Opening Reception: Friday, November 10, 2017 6-8pm.
456 Gallery @ 456 Broadway, 3rd Floor, New York, 10013
An exhibition of paintings by the Icelandic artist Valgardur Gunnarsson and New York artist Ting Yih, The Mind’s Movement tracks down the varying states of mind of these artists and the creative process. Both artists employ a similar technique of layering paint on paint, color over another color, to form a wealth of densely textured background.
In his drawings, Gunnarsson stitches into the paper to create a pattern and an imagery that recalls a dream landscape. It is as if the thread of memories passing through the mind’s eye gives shape to a narrative, much like the way a child composes his imaginary world by connecting the dots in his unfettered mind. There is a sense of innocence and freedom that informs Gunnarsson’s work; it is the land of childhood that is entirely independent of everything, where the child is capable of thinking for himself, and finding beauty and joy in the everyday.
For Yih, the act of paint¬ing is akin to meditation whereby mental transformation becomes possible. Awareness is established by a process of erasing and emptying the conceptual muddleness that obstructs liberation. Yih laboriously goes through a process of overpaint only to reach a state of erasure with the swirl of a rag. By inscribing the date directly on his painting, Yih puts a stamp on his existential reality and validates the nowness that transcends self and history.