72*66(inch)
Acrylic, pigment, oil on raw canvas
Headless figures merge with one another aggressively yet silently, falling or seizing in an upside down void of pitch black. The only figure with a head in the foreground stands frozen in fear or stunned by the gaze of witnesses. The desire that piles up in the entrance or exit, and the desire wanting to be unseen make a strong contradictory effect. After the overcrowded disaster happened on Halloween in Itaewon, Korea, I began to think about the gravity of the souls and bodies, and the impact that has on each other.
The existence of all of us who inevitably have a relationship with space takes various gestures in it, which is overwhelmed by certain desires, desperations, and unknowns to avoid the flow of time.
Born in Korea and raised in China, Reeha (b. 1994) explores the ambiguity and duality inherent in so-called absolute truth, faith, and boundaries. Through her ghost-like paintings – where fragmented figures are bathed in dramatic light and subtle shadows, she blurs the threshold between objects and human bodies, physicality and metaphysicality, and functionality and malfunctionality. Thin yet multi-layered paintings blend personal memories with dreamlike scenery, oscillating between reality and Atopia – a place that is moored in nowhere.
Reeha held a duo exhibition in Shenyang, China at the age of nine, and since then, her works have been consistently presented in numerous duo and group exhibitions, including Gallery 100_0, Gallery Euljiro OF, Haeng-hwa-tang Art Space, Gallery H in Seoul, Korea, Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, France, and Xin Complex Cultural Space in Shenyang, China. She graduated in 2021 with a BFA in Painting from Hong-ik University in South Korea. That same year, she was awarded the Fulbright scholarship, and is currently pursuing her MFA in the Painting Department at Cranbrook Academy of Art, class of 2024.
