Current Space is proud to present “To Go Faster,” an exhibition of works by Ashling Han, Maren Henson, Lehna Huie, Haomin Peng, Anxiong Qiu, Jennet Thomas, and Haochen Zhao; curated by Tado Art Centre in collaboration with MICA NFAT Media. Please join us for the opening reception!
Opening Reception: August 19th, 7-10pm
Exhibition Duration: August 19th – September 11th
Gallery Hours: Fridays & Saturdays, 1-5pm, during Garden Bar hours, or by appointment.
A constant mix of acceleration and deceleration defines our era of pushing forward yet ceaselessly returning. Contemporary culture has become a scene of excess, oppression, and nihilism in this context. As for contemporary art, it is a witness of the contradictory moment, transforming the conflicts and anxieties of different latitudes into subjective experience, helping the contemporary subjects adjust to the competing yet incoherent forces in contemporary society.
“To Go Faster” explores the power of “faster” in contemporary art practice and critiques the anomalous state of human society as a result of “deliberate” accelerated growth.
The exhibition creates a dialogue between young student artists and senior artists who are recognized in the industry. Through such dialogue, we can recognize the force/power of “Faster” in current art practice and think about our art as artificial method’s subjects deal with the anomalous state of human society as a result of deliberate accelerated growth.
This exhibition is curated by TADO ART CENTRE in collaboration with MICA NFAT Media. Tado Arts is an arts organization headquartered in London with branches in New York and Shanghai. It aims to provide a platform for global artists to promote the development of contemporary art and design. MICA Art Thought club promotes art through works and words from graduating MICA students and professional artists, archiving and sharing artists’ interviews and studio visits to inspire others. Curating art exhibitions is also part of their mission to promote the local artists and bring different cultures and visions together globally.
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Ashling Han
Chunyu Ashling Han graduated with her BA in biology science from Chongqing Medical University, China, and worked in a hospital for a decade. She never practiced art before, until she immigrated to America years ago. Art gives her second life. As a mix-media artist, she explores ceramics, sculpture, fiber, video, sound, photography, performance, and research. Through multiple media, she incorporates figures into her work influenced by her medical background. Art is research for her to explore the world and find her own identity in various cultures.
She is currently studying for her MFA in Mount Royal at MICA, where she received the highest Meri scholarship. Collaborating art with psychology and neuroscience is her future practice direction. Art is an essential component of the function of our society and humanity.
Maren Henson
As the concealed artifacts behind historical conspiracies become public information, Maren Henson reexamines the role of conspiracy and how it has shaped American culture. These videos, drawings, and sound installations examine how cultural narratives are manipulated and controlled. She received her Master of Fine Art degree in the Mount Royal School of Multidisciplinary Art at the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2017. Maren is a Janet and Walter Sondheim Prize Finalist, where she was awarded a residency at the Bromo Seltzer Arts Tower. She has exhibited work in New York, Boston, LA, Puerto Rico, Maryland, and Texas. Maren currently lives and works in Baltimore, Maryland.
Lehna Huie
Lehna Huie is a multi-disciplinary artist, educator, and cultural worker of Jamaican heritage who was born and raised in New York City. She is an alum of Mount Royal’s Interdisciplinary Arts program at the Maryland Institute College of Art 21’. Lehna was recently named an Artist Changemaker with the Global Fund for Women and was a participant of the Stoneleaf Retreat Art Mama’s Residency 22′. Lehna has had solo exhibitions at Meredith College – Gaddy Hamrick Art Center, The Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art, Clover’s Gallery and Flux Factory. She has participated in group shows at the Eubie Blake Jazz and Cultural Center, Colored Girls Museum, Puffin Foundation, Raw Space, and beyond. Lehna has received multiple arts residencies and awards including the Chautauqua School of Art, Space for Creative Black Imagination Makers and Research Fellowship, the Joan Mitchell Center, Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Groundswell Community Mural Project and Flux Factory. Her practice includes her work as a Legacy Specialist, preserving intergenerational artists archives and oral histories. She received her training through the Joan Mitchell Foundation Creating a Living Legacy Program.
Haomin Peng
Haomin Peng is an animation maker and media artist. In 2021, he received a BFA degree from School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he was awarded Barbara Zenner Award for outstanding New Artist in Film, Video, New Media & Animation. His work has been screened at: Annecy International Animation Film Festival, Slamdance Film Festival (with a Grand Jury Prize), Adult Swim: Off The Air, GLAS Animation Festival, New Chitose Airport Animation Festival, etc. He is now gardening using softwares.
Anxiong Qiu
Anxiong Qiu is a Chinese Asian Modern & Contemporary painter who was born in 1972. Numerous key galleries and museums such as Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg have featured Qiu Anxiong’s work in the past.
Qiu Anxiong’s recent work consists largely of paintings, animations, and video installations. In the 2006 piece The New Classic of Mountains and Oceans, for example, Qiu employs multitudes of ink drawings and links them together in an animated form. The title itself refers to the ancient Chinese mythology, Classic of the Seas and Mountains.
Jennet Thomas
Jennet Thomas makes films, performances, multimedia sculptural installations, writes experimental fictions and monologues.
Emerging from the anarchistic, experimental culture of London’s film/live art scene in the 1990’s, she was co-founder of the Exploding Cinema Collective. Her work began as spoken word performance with projections, and developed into a critical stew of filmic and performance languages. Her works have screened widely, including IFF Rotterdam, European Media Arts Festival, New York Underground Film Festival, and museums such as Tate Britain and MOMA New York.
Since 2007 her work has shown as large-scale sculptural installations that physically surround the film, sometimes with continuous live performance inside these installations. Recent solo shows include THE UNSPEAKABLE FREEDOM DEVICE at Grundy Gallery, 2015, SCHOOL OF CHANGE and All Suffering SOON TO END at Matt’s Gallery 2012 and 2010.
Haochen Zhao
Haochen Zhao (little tree) is an independent artist and illustrator graduated from MICA (Maryland Institute College of Art) in 2022.
Her current art practice is a long-term world-building project with mixed-media sculpture. Haochen makes fine art pieces as well as artistic products such as hand-made vessels and jewelry with inspirations from nature. Her recent and upcoming shows include the EVAC July Exhibition in NYC, Art for Real Ⅱ at the Boomer Gallery in London, Remote Landing in Shanghai.
Haochen’s biggest inspirations always come from nature. Deeply fascinated by the transformation of lives such as insects and plants, Haochen loves the lively and whimsical forms of the creatures. They remind her of being a flexible, soft and tolerant person and bringing comfort and vitality to others’ lives with creativity.