Photographer / Yuxian He
Curator / Yiwei Lu
Gallery Hours /
Mar 26, 2022 3:00pm-5:00pm
Mar 27 - Apr 8, 2022 11:00am-5:00pm
Apr 8 - Apr 15, 2022 Appointment Required
Opening / 3:00PM, Mar 26, 2022
Address / TheBLANC Gallery, 15 E 40th Street, 2nd Fl, New York, NY 10016
The series Undertide conveys the subtleties within the images that are happening inside all of us as much as they are on the island of Broad Channel. By combining a romanticized perspective and the formal qualities influenced by the New Objectivity movement, Undertide creates an emotionally-charged interplay between the man-altered landscape and the personal inner psyche of the artist.
Broad Channel is the only inhabited island in Jamaica Bay. It hosts a small community, and the Cross Bay Boulevard links mainland Queens to the Rockaway Peninsula. In 2011, Hurricane Irene landed on Broad Channel. Sandy came the following year. However, New York always forgets about this tiny island, whereas rising tides are the only guests regularly visiting here.
Most New Yorkers are beyond capable of hiding their feelings. They avoid their inner callings and loathe the idea of vacancy. Everyone moves fast and leaves everything they deemed unworthy in the past. The visit to Broad Channel has been a turning point for the artist. As the water keeps rising, people can only come back so much. Ocean will devour the land eventually, and everything becomes an undercurrent of Jamaica Bay. The artist calls to make an attempt to tap into the forgotten quietness of our hearts before it’s all too late.
Yuxian sought the places and things left behind, portrayed them using a nostalgic approach, and romanticized them with the calmness that interconnects the images. By photographing the desolate landscapes and deserted objects in Broad Channel, the artist has created a collection of documentary images illustrating the complex blending of our cold appearance and hidden inner emotions.
Photographer / Yuxian He (b.2000)
Yuxian He is a fashion and fine art photographer currently living in Chicago. Born in Beijing and soon graduating from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, he has worked with many top industry professionals and clients. As a NYFW veteran, his fashion editorial work was featured in Harper's Bazaar, À PART, and L'Officiel.
Curator / Yiwei Lu
Yiwei Lu is an independent artist and curator based in New York and Nanjing. She is pursuing an MFA degree and hold an BFA in Photography and Video from the School of Visual Arts. She currently works as assistant at the Miyako Yoshinaga Gallery and used to work at the Nanjing Museum Curating Department. She is the assistant curator of Sugar Art Student Society in Nanjing University of the Arts. As an artist, her work has been exhibited in group shows, including Mentor 2022 exhibition, Imageless Dummy Photobook awards exhibition, Trieste Photo Days festival, Housed 2020, Sugar Art Student Society and Nanjing Open Air Art Project.