This summer, REDSEA Gallery, Singapore, will present their ‘Summer Group Show’ exhibition featuring selected gallery artists from Korea, China, Indonesia, France and US. Running till 29 July 2016, the exhibition will comprise works representing various art disciplines (akin to the theme of the latest issue of Art Republik) including photography, painting, sculpture and ceramics. Art Republik takes a look at some of the participating artists.

Jieun Park

“A Little Talk” Dubaiby Jieun Park

Showcasing her distinctive style juxtaposing bold strokes of traditional Chinese ink calligraphy against the fine use of acrylic and metallic paint, Jieun Park’s paintings are built on her acclaimed series of cityscapes from her travels around Europe and Asia.

Zhuang Hong Yi

Flower Field, Orange Blue Green by Zhuang Hong Yi

Triggered by a fusion of yin and yang, Zhuang Hong Yi’s works combine ancient Chinese tradition with the spirit of Western modern aesthetic. The flower motif dominates Zhuang’s work – a significant image in Chinese culture which carries countless meanings and emotions yet with equally strong associations with the Netherlands, world famous for its flowers – and he works patiently and religiously on this subject year-after-year, intricately crafting his works with care and forethought. Zhuang’s well known and highly collected ‘flower bed’ works are crafted from delicate pieces of painted rice paper, which he has bent and folded into hundreds of tiny buds creating seductive, tactile works.

Cha Jong-Rye

Expose by Cha Jong Rye

Cha Jong-Rye lets her chosen material, wood, steer her practice, unveiling her inner thoughts as it takes shape through her hands. Working with it as if it were clay or paint. She layers and meticulously sands hundreds of delicate wood pieces into aesthetic contours and shapes that seemingly have no beginning or end.

Val

Méandres Urbains by Val

Val’s undeniable talent lies in creating stunning, evocative pieces that speak of life and trigger emotion and feeling in all who view them; capturing a memory, a vibration, a moment in time. Her production of contemporary sculptures continues Val’s narrative on the inspiration behind her art. Life and all its expressions find a way into her work as she carefully crafts her bronzes into pieces of sculptural poetry. Val has successfully injected a lightness of being into a metal known for its density thus creating a liberating balance between the material she works with and the emotions she feels.

Hwang Sae-Jin

Palace of Silk by Hwang Sae Jin

Korean artist Hwang Sae-Jin’s visual feast seems hard to digest at first. “When people see how my work fills the canvas, it has a dizzying effect,” says Hwang. Her tightly bunched flowers, clothes and cloth fragments ask to be disentangled, but in the confusion her statement becomes clear. Her collages are an explosion of fashion and manufactured goods. Such domestic scenes make wardrobes into microcosms of consumer desires. And despite the busy overflow, there’s an uncertainty with an emptiness that product lines cannot fill.

Dedy Sufriadi

Sale Off by Dedy Sufriadi

Dedy Sufriadi works are inspired by his life experiences, symbolic of both his own spiritual journey and the essence of a subject that moves him to paint. He uses representational imagery within each work to varying degrees. This not only creates a sense of fascination but also conveys a sense of mystery and hidden meaning. His paintings also presents broad cultural and political themes. His references to social issues are indirect and analyse national community through personal experiences and glimpses into the dilemmas of individual existence. He has endured a great deal of hardship throughout his life and this has put him in a unique position within Asian contemporary art.

Peter Steinhauer

Block #108, Singapore 2013 by Peter Steinhauer

Peter Steinhauer is a fine-art photographer who captures the very essence of his chosen subject through his attention to the surprising beauty of the seemingly ordinary. In this instance, Peter photographs Singapore’s ubiquitous HDB buildings in a series named ‘Number Blocks’ with focus on bright colourful fonts and decorative numbers.

Johnson Tsang

Starting Point IV by Johnson Tsang

With an adept understanding of ceramics and anatomy, Hong Kong-based artist Johnson Tsang creates strange and unexpected anthropomorphic sculptures. Though his works are often innocent and comical in nature, the artist is unafraid of veering into more macabre subject matter in other sculptures that grapple with war and violence. Since 2002, Johnson has continued to develop his signature ceramic splash series, collecting numerous international awards along the way.

This article was first published in Art Republik.