PRESS RELEASE
Opening Reception:
Thursday, May 1st, 6-8PM
Margaret Thatcher Projects is pleased to present Ambient Pressure, the gallery’s first solo-exhibition with Korean-American artist, Cathy Choi. The artist’s works have been included in several group exhibitions at the gallery over the last two years; this exhibition will offer the first full presentation of the artist’s works in New York since 2011. The exhibition will include paintings from three bodies of work, including her recent paintings of flowing color and premiering her newest group of “spontaneously poured” works.
Finding inspiration from the physical and metaphysical qualities of water, Cathy Choi paints with pigmented resin, pouring thin veils of color in works such as S1401, or pooling color using a sculpted ledge in the paintings B1403 and B1404. The luminosity and fluid, changeable shape of water is recalled in areas of cascading color floating atop one another, or in the voluminous drips seeming to fall from her canvas’ edge. The artist does not intend for the work to be a literal representation of natural elements. Instead, Cathy uses these references to point toward spiritual notions of purity and cleansing.
Choi’s process of selecting colors and parameters for her work is balanced by the quick decisions necessary when working with resin. Since the material dries quickly, the artist has described the medium as one that stimulates an impulsive drive, facilitating an intuitive response which “flows from within and becomes an innate response with no predetermined end.”
Cathy Choi was born in Seoul, South Korea. The artist currently lives and works in Brooklyn. New York. Choi received her BFA from University of Washington, Seattle, WA and her MFA from American University in Washington, DC. Her works have been exhibited nationally and internationally at the UMASS Herter Gallery (Amherst, MA), D.U.M.B.O. Arts Center, (Brooklyn NY) and Galerie Karrer (Zurich, CH). Her work in graphic design has recognized with awards from AIGA (1993, 1994) Art Director’s Club of Philadelphia (1994) and I.D. Magazine (1993, 1994).