Shin Gallery is proud to present Veni, Vidi, Vici, a group exhibition featuring the work of artists Marisol, Hyon Gyon, and Caitlin Cherry. Through the sweeping breadth of media utilized within their work and the seamless melding of two dimensional and three-dimensional artworks, these three artists defy the static nature of art. The title Veni, Vidi, Vici, a phrase from classical Latin antiquity, translates to “I came, I saw, I conquered,” evoking the sense of controlled swiftness, effortless intensity, and sheer power behind the artwork featured in the exhibition. Much like the expression, their works endure as intuitively potent and unabashedly fearless.

The restless unease found in Marisol’s work is achieved through the unrelentingly raw psychology she utilizes, as well as her handling of forms in transition. In Untitled, chunks of hard, angular color collide, constrict, and penetrate wispy bodies. Erotic imagery pairs with a childlike aesthetic to create feverish imagery evocative of an uncontrollable subconscious while also hinting at an unsettling shadow of violence. Portrait of Willem de Kooning, however, is heavily autobiographical and achingly poignant. Marisol’s relationship with the Abstract Expressionist is laid bare, revealed through what she chose to articulate, exaggerate, and leave untouched. Her use of rapid transitions and rigid, geometric forms in both pieces make her works appear fluid yet fractured by movement and time.

Hyon Gyon searches for ways to purge negative emotions throughout her work, invoking whimsical imagery inspired by the Korean shamanistic ritual of Gut. Her focused delineation of profound spiritual and emotional release means that Hyon Gyon’s artwork often features disturbing and contradictory imagery. Although vibrant and consisting of diverse, decorative materials such as beads, fabric, and gold leaf, her art is often grotesquely energetic. The surfaces of her paintings and sculpture are twisted, dripping, and scorched, with materials aggressively bulging out. They are dynamic and confrontational, in both form and function, convoluting conventional notions of artistic beauty.

Cherry’s work is characterized by the use of a Golem, a man-made creature of mythic Jewish lore, to serve as a muse, an audience avatar, and an artist surrogate within her paintings and sculptural works. The Golem character functions as the central performer within Cherry’s art, perpetually supplanted and re-incarnated into different historical militarized environments and contexts. Often bearing the brunt of Cherry’s dark yet zany slapstick humor, the Golem is a tragiccomic character, simultaneously pathetic and humorous. Through the Golem, she is able to delve into themes of military conflict through an artistic lens, showing the viewer the destructive potential of art.

The congregated works of Marisol, Hyon Gyon, and Cherry featured in Veni, Vidi, Vici are individually and collectively dynamic, imbuing a lively, energetic sense of movement within their physically stationary works. Each piece writhes with the tense anticipation of an emotional and kinetic force threatening to release, conveying the impression of an ephemeral existence into a calcified artifact, and encapsulating the exact quality of transience into visual transcendence.