Aug 31 - Sept 29 | Nina K Ekman x Catherine Ruane : Guardians of the Desert
Featured Artist
Kay Seohyung Lee
Born in 1995 in Seoul, Korea, Kay Seohyung Lee grew up near the US Army Garrison Yongsan Base, immersed in the aftermath of the Korean War. Raised bilingual, she moved to the US at 14, grappling with her identity and experiencing constant otherness. Lee's work reflects absurdity, chaos, and solitude, drawing inspiration from her desires, despairs, and the complexities of her life.
In her recent "Hellscapes" series, she explores body, gender, sexuality, religion, culture, language, and relationships through diverse mediums. Lee holds a BFA from Washington University and an MFA from the University of Pennsylvania. She currently resides in Philadelphia, lecturing part-time and exhibiting internationally.
Peipei Li
Peipei Li was born in Shenyang City, China. She studied fine art MFA at California College of the Arts (2024). Currently living in San Francisco. She had her first solo exhibition: New Order at Yi Wei Gallery in April 2022. Her paintings have been exhibited in Los Angeles and San Francisco, and participated in the Art Fair in Palm Springs and SF. Currently, most of Li Peipei's creations revolve around painting. In addition, she also creates performance art and installation art.
In Peipei Li's creation, she is deeply inspired by traditional Chinese Taoist thought and integrates the Taoist story "Seven Holes of Hundun" into her paintings. She created figures with bright colors and facial features missing. For Peipei Li, she believes that a person is the purest when they are born, but this state of innocence is often ignored and denied by the world. With the process of growing up and learning, social norms gradually shape what people are recognized as "normal", just like facial features are gradually carved out of a blank face, making people gradually become unique. However, Peipei Li firmly believes that a person's most important strength comes from deep inside. Therefore, in her works, each figure means the embodiment of the true self. Their missing parts are not only facial features, but also an expression of inner strength.
Shiqing Li
Shiqing Li (李诗卿) (b.1995) is a Chinese textile artist based in New York City and California, holding a BFA from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco (2020) and an MFA from the Parsons School of Design (2023). Currently working as a Fashion Artist and Textile Designer, Shiqing's diverse artworks, spanning felting, stitching, dyeing, drawing, beading, embroidery, biomaterial, and installations, have been showcased in exhibitions across New York, Los Angeles, London, and Athens.
Shiqing Li's textile art is driven by a positive perspective, addressing societal perceptions of "negative" psychological issues. Her creations connect with individuals facing such challenges, employing traditional techniques and materials while pushing artistic boundaries through experimentation. Utilizing hand and machine sewing, beading, wool felting, dyeing, and printing, Li's colorful pieces reflect her optimistic stance on psycho-social issues. With a technical focus on crafting multi-dimensional surfaces with comfortable textures, Shiqing invites everyone warmly into her textile world.
Chen Shangping
Chen Shangping was born in Taipei, and currently lives in Shanghai. He used to be a commercial photographer and founded a commercial photography studio. After accumulating experiences in the field of commercial photography, he began to delve into black-and-white fine art photography, collaborating with travel magazines and international film libraries. Over the past years, Chen Shangping has focused on landscape photography, particularly emphasizing the use of expressive black-and-white techniques to showcase the scenery of China.
Similar to Chinese ink painting, his works exhibit a style that is both abstract and realistic, incorporating the artist's personal emotions and philosophical understanding. In recent years, his collection of works featuring Chinese landscapes has received awards in international photography competitions such as the IPA (International Photography Awards), Monochrome Photography Awards, and FAPA (Fine Art Photography Awards).
Clovis Schlumberger
Clovis Schlumberger, a Franco-American artist, holds a master's degree from the prestigious Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, France, and is based in Los Angeles and Paris. He is particularly interested in semiology and visual codes,exploring how languages are established. Inspired by Renaissance painting rules, Schlumberger experiments with the geometry of composition's impact on content perception.
His work reflects a struggle between escapism and the real world, often depicting figures in a digital desert. The enigmatic shapes in his art symbolize the tension between guidance and seduction, inviting viewers to project their desires and fears onto the ambiguous forms. Schlumberger's vibrant, pop art-inspired visuals explore the paradox of modern reliance on technology, using universal and inclusive representations.
Jin Ting
Jin Ting, born in Yining, Xinjiang, is currently based in Shanghai. As a photographer, Jin Ting is dedicated to reflecting the changes of the times through his works. By capturing different landscapes, he presents certain memories at the turning points of the era and uses them as a bridge to the future. When Jin Ting was one year old, he returned to his ancestral hometown of Wenling, Zhejiang, with his grandmother and lived there until he graduated from junior high school. The memories of his childhood, especially the local mountains and rivers, have influenced his later creations. In his view, whether it's the small discarded objects in daily life or the remnants of the industrial age, he hopes to give them meaning through his lens.
Jin Ting began using infrared photography techniques in 2012 to create a surreal atmosphere. Since 2013, his works have been selected for various exhibitions, including the China International Photography Art Exhibition, Shanghai International Photography Art Exhibition, and Shanghai Photography Art Exhibition. In 2018, he was honored with the Top Ten Images Award by "Popular Photography" magazine. In 2020, his series "Remnants of Time" won the Grand Prize at the Pingyao International Photography Festival in China.
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.
Recently, Momo wrote and directed Penglai, an animated short film narrated by Scarlet Johannsen and produced by Illumination / Universal Pictures. She is also an Inductee into the Asian Hall of Fame for her trailblazing art and creative work in the U.S. and China.
Ye Wenlong
Ye Wenlong (b.1979) is an independent photographer based Zhejiang, China. He started teaching himself photography while in high school, and is now a member of the Chinese Fine Art Photography Association. Working with a digital medium format camera, Ye focuses on Eastern style landscape photography. He has exhibited in museums and galleries worldwide, and has won the Chinese Academy of Photography award, the highest award in the Chinese fine art photography field.
Ye's photographs are inspired by traditional Chinese landscape painting, as well as by Eastern-style landscape photography. His black and white images are shot in nature during the winter months. While his focus is trees and their surroundings, it is the integration of the winter snow that adds a layer of abstraction to the works. In his images, he takes advantage of the cameras ability to flatten the picture plane into areas that become negative and positive spaces, turning the physical world into a blend of abstraction and representation.