GR gallery is pleased to present “The Speed of Ice Cream” and “For The sake of Be who you Are” two concurrent solo exhibitions featuring Leo Park and Xu Yang. Both these shows are the artists’ first solo with GR and in New York.

“The Speed of Ice Cream”, spreading from the entrance all the way through the central exhibition room, will be comprised of nine artworks on canvas and 4 drawings on paper. Appositely conceived for the event, this new body of works expands Park’s visual vocabulary with enhanced colors and symbols and deepen his discourse on the actualization of mythology and classic art.  Walking toward the space at the end of the gallery “For The Sake of Be who you are” will showcase a group of six new medium size paintings dubbed under the same title of the exhibition. Executed with Yang’s signature Rococo inspired style, these works are advancing a reflection on identity and today’s society contradictions wrapped in a dream state setting.

Opening reception: Wednsday March 16, 6:00pm – 8:00pm (Exhibition Dates: March 16 – April 09, 2022). Members of the press can contact GR gallery in advance to schedule a private viewing and/or an interview with the artists.

Artist will attend the opening event.

Drinks will be served.

GR gallery, 255 Bowery (btw Houston & Stanton) New York, NY 10002

Leo Park (Sweden, 1980) |  Xu Yang  (Shandong, 1996)

Leo Park’s paintings are a mix of enigmatic recollections, cultural symbols, classic and modern art references, history quotes and social questions. Summoning mythological beliefs and imaginaries, mixing it together with hyper contemporary objects and habits, Park creates mysterious yet alluring compositions, free from gravity and physics, encapsuled in an indeterminate time frame. His stories are often imbued with solemn and powerful rituals that determine the actions and relations between the characters, but a omnipresent aura of irony tones down the terms and recontextualize its structure.

The title “The Speed of Ice Cream” refers to a subject very dear to the artist and recurrent in many of his latest works. Often paired in compositions with nudes bathing in the sun, the melting ice cream becomes this charged object capable of holding many meanings; deeply connected with the cornucopia, symbol of abundance and fertility in the Greek mythology. A luscious ice cream melting in the sun can be interpreted as the manifestation of life but at the same time it is cold and still and lead to the idea of death. So, in this context “The Speed of Ice Cream” is simultaneously fast and slow, like painting itself.

With her oeuvre, Xu Yang has been evoking a world saturated by seemingly trivial desires always influenced by her personal interest such as childhood fantasies, fetish and identity. The glamour, the mysteries and the kinky atmospheres of the Rococo art movement serve just as much as a means of projection for a more actualized investigation on topics like body, sexuality and gender stereotypes. In her paintings, Xu Yang combines characters and atmospheres close to a romantic 18^th century boudoir scene strengthen with lifted quotations and caustic comments on the contemporary society. in her words: “I attempt to uncover Rococo’s elaborate and extravagant style in paintings through playful brushstrokes. I paint my works layer by layer with smudges and touches. All those different twists are used to feel the creaminess of the oil paint as it slides onto the textile—like applying icing on a cake, they are sickening but delicious. Rococo is such a maligned art form, but it is underpinned by idealisations, hopes and dreams we should have access to”.