of light in a surrealist style, with both artists debuting their solo shows later this year.

When viewed collectively, the artworks in Fifteen Years narrate a tale of the strength of Luce's program and the significance of the gallerist-artist relationship. Here, their devotion to creation is matched with our belief in their talent and abilities. We would also like to reserve a moment to thank our collectors—small and institutional—who have supported both our artists and this gallery's vision every step of the way. Thank you for joining Luce Gallery as we embrace this milestone with open arms and toast to now and to the next Fifteen Years! Salute!

Dominic Chambers (American, b.1993) is a New Haven-based artist originally from St. Louis, Missouri. He paints introspective scenes that illustrate both the interior and exterior self and how this duality co-exists using a bold, vibrant palette. Chamber's surrealist-inspired work draws on both historical and art historical references and is grounded in his experiences as a Black man.

Ryan Cosbert (American, b.1999) is a Brooklyn-based conceptual artist working in abstraction. Her work draws from her Haitian and Guyanese heritage, humanistic experiences, self- expression, political issues, and rigorously researched historical narratives of the African diaspora. Cosbert skillfully explores the repercussions of subjugation and oppression experienced by the Black community, often shedding light on overlooked Black historical figures, shared experiences, and profound beliefs.

Robert Davis (American, b.1970) was born in Virginia and currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. His hyperrealistic paintings and drawings depict nostalgic scenes from the 1970s, often recalling images from popular culture or his vivid childhood memories. Davis' work invites viewers to reflect on the past, encouraging them to form deep personal connections to the subjects and spaces he portrays.

Derek Fordjour (American, b.1974) is an interdisciplinary artist of Ghanaian heritage who works across painting, sculpture, collage, video/film, and installation. Inspired by athletes, musicians, performers, and other Black cultural creators, Fordjour's artworks explore the vast physical possibilities of the human body while anchoring each subject within a broad social commentary. His works feature colorful, textural surfaces paired with energetic subjects, creating a seamless blend of physicality and conceptuality that evokes complex emotions.

Connie Harrison (British, b.1993) is a painter based in London who specializes in vibrant abstracted landscapes. Her technique involves overlaying multiple compositions of oil paint and wax, which she then carves to reveal underlying depths. This process serves as a metaphor for nature's natural rhythms and life cycles. As Harrison works, different parts of the surface evolve in texture, opacity, and color, creating movement and adding physical depth to the painting, as if simulating growth.

Yowshien Kuo (American, b.1985) is a St. Louis-based painter whose surrealist work blends his experiences as a Taiwanese American with historical references that comment on social and racial inequality, cultural constructs, sexuality, and the human condition. Incorporating Asian- American figures with American Western undertones, Kuo conveys universal experiences and traditions through detailed narratives and symbolism.

Hugo McCloud (American, b.1980) is a self-taught artist based in Los Angeles. Drawn to unconventional materials, he creates detailed representational works using his technique of 'painting' with single-use plastic bags that fuse industrial products with traditional painting, collage, and printmaking techniques. By using ubiquitous materials like single-use plastic, both McCloud's materials and subject matter directly address issues of labor, geopolitics, and environmental concerns, providing us with a deeper connection to our humanity.

Johanna Mirabel (French, b.1991) is a Paris-based painter whose work explores the intimate connection between our inner thoughts and interior spaces. By combining symbolic hues, tropical plants, household objects, and suggestions of exterior spaces with detailed portraits, the artist creates deeply intimate works that explore the immersive and transportive experience of recalling a memory. Her work draws from her French Guyanese and Martinique-Guadalupe heritage, sociological and philosophical writings, and historical references to Western art.

Peter Mohall (Swedish, b.1979) is a Swedish-born, Norwegian-based artist working in painting. His work explores the history and medium of painting as a subject and how each element contributes to our rich emotional experiences. His scenes of leisure, with picturesque Scandinavian backdrops, are painted on tactile jute surfaces with rich, palpable colors. Mohall further invites viewers into his artistic process by neatly arranging each color from his palette onto his signature acrylic brushstroke casts.

Demarco Mosby (American, b.1991) is a New York City-based figurative painter originally from Kansas City, Missouri. His work is narrative-based and uses the human figure to mirror and reveal the weight and complexity of life's everyday tribulations. By incorporating his symbolic vocabulary of objects like birds, ropes, rocks, and tumultuous landscapes into each composition, Mosby creates layered narratives that aptly visualize the complexity and disorientation of our emotional states.

Ludovic Nkoth (Cameroonian-American, b.1994) is a Cameroonian-American painting artist who now lives and works in New York. Known for fluid figurative works created with undulating heavy brushstrokes, Nkoth infuses his personal life as a Black immigrant with ruminations on family history, tradition, and the legacy of colonialism onto the canvas to manifest the essence of the Black experience.

Collins Obijiaku (Nigerian, b.1995) is a self-taught artist based in Abuja, Nigeria. He employs portraiture to examine the depths, truths, and complexities of humanity, using friends, family, and locals as his sitters. Each expressive gaze is further accentuated by his signature winding charcoal line work, which weaves throughout the sitter's face, reminiscent of 'mapping' their life journey.

Zéh Palito (Brazilian, b.1986) is a figure painter whose vibrant, joyful works celebrate Black culture. With studios in both Baltimore, MD, and Sao Paulo, Brazil, Palito researches neglected histories and gives them visibility in the canon, with each figure represented as a confident protagonist. His work is embedded with details referencing popular culture and traditional Brazilian fruits and flora to further radiate both beauty and joy.

Francesco Pirazzi (Italian, b.1994) is a painting and drawing artist who lives and works in Turin, Italy. His surreal yet quiet Italian-inspired land and cityscapes explore the profound power of light, using it to refocus the viewer's experience of reality to evoke both familiar and mysterious sensations.

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Luce Gallery is delighted to announce our inaugural exhibition of 2024, titled Passages. This group show will feature new works by nine exceptionally talented international artists including: Mary Shangyu Cai, Dante Cannatella, Alice Faloretti, Alya Hatta, Yeonsu Ju, Rômulo Avi Oliveira, Shanee Roe, Jake Walker and Demetrius Wilson. Commencing January 25th, this exhibition brings together paintings that explore the pathways connecting realism and abstraction, both stylistically and conceptually. Passages aims to explore the fluidity of artistic style and viewpoint, unveiling the factors that grant artists the freedom to be guided by life experiences and inspiration.

Like a corridor passing through an entrance toward an exit, the title Passages poetically describes the open path between two distinct schools of artistic practice and thought— abstraction and realism. Within this ‘passage’ there is freedom of movement, to head forward, reverse, or pause at some point in between. The crucial aspect, however, is to keep this pathway open for exploration and to keep one’s artistic practice receptive to all available tools and disciplines. As Philip Guston once aptly stated, "This serious play which we call art can’t be static... you have to keep learning how to play as modern artists. That's our fate, constant change."

As artists grapple with the myriad dimensions of life, there are times when full abstraction becomes indispensable to an artist’s practice, as exemplified by British artist Jake Walker. In his paintings we witness an energetic frenzy of brushstrokes taking the form of dashes, streamers, comets, and dabs, all dancing to an unheard rhythm across the canvas. Walker's compositions astutely capture key evidence of the body moving through space and envisions what line weight, length, and hue would best describe each dance step.

In other instances, the creation of artworks leans more towards figuration to manifest more complex and abstract concepts. In Yeonsu Ju’s Sealed With a Kiss, we encounter a self-portrait of the artist seated, her mouth agape as if ready to speak, holding up a rectangular object close to her face as if presenting it to the viewer. Here, the artist creates a space not only to mourn and remember her departed loved ones, but also to emphasize the discomfort of acknowledging those feelings. Ju introduces this subtle unease with the candelabra in the foreground engulfed by flames and burning red hot.

When considered collectively, the paintings in this exhibition converge to create these metaphorical Passages, accentuating the fluidity of style and concept among contemporary artists. Viewers are urged to transcend the constraints of traditional artistic genres, and instead reflect on the interplay between form and emotion. This contemplation allows for a deeper understanding of why an artist chose to embrace a particular style and welcomes you to explore the many Passages.

Mary Shangyu Cai (1999, Beijing, China) is a painting artist based in London, UK, whose dynamic work explores the relationship between humanity and landscapes, celebrating the unity of living beings. Influenced by nature and literature, Shangyu is known for her vibrant use of light- derived hues, emphasizing hope, vitality, and the ethereal allure of landscapes.

Dante Cannatella (1992, New Orleans, United States) is a figurative painter originally from New Orleans and currently residing in Brooklyn. His paintings embrace an imaginative version of reality derived from personal experiences, memories, and dreams. Rooted in the landscapes of South Louisiana, his work portrays emotive figures through tactile paint and illusionary light, exploring relationships and narratives with an intuitive, improvisational approach.

Alice Faloretti (1992, Brescia, Italy) is a contemporary artist based in Venice, Italy. Her vibrant kaleidoscopic landscapes investigate the intricate relationship between humans and their surrounding environment. Through a dynamic dialogue between paint, drawing, and digital, Faloretti explores episodes of personal and collective experiences, intertwining the concrete and the imaginary to form new connections.

Alya Hatta (1999, Malaysia) is an interdisciplinary artist based in both London, England and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Her work delves into her Southeast Asian identity, portraying the colorful intimacies of the diasporic human condition through personal experiences and memories. Utilizing both paint and locally sourced found objects, Hatta creates alternate realities in a quest to find new spaces she can call home.

Yeonsu Ju (1995, South Korea) is a painting artist currently living and working in London, UK. She sees painting as an imaginary space where we can meet lost loves. She repeatedly portrays dining scenes, she consider herself as a host who invites people in order to meet them. She further represents herself within the canvas as a figure of multiple forms.

Rômulo Avi Oliveira (1992, Sorocaba, Brazil) is an abstract artist living and working in London, UK. His vibrant tactile paintings explore movement, alchemy, and transformation. Through unconscious mark-making, opposing colors, and the layering and removal of gesso and paint, Oliveria works serve as a poignant reminder to appreciate fleeting moments and the impermanence of life.

Shanee Roe (1996, New York, United States) is an Israeli artist who lives and works in Berlin. Roe's figurative paintings delve into interpersonal situations, exploring various modes of intimacy, from bare nudity to misery and passion. Through her work, she exposes the complex power relations between genders, navigating the spectrum from blatant sexuality to compassion.

Jake Walker (London, United Kingdom) is a multidisciplinary artist and DJ based in London, UK, whose practice spans ballet, video, sound, drawing, and painting. His exploration of the dynamics of body movement and its interplay with diverse artistic mediums is evident in his abstract paintings. Using textured brushstrokes, Walker visually translates sound and movement into rhythmic and colorful visuals on canvas.

Demetrius Wilson (1996, Boston, Massachusetts, United States) is a New York-based artist hailing from Boston, MA. Working in abstraction, his paintings explore the interplay of stillness and activity, embracing impermanence while narrating stories through evolving colors. Wilson's work challenges visual perception by distorting rather than blending past and present, with adaptation and the linguistic relationships of color emerging as central themes.

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