The Illusion and Reality

Ning Gallery is pleased to present their first 2019 juried group exhibition: The Illusion and Reality, featuring 18 artworks created by 14 U.S. based artists, explores the relationship between certainty and uncertainty, existence and nonexistence, reality and unreality in painting, video, sculpture, photography, mixed media, and installation. This exhibition invites the viewer to see how artists use their artworks to bridge the gap between the world of imaginations and facts.

Abe Abraham creates video-art works that feature dancers from some of the leading dance companies in the world, including New York City Ballet, Alvin Ailey, Complexions, Shen Wei, Stephen Petronio, and Dutch National Ballet. In his award-winning video work, viewers follow the abstract shape created by over 20 dancers’ movement under the soft blue light. The body contours create a series of mountainous and wavy scenes. The work is more than just showing a powerful beauty of nature; under the breathtaking images, a deep and emotional message is gently invoked.

Andrea LaRose’s sculpture investigates our material world and its digital copy. LaRose scans identifiable and familiar materials, often from architectural interiors. Scanning allows the materials to become an abstract print, merging into complicated, and often illusionist compositions which further disrupt the information and how we view it.

Michael Fadel‘s installation uses mechanical elements such as motors, gears, and other hardware to facilitate interaction between an object and a fluid. In objects’ endless and repetitive movement, the traces of water are randomly generated by a rational mechanical power. This combination makes this artwork become surreal but at the same time a visual satisfaction for the viewer.

This exhibition articulates the similarity and difference between reality and illusion in a variety of artistic forms. We can see how artists apply their incredible imagination to real world material and we can sense the influence of artists’ consciousness and subconsciousness. Ning Gallery is extremely proud of this group of artists and excited for this exhibition’s outcome.