In the downstairs gallery, work by Miguel Velit and Yin Peet is titled MURALS-INDOOR STREET ART. It consists of three paintings by Velit, sized two 6’x9’, one 15’x11’. The painting by Peet is 38’x12’, covering one entire side of the gallery wall. In terms of the meaning of the title “Indoor Street Art,” curator Viktor Lois articulated, “The street art today is the new mural. Though indoors, the street art is still following the tradition of murals which primarily deals with social issues. A good example is presented in Buchwick Brooklyn, NY.”  In this connotation, street art comes indoors to our gallery.

Furthermore, Miguel wrote: “Since remote times, Man has always searched for ways of expression to narrate his ideas, history and thoughts. In Altamira, Spain, primitive men told stories by making drawings on large stones. In Mexico in 1920, a great artistic current emerged, Mexican Muralism, which was well influenced by the revolution. Mexican muralists contribute greatly to the current Communist success by narrated historical and revolutionary political events in their work. Among the great masters of muralists were Diego De Rivera, the great David Siqueros, and Jose Orosco. Their narrated historical events in great murals outdoors directly impacted the way popular expression was framed at that time. This phenomenon is not unique to Mexico. Peru has the similar movement in this regard. In Hungary, Russia, and New York, murals that come indoors from the street are part of the art movement from the 60s, 70s, and 80s to the present.”

One Day on Earth by Yin Peet

The two artists’ murals we present here each show the artists’ own styles and cultural backgrounds. Yin, an immigrant from Taiwan, painted a reclining female nude figure with long hair, body half emerged in a lotus pond while one arm holds the sun passing dawn and the other arm holds the moon entering night. The painting entitled “ONE DAY ON EARTH” focuses on the Yin’s view on human’s philosophical yearning to reach out to the important life sources from mother earth.  By contrast, Miguel’s painting describes his social empathy toward Peruvian life. One painting portrays a Peruvian bus full of passengers, the second, an Inca riding a bicycle through the street of New York, the third, the Crazy Man in Central Park of Lima, each painting charged with tremendous energy of the brightly colored South American culture.

In the main hall on a twelve foot-high, twenty-four foot-wide wall, we present a group of 100 (20”x20” each) acrylic paintings by Jacob Kravetz titled “A Gross Expression of Zen – 2022”.  To explain why “Gross,” Jacob describes: “I have used enso (a circle that is hand-drawn in one uninhibited brushstrokes to express a moment when the mind is free to let the body create) as a daily meditative-art practice for nearly two years now. In my creation of A Gross Expression of Zen, I utilized this meditative practice to explore artistic zeugma. In exploring this challenge, however, I came to feel there was a deeper, more complex set of relationships that could be explored with the concept of “artistic zeugma” in which the title applies to many aspects of the art (e.g. process, form, and experience).

A Gross Expresson of Zen-2022 by Jacob Kravetz

The “expression of zen” is represented by the enso. Here, the term “gross” in the piece’s title performs the zeugma. The piece is also gross in that it is large, not just physically large, but containing a near infinite number (~10^250) of display permutations. On display, it expands beyond the confines of the gallery wall inset. The process of expression was also gross, but in a disgusted way. Instead of patiently and meditatively performing each enso daily, Jacob created them in a frenzy of activity, with between ten and thirty ensos made each day in rapid succession. Finally, with a riot of color instead of the traditional black and white, the enso backgrounds produce a vulgar and tranquil display.”
The painting exhibition can be viewed throughout the year, and we cordially invite you to share this artist experience.