Current Exhibitions > Milostka Center for Exhibitions > Hidden Eyes
HIDDEN EYES
HUMANS ARE CURIOUS BY NATURE
A group exhibition featuring artists from around the world
HIDDEN EYES
Through a window, behind a bush, from a bench in the park, or a table at a cafe: other people’s lives are a pretty amazing show.
Featured Artists:
Steven Allison, Einat Lev Ari, Simon Berson, Delphine Cuelenaere, Salvatore Esposito, Brenda Freires, Sila Güven, Sargis Hovhannisyan, Kely Huggins, Glenda Hydler, Sergio Iturri, Joon-young Lee, Monika Lorincova, Natia Meparishvili, Evginya Mishchenko, Tanya Momi, Ryan Sarah Murphy, Maya Pegues, Laura Prochilo, Ipung Purnomo, Carol Radsprecher, Jaime Roberts, Elena Sadica, Sona Sahakian, Eloise Schoeman, Maksim Shishou, Laura Stanca, Andre Suliana, Carys Trace, Nina Valetova
April 18th, 2022 - May 27th, 2022
OVERVIEW
Humans are curious by nature, and looking into each other's lives is a source of creativity. Though we may not be aware of it, we are all voyeurs. We obtain gratification from observing others. There is excitement in looking into other people’s lives, peeking into their worlds, guessing their stories and thoughts.
ORGANIZED BY
Emma McMullin, Director of Curatorial Affairs; Rocío Montiel, Chief Curator; Sabina Puppo, Senior Curator; Laura García, Lead Associate Curator; Danielle White, Apprentice Curator.
GRATITUDE
Corporate Giving: To sponsor "Hidden Eyes" via a personalized corporate, foundation, or individual sponsorship package, please visit www.culturallyarts.com/giving
Exhibition
Catalog
Artist Interviews
Art Talks
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VIRTUAL 3D EXHIBITION
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EXHIBITION CATALOG
Click below to explore the artists' biography and collection
AVAILABLE NOW! Catalog will be available for purchase beginning April 18th
ARTISTS
For a full interview, click on each artist's name
Instagram: stevenallisons
I am inspired by the human ability to connect. I don’t know if this is exclusive to us and not other animals, but I believe it is what makes us special. We have this innate ability to empathize, sympathize or feel for literally anything. It doesn’t have to be physical, we even get invested in concepts, and I explore this in my paintings. I focus on spirituality, mysticism, sociology, and interpersonal dynamics as well as my own personal struggles. My work is modernist and representational, I like seeing the marks build-up to create. I make absurd or strange scenes mixed with both personal and well-known symbols to make paintings that are familiar but coded.
Instagram: einat.lev.ari
I am an Israeli artist, a cognitive behavioral therapist, and an art therapist. I have always connected the mind with creativity and art. In the last year when the world had gone through big changes, I have found myself creating a lot. It is important for me that the public get to know me, that they can find a connection to their psyche through my art, and that people will appreciate my art. I use a variety of materials and techniques to express the connection between the mind and art. I work mainly with acrylic paint, fabrics, and yarns, and also assimilate prints into my paintings. I believe that artistic practice allows a symbolic realization of fantasy. Moreover, working with different genres of arts and using associations upon associations bring about a great deal of information and perspectives that shed light on an obscure truth. My works are tools of expression that enable the removal of the inner world and provide power, answers to questions, and peace of mind. Through art, I convey emotions and psychological states, tensions, and ambiguities of contemporary life. I believe in the power of art. As more people are exposed to it, its impact will increase and connect people to situations, thoughts, and feelings.
The collage/mixed media pieces begin with filling a sketchbook with a series of imagined part drawings, these are created without regard to what the final piece will be. I have developed a vocabulary of parts that on their own appear simple, but in combination, they go from a chaotic pile of drawings to an organized piece. These parts are assembled like a jigsaw puzzle but without a predetermined plan. The completed structure and addition of technological components (that were thoughtfully supplied by several technical journals), create a brain teaser for the observer. I aim for a kind of balance of curiosity and puzzlement, leaving the observer to fill in the story.
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Instagram: delphine.cuelenaere
In my work, I want to bring women together with their ideas about being a woman. Each with their strength, they are brought together in one big bomb of energy, as you can feel when you are out with many positive women or when you move in large groups. The work I make is mainly paintings by means of woodcuts. I like it when it has layers, both figuratively and literally. Layer after layer, a kind of closer connection is created with what I make. At first, I make a rough sketch of the wood and the relationship remains somewhat superficial. By cutting and adding matter to the wood and allowing it to be absorbed by the paper, a layered life is created. The anonymity of the characters is fleshed out in my imagination. Although the latter remains very vague and sometimes does not come. The process is more important and engaging to me than the product. The physical surrender when printing on a larger format, the dilemmas along the way, and the need to remove a little more with each layer. I myself fantasize about the interpretation, but it never becomes concrete or tangible.
Instagram: salvatore_esposito_artworks
These artworks are parts of a project called 'Outcast,' and represent the faces that are normally neglected and remained unseen. The method of painting is abstract/matter painting/collage; though it all serves the formation of a portrait. In one case the rear side of the canvas is also used -to reinforce the main theme of the project 'Outcast'/ 'Suburban life'.
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Instagram: brefreires
My work as an artist is multidisciplinary. I build strong communication in different ways and with different meanings. I speak through painting with the use of colors and sculptural textures. But on the other hand, I also allow myself to communicate through poetry, performance, and other pluralities. I paint about my universe, presenting myself in a real-imaginary reality at the same time. A universe does not exist without the other, I talk about my present but also about my visions of the future. A process, which I call a “timeless journey”, proposing reflections on my body, my self-image, and my daily life. The centralization of myself as a black woman crossed by concerns, affections, fears, psychological and emotional tensions.
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Instagram: silaguvenart
I am a Visual Artist from Turkey. I graduated from the University of The Arts London with a Master's degree in Visual Arts. Since my graduation, I have participated in exhibitions in the UK and across Europe, and I have an upcoming solo exhibition in my country. I work on mixed media, classical painting, and digital art. I am interested in my workspace discoveries and create paintings using materials from Earth such as soil, linen, ropes, tissues, and electronic materials. My artwork takes an interest in world History and Science. I am inspired by images taken by the Hubble Telescope. In 2019, I worked for a short time at Istanbul University to learn about genes and DNA and got to assist in an animal cloning project. Last November, I participated in the Mayes Creative Residency Program named Above and Below. We talked with NASA’s astronauts and historians to understand space research, particularly focused on the planet Mars.
Instagram: sargishovhannisyan.art
The connection between art and reality has always been one of the most widely discussed topics in history. The fact is that the work of art seems to have a somewhat illusory image, but it can merge into a person's lifestyle and even become the basis of an ontology. Art is not a direct copy of reality, but by involving the artist's imagination, it contributes to the formation of a vision of modern thinking.
Instagram: kellahugs.art
My work uses color and expressive strokes to represent my view of the world and people.
Instagram: glendahydler
Art is a self imposed construct.
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Instagram: sergioiturri_
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Instagram: illusion_night_joon
When viewers first see my work, they have many questions as they see colors mixed freely like clouds on a dark canvas. Their eyes begin to look for abstract brushstrokes to find the artist's message, but what they will find is the artist's exploration of the viewer. I ask reflective questions to the audience through my dream-like digital painting. As a result, the appreciation of people who appreciate my work varies. Visitors do not have to try to grasp the artist's intention behind the artwork. Instead, it encourages the audience to enjoy the work without restraint by projecting their thoughts and feelings into the picture. All of my works approach the audience in a stationary form, but each work breathes and moves lively under the viewer's gaze.
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Instagram: monika_lorincova
I paint mainly with acrylics, sometimes including collages, with a focus on the figurative representation of the world I live in. As a people-orientated person, the main inspiration for my work comes from observing society. Through my paintings, I examine people and places, our cultural (or media) trends and social norms, how these affect the way we try to present ourselves, but also their effect on our mental health, and the repercussions of our actions on the lives of others, as well as the nature and environment around us. I see my art as a way of reflecting on society, and recording stories that I feel are typical for the times we live in.
I take my experiences and personal struggles and translate them into the empty canvas. One of the most important aspects of my work is to empower women. I observe and paint human behavior on the canvas. I want women to regain their strength, power, and confidence. I want women to band together and unite themselves. I use acrylics and oils in order to convey my powerful message as they allow me to paint bold stories with my self-expression. I like its layering techniques and thickness as well as its blend-ability. As some of my paintings fall into the category of realism and social realism, I have come to find that realism is better depicted using oils. You can create a lot of texture using oils and that helps when it comes to realism because life can be captured through texture.
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Instagram: chakhnart
With a confused path, aging many times and as if obsessed with the feeling that the time has come to do what my inner self wants the most… I started painting when I was most in pain. The pain was so immense that my outcry became apparent to others, and they gave me the right, moreover, they told me that I should continue painting. 14 years have passed, and again – a great pain, a reassessment of the world, the countdown continued. I am most confused when being asked about my vocation… I live in two worlds: in my dreams, in my fantasies where I am constantly creating, and here in my daily life, where I am a mother, daughter, wife, friend and business woman.
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Instagram: evka_icon
As an interdisciplinary author, I write prose and icons, work with the archetypes of the Christian cult, while maintaining myself immune from the enforcement of tradition and confessional dogma. An icon for me is akin to operatic art, it is a space in which everything is hyperbole, and everything is permitted, even pathos and pathetic if the temperament of the statement allows it. And I create the already established sound of history by toning with color.
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Instagram: erickmotaart
I have consistently enjoyed working mainly with oil paints because of the freedom and flow that the medium allows. My work encapsulates psychological aspects of human tendencies, the natural world, and feelings and emotions expressed in a constant search for the best way to interpret the world in which we live. In trying to capture universal human themes such as love, death, joy, humor, spirituality, fear, birth, and the variabilities of experiences entailing altered states of consciousness or grips on reality.
Instagram: mid_night_tonight
In late 2019, I began to photograph my fellow daily commuters riding the various bus routes throughout the city. From a very close, yet discrete position, seated directly behind each individual, I would snap portraits of whoever happened to sit down in front of me. This ongoing series, titled "Passengers," includes nearly 150 photographs. I will only take someone’s picture if they are facing straight ahead or turned ever-so-slightly towards the window – I never see or record their faces. I follow this parameter in order to maintain the commuter’s basic anonymity, but mostly I am looking to capture the essence of this unknown person as they are wholly contained in their own thoughts, quietly riding through those liminal moments between bus stops and final destinations. As a “hidden” voyeur briefly observing these bus passengers through a limited VantagePoint, I can only glean so much about them, while they, in turn, are seemingly unaware of my presence and attention.
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Instagram: mayaartinsta
I work without thinking but I'm aware of what I'm painting. I build as I go and don’t try to be neat. I create, I takeaway, I plan methodically, but leave it to my subconscious, I leave it to you to create your own understanding.
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Instagram: lauraprochilomakesart
Being alive, and being uniquely human, is something that all people have a primal, archetypal understanding of. After all, the things that are often most private are also the most universal: fears, sex, dreams, secrets. It is only when we try to express these concepts, to pin the specifics to the wall, that explanations slip through our hands like a dream upon waking. Words seem clumsy and crude when we try to express truths that we know in our hearts. In this sense, the pursuit of art transcends and picks up where language leaves off. Through a variety of mediums, I am always on the hunt to create metaphors through visual means that communicate what words cannot. The world we live in is usually repetitive, often dull, and occasionally ridiculous. Inside the tedious boxes of our day-to-day lives, we can sometimes feel like we are the punchline to a cosmic joke. But every now and then, we are struck by something different and divine. When we least expect it, beauty takes us by surprise and light shines in the darkest places. It is this dichotomy that interests me the most, and in these crosshairs, the inspiration for my art is born.
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Instagram: ipung1448
My artworks depict the psychology of human beings. In this precarious time, pressures are so high and challenges lie ahead. It's crucial that human beings build their mental strength to face difficulties. The future is uncertain, yet there's no way to give up hopes.
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Instagram: cradsprecher
Utilizing forms based on the shapes and contours, the bulges and wrinkles, the cuttings and outcroppings, the smooth and the rough, the crevices and depths of the female body, I make images depicting these imagined women in various, often uncomfortable situations. All of these images emphasize and refer to interior space — the space within each print and the spaces of the mind, memory, and emotion.
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Instagram: AmendedArchives
I take great pleasure in the discovery and application of a range of mediums, I focus primarily on analog and digital collage or a hybrid of the two. Exploring the nature of color, texture, and context, is a therapeutic process used to make sense of the world around me. Casting light on the issues that plague our species, I seek to illuminate collective experiences to support change and healing. On the precipice and in the midst of so many critical decisions, my work is meant to inspire critical thinking, internal reflection, and thoughtful action.
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Instagram: selenar_vision
Observing another human being holds a sense of fascination, for one can see outside what he only knows from the inside. A person can know how it feels to be happy, but he can’t see his smile forming; he knows how it feels to be passionate about something, but he can’t see his own sparkle in his eyes when he’s thinking about it. One can intricately know himself very well, but there is this blindspot where he can’t actually see himself in each and every type of circumstance. Observing others lifts that blindspot as if one can see himself in his whole being. Another reason that draws a person into observing, is finding similarities and differences between one and another. This comes with a sense of unity, as well as the sense of individuality. It can give a sense of belonging when one discovers that other people do things in the same way as he does and a sense of curiosity when he discovers different approaches. It sure can inspire and also give confidence. It can make one find more things about himself as a human being, as he is watching another being... being.
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Instagram: sonyl_artartart7
My works are about the search for an inner experience of time, where memories are made experienceable in the shape of fixation and transformation. I strive for a fusion of past and present, which creates a dynamic and timeless dimension. The transience, the cycle of human existence - life, death, and rebirth - plays an important role, it transforms our reality and strengthens our human consciousness. In my art, I want to stimulate people's imagination and sensory experiences in which the traces of the past are revived in the present, which remains anchored in my memory and thus enriches my personal history. In this way, I want to inspire people to make an inner journey by really feeling and discovering for themselves the treasure of their existence.
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Instagram: eloiseschoeman.art
I have spent the last fourteen years living in South Africa, a country where women’s issues are seen as a woman’s issues. In my new body of work, I have dug deeper into my own female experience and how I can further reflect on my emotions and the conscious and unconscious subtleties of my experience in this country. How does the female gaze from an undeveloped perspective change in a developed country? I constantly find myself comparing my experience living in Pretoria and Johannesburg to the almost naive existence of living in the United Kingdom, speaking to women from South Africa who are incredibly open and honest about their experience and superimposing these emotions of unease, fear, and hyper-awareness these women and myself have faced onto images of women in the UK. By manipulating subtleties such as color and contrast, I change the dialogue from just being a singular experience to a relatable one.
%20-%20Maksim%20Shishov%20(1).jpg)
Instagram: hatelovemaximshishov
For me, art is fashion and I do my best to show it in my work. I am a psychologist and pedagog of deviant behavior, so I try to reveal the sacred themes of humanity through minimalist paintings and art objects. Apart from that, I try to use unnecessary materials. I pursue ideas of social aesthetic through my artworks, which are predominantly created from reused and recycled materials.
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Instagram: alexandralaurastanca
I would like the feminine spirit of healing, care, and protection to be seen in my works, to be an impetus to regaining the inner strength, to awaken that something in the female collective spirit.
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Instagram: slianandre
Humans have so many roles in life, and we can choose any of them with what we seek and pursue.
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Instagram: carysjuliatrace
My name is Carys Trace, I am a reportage artist whose practice attempts to composite the realities and ambitions of a biracial woman in British society through drawing and painting disciplines.
Instagram: ninatokhtamanvaletova_art
I explore the relationship between ancient cultures, mythology, fantasy, metaphysics, and philosophy. The theme of science is also present in my artworks, like a homotopy and the Mobius strip. In search of a new way to create art, I founded the Synthesis art style within contemporary visual art -the combination of figuration, abstraction, and surrealism. I am an established artist in the wave of bold, experimental art.
ART TALKS
"Hidden Eyes" Curator's Insight