Kasmin set to open Mark Yang's first solo exhibition with the gallery
The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Friday, November 22, 2024


Kasmin set to open Mark Yang's first solo exhibition with the gallery
Mark Yang, Phthalo Reverie, 2023.



NEW YORK, NY.- Kasmin announced Mark Yang’s first solo exhibition with the gallery. A suite of new paintings by Yang will be on view at 297 Tenth Avenue from January 11 through February 17, 2024, showcasing recent technical and thematic developments in Yang’s painting practice.

Ambiguity remains a pervading theme in Yang’s hallmark compositions of intertwining body parts that explore the nuances of human interaction. Evading clear assignments of gender, Yang’s figures resist the throes of a totalizing narrative. Yang realizes his new, boldly colorful figures by staining raw canvas with thin, transparent layers of oil paint. Layer after layer, Yang develops full-bodied fields of color that ground his figures in their liminal settings, before defining their backgrounds and shadows. Using techniques associated with the history of abstraction, but departing from the typical use of synthetic acrylics, Yang’s staging of his compositions amplifies a sense of conviction and immediacy often found in drawings onto canvas. Yang’s approach to the line as a tool to build his compositions is akin to that of a draftsman, seen in his dynamic applications of charcoal after the process of staining, which further provide striking delicacies and subtle textures. Yang’s improvisational color pairings reflect an exploratory drive that undergirds his signature mash-up of body parts and limbs. As the artist has stated, “I’m not interested in rendering. I’m more interested in bold colors.”

Yang’s new works see the artist developing the environs of his paintings. Since moving from New York City to New York’s Hudson Valley in 2023, Yang’s paintings increasingly reference nature, as seen in a lively network of tree branches in Sleeping Couple (2023) or in a distant mountain range in Birth (2023). Several works feature circles or semicircles that suggest the sun or moon, rising or setting above a horizontal figure in Asleep (2023) or floating in the frame of an open window in Life (3) (2023), a nod to the rectangular forms of Robert Motherwell’s seminal “Open” paintings. Imbued with a newfound autobiographical impulse, these paintings routinely make reference to Yang’s own life, made most explicit in the figure of a child in Kelly’s Colors for a Larger Wall (2023), realized in the year since the birth of Yang’s first son in 2023.

This body of work expands Yang’s repertoire of art historical references forward in time. Previously invoking Old Masters from Michelangelo to Peter Paul Rubens, Yang’s new paintings allude to the existentialist queries of Francis Bacon while recalling the postwar abstractions of Ellsworth Kelly. The child in Kelly’s Colors for a Larger Wall is positioned before a wall patterned with a brightly colorful grid, instancing a dialogue with Kelly’s Colors for a Large Wall (1951), on view at MoMA. Meanwhile, Phthalo Reverie (2023), the largest work in the exhibition, features an array of anonymous legs and torsos apprehended in a sea of blue, green, and purple; beneath their bodies lie their shadows, glowing with pink contours that offer a sense of foreboding, calling to mind a device often found in Bacon’s major works. Precipitating a new direction in his practice, Yang’s shadows suggestively mimic the shape of the figures, but are brushed with a weight that insists on a form all their own.

Mark Yang

Mark Yang’s colorful, incongruous arrays of anonymous limbs entangled together investigate the nuances of human interaction through a critical lens of art history. Morphing and distorting idealized figures into conglomerates of body parts, Yang’s forms exhibit a sculptural quality, the result of the artist’s thoughtful rendering of plane, dimension, and space. Reducing, dismantling, and reassembling their limbs almost to the point of abstraction with a variety of painterly techniques, Yang creates characteristically mysterious compositions that are not immediately forthcoming with their narrative plot.

With a comprehensive set of art historical references, from the Baroque compositions of Peter Paul Rubens to the postwar abstractions of Ellsworth Kelly, Yang’s anatomical abstractions have been praised for their complication of gender norms. Yang’s ambiguous bodily arrangements rarely depict his figures’ faces, prioritizing their bodies over their identities. Resisting homogenizing classifications, Yang calls attention to shifting cultural conceptions of masculinity between South Korea, where Yang was born, and the United States, where he was raised.










Today's News

January 8, 2024

For Dizzy Gillespie, Queens was the place to be and to bop

2000...miles to the edge: The Kasper König Donation on view at Museum Ludwig

Last chance to see: Matt Phillips’ solo exhibition at Anna Zorina Gallery

At 95, this designer has never been out of fashion

Solo exhibition of new paintings by Markus Amm to be opened at David Kordansky

'Books: A Group Exhibition' now open at Paula Cooper Gallery

Now open: Sandra Cinto, "May I Know How to be the Sun on Cloudy Days" at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery

The voice of the subway speaks for herself, at last

Saul Leiter centennial exhibition on view at Howard Greenberg Gallery + book

Amon Carter Museum of American Art names Michaela Haffner Assistant Curator of Paintings, Sculpture, and Works on Paper

Heidi Bucher's 1st solo exhibition in China on view at Red Brick Art Museum in Beijing

Painted walls, canvases and works on paper by Jean-Michel Alberola on view at Templon

Giacomo Piussi museum exhibit in Florence, Italy

With 'Good Grief,' Daniel Levy goes from laughs to tears

Taraji P. Henson is tired of fighting

Overlooked No More: Cordell Jackson, elder statesperson of rock 'n' roll

Nassima Landau Art Foundation fundraising exhibition Spectrum of Lights on display until February 15

Kasmin set to open Mark Yang's first solo exhibition with the gallery

New paintings by Greg Drasler on view until January 27th at Betty Cuningham Gallery

"Double Feature: Tarek Lakhrissi" opens at the Julia Stoschek Foundation

The NYPD dance team walks the beat and feels it too

'Vibeke Tandberg: Yippee-ki-yay! Narratives beyond grasp or control' opens at OSL contemporary

Portland Art Museum 2024 season spans Monet and Matisse to futuristic sneaker design

Sakshi Gallery presents 'We are meant to survive... beyond our stories' by Rekha Rodwittiya

Photo Custom Paint by Numbers ; Mastering the Art of Choosing the Perfect Photo

Drummer of the Month - Yahli Ambus: The Beat Behind Israel's Music Scene




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez
Writer: Ofelia Zurbia Betancourt

Attorneys
Truck Accident Attorneys
Accident Attorneys
Holistic Dentist
Abogado de accidentes
สล็อต
สล็อตเว็บตรง

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site Parroquia Natividad del Señor
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful