kabr x waterfall
April 22nd through October 31st, 2024
Supported by The Waterfall Arts Foundation
KABR Group Headquarters, New Jersey
The exhibition at KABR headquarters is a collection of 8 international contemporary artists who create with the lens of resilience through delicate details and bold palettes inspired by the language of nature.
With these works, we are reminded of the tenacious characteristics of sheer beauty– adaptability, perseverance, and reciprocity that enable both nature and humanity to withstand adversity and continue to flourish. Through the cascades of the natural world and its resplendent characteristics, we are invited to consider the shapes of beauty that reconnect with our inner selves and our shared humanity.
The KABR Group is a vertically integrated private equity real estate firm responsible for the investment, development, and management of real estate, at their headquarters location in Englewood, NJ.
MYUNG-BO SIM
Myung-Bo Sim (1940-2021) is a world-renowned painter from Korea who focuses on roses. We are showing over 14 original paintings and 9 lithographs that highlight the flexibility of roses with luminous colors that burst with energy and vitality, painted in the late 1990s. With his refined details, Sim emphasizes the sensual layers of the rose as it unfolds, creating a sense of dynamism that suggests the roses are blossoming forth with life. His paintings primarily feature the highlights of his rose garden, exploring light, shape, and color and the more ephemeral and timeless qualities of the rose and how it complements even the most mundane things.
SEONGMIN AHN
Seongmin Ahn focuses on the beauty of durability from her intimate narratives in finding tension and balance between East and Western cultural values and norms. Using peony flowers and significant symbols, that are rooted in traditional Korean Minhwa–folk painting, she experiments and expands the boundaries of the characteristics of traditional painting styles and her own resilience and capacity.
Seongmin Ahn received her B.F.A. and M.F.A. in Asian traditional painting from Seoul National University in Seoul Korea and then received her second M.F.A from Mount Royal, Maryland Institute College of Art. With practical experience and deep understanding of tradition, her work takes Asian traditional painting as starting point and transforms it into something experimental with her own interpretation bridging tradition and contemporary, and East and West.
SHANE PENNINGTON
Shane Pennington is a multimedia artist who is based in Dallas, Texas. His 'Wildflowers Recorded' series is inspired by the stunning beauty and pureness of wildflowers. During his childhood, Pennington had the privilege to observe and learn from local artists who painted the Texas Hill Country bluebonnets and wildflowers that decorated the hillsides. Every spring, when these wildflowers appear, he mentions that "they lend us their wondrous colors, momentarily transforming the entire landscape before our eyes."
To create each piece, he opted to sculpt each unique wildflower within a copper wipe, framing the species within a cube. Ideally, the cube is a symbol of admiration for the ephemeral beauty of nature, encouraging us to pause and reflect on its splendor.
HYE RIM LEE
Hye Rim Lee is a multimedia artist from New Zealand whose three-dimensional animated videos and photographs speak to the symbology of two opposing states to find the beauty that is found and remains in brokenness.
Lee’s new series of digital prints evolved from her most recent media art ‘Black Rose Series’. Distinct from the artist's prominent ‘Black Rose Series,’ the “Rose of Sharon” works encapsulates a lighter color palette to display delicate human characteristics such as loyalty.
ANTONIO MURADO
Antonio Murado is a New York-based painter from Lugo, Spain, whose work delves into the nuances of time’s passage and the unhurried process of making art. His paintings yield romantic interpretations of nature, intertwined with historical references and literary inspirations. For Murado, the important thing is that it excites; that there is something abstract that moves. As a result, the work does not speak of its techniques as something instrumental, but rather an affirmation of the operational process through materials, their behavior and the history of painting.
Murado employs the landscape as a visual medium to illustrate the unfolding of life. Instead of striving for a replica of nature, he prioritizes its essence, offering a conduit for contemplation of the profound meaning of existence. As a result, his artistic expressions conjure a sense of tranquility, longing, and a feeling of serene stillness.
Hiroko otake
Hiroko Otake is a painter based in Japan who employs the traditional Nihonga Japanese technique to depict her subjects. Embracing the deliberate and time-consuming nature of this ancient method, she incorporates it as an integral aspect of her art's beauty and metamorphosis.
Otake utilizes butterflies as symbols, representing the essence of beauty, iridescence, and spiritual rejuvenation within the human soul and psyche. Just as nature endures and evolves amidst external turmoil, our relationships with it, ourselves, and others symbolize a continual renewal of connections. Through her creative endeavors, Otake deepens her bond with the society surrounding her.
chae eunmi
Chae Eunmi is a painter based in South Korea.
The butterfly is a symbolic representation of rebirth. The reflective quality achieved in each piece takes a viewer and their surroundings into the essence and beauty of the artist's journey as it reflects the individual human transformational perspective. Chae’s work serves as a meditative device where anyone can come and be still, creating a space for reflection, forgiveness and hope.
Artist Eunmi Chae’s matured invention of the gold cube and gold leaf grid composition came from 20 years of trial and error. In her search to understand depth and the visual difference in three-dimensional volume, she mastered the difference in structural scale and 0.1m grid space. Chae uses a traditional korean lacquer to bind the surface of the gold leaf before adhering the gold cubes. This technique required years of technical study to achieve coating without the formation of bubbles and the separation of field of colors applied to the mother-of-pearl.
GIL KUNO
Gil Kuno is a multimedia artist based in Japan and New York City. His work makes use of flip dot display technology from the 60’s often used on bus destination signs. Though normally for text only, they have been manipulated to run animations. Each individual dot is programmed to constantly flip, as it is blown softly by air. Exaggerated sound becomes an important component of the artwork, adding to the phenomenal subject matter the artist chooses to focus on.