NEW YORK, NY.- GR gallery announces the exhibition 'Neon Dust', featuring new artworks by Chino Amobi, Jebila Okongwu, Juan Cuéllar Costa and Lim Kaye. This show will present a total of 16 paintings, including works on canvas and on paper, openly resonating with the apprehension of dystopian and cyberpunk aesthetics, which feel increasingly realistic with the latest development of AI technology nowadays.
Through the contingent blending of the auto-machine based process and the anti romantic conception of a human-machine hybrid, visitors find themselves suddenly immersed in a blurry, densely rational void. This environment continuously evokes the visualization of a society standing in a liminal dimension set in between existence and dystopia, freewill and constraint, cybertechnology and low-life. In this context, GR gallery introduces a series of artworks that explicitly connect with themes of post apocalyptic and cyberpunk fiction aesthetically softened by Pop-inspired, bright and graphic allusions, suggesting hope and healing solutions.
Chino Amobi, creates immersive worlds with, robotic visuals and graphic-like colors. His compositions evoke an alternate universe—both strange and familiar—where reality unravels, beings dissolve, and pink neon lights illuminate cyberpunk nights. Jebila Okongwu expresses an influential curiosity about industrial low life prediction that is close to our daily life and the question of the result of human’s action on the developed society. Juan Cuéllar Costa’s paintings, with their solid graphic structures, paradoxically reflect an unbalanced social reality, addressing economic issues through ghost-like figures that evoke a loathing for violent eras. Lim Kaye’s imagery evokes a mechanical-like creature in her compositions—monochromatic, soulless, flat, cruel, and bold—while also suggesting a living, kinetic machine coexisting with humankind.
In the context of Neon Dust, the four featured artists explore the anxiety surrounding automated environments together with social and economic exploitation. Through their sharp observations, GR gallery seeks to highlight the dual nature of technological development and examines the impact of automated futurism on contemporary art, particularly as science advances in diverse directions.
Chino Amobi (b. 1984) is an American experimental electronic musician, contemporary artist, director, and co-founder of the independent record label NON Worldwide. He worked in the fields of painting and sound design in the past, and has released albums like Airport Music for Black Folk (2016) and Paradiso (2017) which explore themes of the Global South, intercontinental security, post- apocalyptic narratives and Afro-pessimism. Amobi has exhibited internationally, including solo and group presentations at Sow and Tailor, Los Angeles (2021), Fitzpatrick Gallery, Paris (2022), Meredith Rosen Gallery, New York (2022), Von Ammon and Co. Washington DC. (2023), New Image Art, Los Angeles ( 2023), Gladstone Gallery, New York, 2024, Nahmad Contemporary, New York, 2024. He has staged performances and exhibited institutionally at MoMA, New Museum, ICA London, ICA Richmond, Museum of Modern Art, Moscow, KW Institute, Berlin,Tufts University, Boston, Wesleyan University, Connecticut and the Museum of Contemporary Art of the African Diaspora, New York amongst others.
Jebila Okongwu (b. 1975) was born in London and then raised in Nigeria and Australia, Okongwu currently lives and works in Rome. He received a BA in Visual Art from Monash University and a Graduate Diploma in Fine Art from the University of Melbourne. His work has been exhibited at prominent international institutions including the Schlossmuseum, Linz, Austria (2020), the American Academy in Rome (2015), the Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte, Naples (2014), and the MACRO Museum of Contemporary Art, Rome (2013). His work is featured in the recently released ‘100 Sculptors of Tomorrow’ published by Thames and Hudson, and 'Graphite Interdisciplinary Arts Journal' published by the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles.
Juan Cuéllar Costa (b. 1967) is a Spanish artist, works and lives in Valencia. His work explores the 50's decade as the end and beginning of modernity. His new work, Gasoline is White mixes gas stations, schematic figures of KKK and addresses issues such as the supremacy of economic power and the Oil Crash situation to explore topics which are linked to a paradoxical, enigmatic and metaphysical social reality. Cuellar Costa has at least 9 solo shows and 28 group shows over the last 22 years. From the first verified exhibition 'Noi 1' at Institut français Napoli in Naples in 2002, Juan Cuellar Costa is not only featured in Spain, but also has exhibitions in Italy, Portugal and elsewhere. Juan Cuellar Costa’s art is in at least 3 museum collections, at Institut Valencim d'Art Modern (IVAM) in Valencia and ARTIUM - Basque Museum Center of Contemporary Art in Vitoria-Gasteiz among others.
Lim Kaye (b. 1999) currently works and lives primarily in Hong Kong and Hangzhou. Lim obtained a Bachelor's degree in Chinese Painting from the China Academy of Art in 2021, followed by a Master's degree from the Research Studio in Figure Painting at the same institution in 2024. Lim’s practice explores materiality within the symbolic world through collection and recombination, utilizing ink and wash on Chinese rice paper wet-mounted on board. Lim has participated in group exhibitions internationally, primarily in East Asia, including Korea, Japan, and Taiwan.
