Humans, Animals, Hungry Ghosts
Lizette Hernandez, Gwen Hollingsworth, Michelle Kim, Ji Lee, Kenix Liang, Cameron Masters
Curated by Gwen Hollingsworth
29 July - 26 August 2023
Le Maximum is pleased to present “Humans, Animals, Hungry Ghosts,” a group exhibition curated by Gwen Hollingsworth featuring works by Lizette Hernandez, Gwen Hollingsworth, Michelle Kim, Ji Lee, Kenix Liang, and Cameron Masters. The exhibition runs from July 29th through August 26th, 2023. A reception for the artists will be held Saturday, July 29th from 6 - 9 pm.
“Humans, Animals, Hungry Ghosts” is an exploration of the intersections between the sacred and what we see and experience on the material, human plane. While many religions dichotomize the sacred and the profane, other belief systems eschew this binary along with separations of the natural and supernatural. Buddhist cosmology, for instance, identifies six realms of existence within the cycle of reincarnation: gods, demigods, humans, animals, hungry ghosts, and hells. Each realm is contained in its own karmic level, yet they all engage with one another, and nothing separates the experience of each realm. The sacred is not divorced from mundane human experience, but rather fully intertwined as a hierophanic manifestation.
Whereas organized religions mediate our experience of the sacred, the artists in this exhibition seek out the numinous within the everyday. Holding a ritualistic approach to artmaking, they venture into the mundane and come out the other side with a glimpse of the absolute: Lizette Hernandez, Gwen Hollingsworth, and Ji Lee blur the lines of abstraction and figuration while imbuing their materials with ritual significance; Kenix Liang and Michelle Kim invest landscape with physical transformation and perceptual inversion; Cameron Masters invokes daily practices of ablution and renewal. By highlighting moments of transcendence within the banality of the everyday, these artists reorient our perception towards reimagined hierarchies of experience and being.
Le Maximum is open Thursday through Saturday from 1 - 6 pm and by appointment. Please write to art@lemaximumvenice.com for more information.
Michelle Kim, Lake EDD, 2023. Oil on Canvas, 12 x 16 inches.
Cameron Masters, lavatorio de pies, 2022. Acrylic and concrete on canvas, 15 x 13 inches.
Kenix Liang, Oblation, 2023. Oil on canvas, 50 x 40 inches.
Detail
Lizette Hernandez, Partido, 2023. Raku, 11 x 8.5 x 2 inches.
Gwen Hollingsworth, Manifest, 2023. Oil on canvas, 40 x 30 inches.
Gwen Hollingsworth, Purple Chinese Houses, 2023. Oil on canvas, 14 x 11 inches.
Detail
Lizette Hernandez, Mirador, 2023. Raku & glazed porcelain, 12.5 x 9 x 2.5 inches.
Kenix Liang, Stabbing, 2023. Oil on canvas, 27 x 59 inches.
Michelle Kim, The Slaying of Marissa Cooper (Under the Hollywood Cross), 2023. Oil on canvas, 48 x 36 inches.
Detail
Cameron Masters, early state, 2023. Acrylic and concrete on canvas, 13 x 12 inches.
Lizette Hernandez, Estremecer, 2023. Raku, 7 x 5 x 4 inches.
Ji Lee, Limescale, 2023. Oil on panel, 12 x 9 inches.
Ji Lee, Splinter, 2023. Oil on paper, walnut wood artist’s frame, 12 x 9 inches.
Cameron Masters, obra completa, 2023. Acrylic and concrete on canvas, 14 x 12 inches.
Cameron Masters, what is to be done? 2023. Acrylic and concrete on canvas, 14 x 12 inches.
Documentation by Hannah Mjølsnes