June 7 through July 26, 2014
Opening Reception: Saturday, June 7, 7-10PM
Bermudez Projects is proud to present “Synthesis,” a two-man show featuring the works of emerging artists Kevin Cheng and Kellan Shanahan.Each artist renders stunningly beautiful images made of ink on paper in an attempt to understand the macro and micro universes within ourselves. By exploring the inner and outer workings of space, time, and the body, both men aim to illustrate the inexorable links between science, biology, technology, cosmology and that which is simply unknown.
“The purpose of these drawings is to describe nature as form distinct from substance, as patterns and arrangements that lie beneath the immediate reality of objects,” states Kellan Shanahan. “What is born to our eyes as the world of things is a phenomenon of fields of energy colliding into each other, a self-assembling system of relations that scales infinitely through time and space, in which what on goes on outside our consciousness and within it are the same process.”
Shanahan’s renderings – both large and small scale – represent the nuances observed in the shapes and patterns at the atomic and sub-atomic levels. Cells viewed on a microscopic level or the cosmos viewed through the mastery of telescopic technology, capture a myriad spectrum of forms and structure that continue to push our current understanding of “natural” design.
Shanahan summarizes what he feels his drawings accomplish, “Ultimately, the vision of these works is of the spiritual and unknowable aspects of reality.”
Equally moving and just as profound are the nigh-figurative works of Kevin Cheng whose bodies he creates are caught between space and time in a seemingly fleeting race to understand the meanings of their existence and their inescapable destruction (metamorphosis).
“My latest body of work, ‘Emptiness cannot scar emptiness,’ is an exploration of liminal and transitory moments,” states Kevin Cheng. “We perceive our lives as comprised of separate events, but I understand that one instance and the other are connected in an inextricable flow.”
Cheng’s figures are beautiful, ghost-like, and terrifying. Merged with either harsh, black forms or other organic shapes, each figure is seen experiencing the final – or perhaps initial – moment when all that is unknown becomes known, and the once-thought mysteries of existence are finally understood. Are these “alien” shapes and patterns the cause of the degradation or are they do they simply represent the reaction of an awakening?
“I seek these moments of transition, transformation, and release,” adds Cheng. “Then, time is eternally suspended and we enter the stark nowness.”
Cheng and Shanahan are after the same thing: the truth.
They seek to know the truth about ourselves, and the world(s) around, above, below, and within us.
Their answers may not come through individual exploration, but perhaps by pairing both their artistic visions, we may get a little closer to understanding our own reasons for being.
Kevin Cheng (b. 1990) earned a BA in Media Arts from the University of California, Los Angeles. He’s been featured in several group shows in Los Angeles where he currently lives and works.
Kellan Shanahan (b. 1991) received his BA in Fine Arts from Chapman University. He’s been included in a number of group shows throughout Southern California. He currently lives and works in San Diego.
