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Nicola Vassell Gallery (138 10th Avenue, New York) is pleased to present “Julia Chiang: Salt on Our Skin.” Julia Chiang paintings are created from a meditative process allowing her to slow time and make mental space for opportunities that might emerge instinctively while at work. The exhibition will be on View January 12 through February 25, 2023 with an opening January 12 from 6:00 to 8:00 PM.
The latest Julia Chiang paintings and ceramics expand a point of view frequently scrutinized in her practice: the oscillating pressure of internalized tenderness against external detachment.
The body is the foundation for Julia Chiang paintings and ceramics. In recent years, her approach expanded to include new corporeal allegories and plots. Fresh vibrant hues cite neon pigments often seen in medical scans, recounting her maternal experiences. Formally, organic shapes coalesce on the picture plane in varying densities of watercolor wash, and with amoebic fervor, scrimmage for territory. These new developments describe personal introspection and the ubiquity of turmoil.
As an attentive materialist, Julia Chiang recognizes bodily connections to her chosen media. Her vessels are swollen, fragile, and slightly deflated, attempting to contain while resisting external forces. Clay endures multiple transformations during the ceramic process, fluctuating between a fragility and strength that mimic the impermanence of our own vigor. This push and pull exists similarly in her paintings. Their spatial relationships are enriched by surfaces on which paint reveals and hides in its own layers.
Julia’s awareness and tolerance are what enable her to alter shrouded emotions, trauma, and sensations. Her work posits that we are all vessels for embodied turbulence—endlessly expressing inside and outside, and connected by all of our bits.
About the Artist
Julia Chiang (b. 1978) lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. She received her degree in Art History and Studio Art from New York University. Her work has been widely exhibited internationally.
About Nicola Vassell Gallery
Nicola Vassell Gallery is a contemporary art gallery committed to discourse that widens the lens of the history and future of art. Its focus is on developing an inter-generational, cross-disciplinary program of international artists and thinkers.
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