Dossier de presse - Press release

 

ASIAN ART BRIDGE Paris

www.asianartbridge.com        

Pop-up Exhibition ”Polar Voids" 

      ioi Choi x Hoai Phuong 

           The series “Asian Art on the Rise” 

       

 

                                                  16, 17 galerie de Montpensier, 75001 Paris

                01.04.2024 – 10.04.2024

                              11:00 – 20:00

      except 03.04.2024: open till 18:00

 

Vernissage: 01.04.2024 at 19:00 (RSVP only)

Performance: electronic musician Luong Hue Trinh x artist ioi Choi

 

----

<< "Asian Art on the Rise" is a series of events by Asian Art Bridge gallery to honor the strong development of contemporary & modern Asian art and the talent of Asian artists in France and Europe. We want to popularize the concepts of diverse arts and cultures from Asian countries into the European art scene. The Asian art scene cannot be restricted to China’s and Japan’s, but expands to Korea, Vietnam, Macau, Thailand, or down to South Asia such as Afghanistan, India, etc.>>

-Curator: Linh Ann-

 

POLAR VOIDS 

Le vide de deux pôles opposés

Asian Art Bridge is pleased to present the Exhibition "Polar Voids", the opening exhibition for the "Asian Art on the Rise" series.

 

"Polar Voids" is a duo exhibition by Vietnamese artist, Hoai Phuong - who specializes in watercolor painting with hand-dyed artisanal paper and Chinese ink - with Macau artist Ioi Choi - a dancer, choreographer and also a painter, that takes place from  April 1st to April 10th 2024 in Palais Royal, Paris.

 

In this exhibition, one draws everything in detail and collects energy into a, or some, black holes. At the opposite side, the other person's works radiate a lot of energy from the body with a “void” – an emptiness of her thought or the liberation of her mind onto a large canvas surface. That’s the reason we combine both into “Polar Voids”. Two completely opposite poles share their own black hole.

 

If “The void” in Ioi’s artwork symbolizes the liberation of the mind, where body, color and consciousness fuse together, akin to the synthesis of all colors to create the perception of white, the art of Hoai-Phuong is her polar. It is the void of silent and reticent sorrow. Akin to the motif “memento mori” which is a reminder of death and the impermanent nature of life, this series of works is a reminder of the deep void within our mental landscapes.

Even Ioi is the opposite of Phuong, drawing completely spontaneously depending on the color layers that follow his choreography. But in the end, the paintings of ioi and Phuong are complementary in color and frequency. Both have their own definition of VOID by themselves.

----

Hoai Phuong’s Artworks 

TOCCATA VUOTO (Chạm vào hư vô) is the name for Phuong’s mini-series which comprises of 4 paintings. Toccata, rooted in the Italian “Toccare”, means “to touch”, also representing a musical form for keyboard instruments, written in a free style that is characterized by full chords, rapid runs, high harmonies, and other virtuoso elements designed to show off the performer's “touch.” And Vuoto is the Italian equivalent to “Void” in English. This is the artist’s symphony, exploring various states of emptiness in our mortal life. 

“The Artificial abyss” 

Size: 77 x 40 cm

Material: Ink on natural-dyed Fabriano Artistico 600gsm

----

ioi’s Artworks

The process of representing the body as an archive of movement involves mixing earth pigments with vegetable oil to create paint. The mixture is then applied to every surface of her body. Since Ioi works primarily on large scaled canvases spread out on the floor, there is enough space to swim across, performing a series of floorwork focusing on the body - its contractions, bends, rolls, and stretches. In the series titled “MIRRORS” & “SILHOUETTES", ioi expresses a journey of the human body as the starting point in relation to matter. Each chapter’s title provides a guideline to explore a spiritual aspect of existence. Each image is an invitation to accept the forms that surface in the viewer’s mind’s eye. Much like a Rorschach test, each piece remains meaningless without its viewers’ perception of its seemingly abstract forms. 

 “Self"

195 x 97 cm

Earth pigments , olive oil in canvas.

 

  

* ioi Choi is a dancer by nature, a choreographer by training, a painter who uses the dancing body as a medium. She studied classical Chinese dance from childhood until age 18. She later graduated from Broadway Dance Center, New York and Paris College of Art, Paris. She currently lives in Paris.

* Hoai Phuong is hailing from Saigon, Vietnam and is now based in Bologna, Italy.  She graduated from a B.F.A in Graphic Design, Southwestern Oklahoma State University, OK, USA.