Aug 31 - Sept 29 | Nina K Ekman x Catherine Ruane : Guardians of the Desert
CABINET OF CURIOSITIES
Curated by Corinne Chaix
Group Exhibition of
Aaron Kramer, Carla Danes, L.Mikelle Standbridge, Lynn Hanson, Mark X Farina, Michelle Robinson, Momo Wang, Swinda Reichelt, and Thomas Hollier
To celebrate Yiwei Gallery's second anniversary in its Venice Beach location, we are pleased to announce our forthcoming exhibition: Cabinet of Curiosities. This group exhibition features the works of nine artists from diverse backgrounds and artistic disciplines.
Since its establishment, Yiwei Gallery has remained steadfast in its mission to promote artists and curators from a broad spectrum of cultural origins and practices.
“Cabinet of Curiosities" includes nine artists, each distinguished by their unique artistic practices, and pays homage to the curiosity and fascination developed by collectors during the Renaissance era. Our gallery space has been meticulously transformed into a contemporary cabinet of curiosities, its scenography aims to present the combined works as curiosities and create an experience evoking a sense of wonder and fantasy.
Exhibition Duration: September 30 - October 29, 2023
Opening Reception: Saturday, September 30, 2 - 5 pm
About the Artists
Aaron Kramer
Aaron Kramer is an artist who has been working with recycled and reclaimed materials for over 20 years. By exploring the intersection between the found and fabricated in his sculptural work he seeks a deeper understanding of the transcendent nature of ordinary objects.
Carla Danes
Carla Danes explores material and colors within her works, creating and pushing the forms and content of each of her pieces. By doing so, she is also exploring the relation that objects, shapes, and colors have with one another and how they can change and influence each other as well, making her pieces transformative and inventive.
Some other ideas that show up in Danes's work are technology, fashion, culture and art history, philosophy, and gender identity.
L.Mikelle Standbridge
L. Mikelle Standbridge thoughtfully narrates personal stories about her subject’s embodiment. Varying in size and shape, her delicate one-of-a-kind pieces are derived from the reconfiguration of photographic prints, exploring a paper that the artist refers to as “pulpy, pierceable, stitchable, and flexible.” These images are set within detailed backgrounds that explore intimacy, ensuring the connection between the subject and the maker.
Lynn Hanson
"All of my work emanates from my constant attention and visceral connection to the natural world."
Solo exhibitions include Santa Monica Museum of Art, PYO Gallery (LA and Seoul, Korea), Lora Schlesinger (Santa Monica)
Collections include Ed Ruscha (Los Angeles), Laurel and Paul Britton (New York City), Steve Jacobson (New York City), Isabelle Bscher (Gallerie Gmurzynska, Switzerland), Tim Blanks (London), San Francisco 49ers, Minnesota Vikings.
Mark X Farina
Mark X Farina is a socio pop artist and reverse engineer. Mark's studio practice uses experimental mediums to create film, paintings, silk screens, and earth-based sculptures. Work fast, cure slow, destroy before collecting dust.
Born in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania; BFA Integrated Media / Edinboro University; MFA Social Practice / Otis College of Art & Design.
Selected Awards: Studio of Distinction MFA Otis College; Artist in Residence Citeì des International Arts / Paris France
Michelle Robinson
Michelle Robinson is a multi-disciplinary artist and animator. She studied
architecture and visualization at Texas A&M University, and holds an MFA in visual
art from New Hampshire Institute of Art. She has had her work published in
Diffusion of Light, The Hand, Frames, and Precog.
Exhibition highlights include solo shows at the Dairy Center for the Arts in Boulder, CO, The Wright Gallery at Texas A&M University, and the Cecelia Coker Bell Gallery at Coker University in NC. She was awarded residencies with Kipaipai at the Joshua Tree Center for Photographic Arts in 2022 and at Playa in 2024. She has been an artist and supervisor with Walt Disney Animation Studios for over 29 years and lives in Los Angeles.
Momo Wang
Momo Wang is an animation and creative director for the entertainment studio Illumination Entertainment. She directs short films and animated content for the company’s blockbuster franchises including Minions, Despicable Me, Sing, and The Grinch.
Momo moved to Los Angeles and earned her MFA in Experimental Animation from the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) in 2014. She later founded the Momo Wang Scholarship in 2020 to support international students attending CalArts.
Her work and stories have been featured globally across major media outlets, including CNN, South China Morning Post, GQ, Elle, Cosmpolitan, Sanlian Lifeweek, Southern Weekly, and The Financial Times.
Swinda Reichelt
Nothing affects the human mood like the perfect light. Swinda Reichelt has combined her fabric sculptures with state of the art, energy efficient smart lighting.
All set-up and pre-programmed, these smart lights combined with your sculptures instantly make you the keeper of light. They give you the power to control the ambience and the perfect theme for your art.
Thomas Hollier
Thomas Hollier is an artist working with visual data to propose new aesthetic
approaches that are more relevant to the electronic medium and more accurately
reflect the chaos and contradictions of the Technocene era. In his work, immaterial data, algorithms and digital patterns collide like tectonic plates against traditional film techniques and narration codes, creating a dynamic sandbox where hints of new meanings for time, motion, loss and memory continually manifest and dissolve away.