A New Show in Seoul Brings Together Artistic Depictions of Chosen Family by Gina Beavers, Diedrick Brackens, and Others—See It Here

As galleries around the world begin to slowly reopen, we are
focusing on exhibitions at spaces that are now receiving
public visitors. Check out this show at a newly reopened gallery
below.

“Next of
Kin”
Through July 4 at Various Small Fires

What the gallery
says: “Various Small Fires is pleased to present,
‘Next of Kin,’ the exhibition debut of six American artists in
Seoul, South Korea. In the unsettling ups and downs of the current
COVID-19 crisis, VSF has taken the opportunity this summer to focus
on a universal constant: family.

Pushing beyond its biological definition, the artists capture
members of their families, chosen tribes, and imagined ancestors in
intimate portraits that reflect an unprecedented era of shifting
priorities with an insistence on intimacy and tenderness.
Essentially under house arrest, Gina Beavers, Diedrick Brackens,
Jessie Homer French, Chase Hall, Cindy Ji Hye Kim, and Calida
Rawles contemplate the figures at the core of their social
disruption.”

Why it’s worth a look: Among the standout
works in this show of gallery artists who come from diverse
backgrounds are Diedrick Brackens’s woven works, in which
silhouetted figures embrace, and Jessie Homer French’s
painting Genesis, which depicts sea creatures that
seemingly have no concerns about social distancing.

The exhibition also includes Calida Rawles, whose work was
featured on the cover of Ta-Nahesi Coates’s novel, The
Water Dancer. Her hyperrealistic paintings of black
bodies submerged in clear blue water seem to hope for better days.
On the other end of the spectrum, Chase Hall’s depiction of a
seemingly carefree afternoon, featuring a carful of black men and
women enjoying a day at the beach, bears the unsettling
title All my brothers go to heavens—a stark reminder of
the undercurrent of fear and persistent danger that black Americans
face every single day.

What it looks like:

The post A New Show in Seoul Brings Together Artistic
Depictions of Chosen Family by Gina Beavers, Diedrick Brackens, and
Others—See It Here appeared first on artnet News.