A Review on “In Soft Motion” at Uprise Art

Uprise Art’s newest show “In Soft Motion” features the work of four artists exploring how they see the natural world. The art regurgitates a faded memory, both obstructing and displaying the artist’s visions; each piece feels like a ghost of the thing, instead of the actual thing. Arlina Cai, Blake Aaseby, Hyun Jung Ahn, and Mada Vicassiau paintings and drawings share a playful approach to materiality, and a willingness to experiment with their medium.

Arlina Cai’s paintings feel like seeing a garden through a cloud of fog. Bright greens and flashes of blues, reds, and oranges are like a vague recollection that’s been obscured by time. Cai’s work draws inspiration from wu wei- a Taoist ideal that calls for patience, instinctual movement, and letting things unfold naturally. She mirrors this in her practice by diluting her paint with water and allowing for it to wash over a raw canvas, acting more like a dye than anything else. A subtle shine across the canvas is a reminder of the liquidity of the act; we are looking at the rock through the river.

The true nature of Blake Aaseby’s work is hidden. First appearing as a traditional weaving, but once inspected, they reveal themselves to be drawings on paper, made using small ticks with pastel. Each piece is filled with thousands of tiny rectangles, reminiscent of the warp and weft. You again get the impression that you are seeing through something, grey is layered over green, obfuscating whatever lies underneath. You can almost see the first signs of spring peaking through the branches and mud that coat the forest floor or looking out at the world through a window screen.

Huyn Jung Ahn’s sewn paintings play with creation and destruction. Raw canvas shines through paint to create star forms, the silhouette inhabits the negative space between a single color. Lines of thread bisect the picture plane where she mended together the torn canvas. The crisp edges of the paint conceal the act of destruction necessary in making the piece.

Mada Vicassiau work marries painting and collage. Color blocks define each piece, and discarded swaths of paper, pasted onto the canvas, offer a subtle contrast in texture next to the flat acrylic. The colors are reminiscent of the desert and live in the witching hours of dusk and dawn. Edges within the pieces imply corners of rooms, while others seem like never ending horizons.

Both nature and memory are in constant flux. Each moment is gone as soon as it comes, and what is left is a memory that changes each time it is recalled. The works in “In Soft Motion” are like catching lightning in a bottle; the pieces are containers for scenes that exist only in the mind’s eye, and imprecision is a feature, not a flaw.