The Fifth Element Opens at Outlander Gallery

The Fifth Element
April 1, 2021-April 30, 2021
Opening Reception: 5-7pm, Saturday, April 3, 2021
Curated by Sky Kim 

Participating Artists:
Peter C. Emerick
Pauline Galiana
Joohyun Kang
Donna Conklin King
Jay Christopher King 

Outlander Gallery in collaboration with Sky Kim is pleased to announce a group exhibition The Fifth Element. The entire world has been swept up by invisible microorganisms which have resulted in the loss of innocent lives, jobs, and the change of lifestyles and social behaviors. This never-experienced-before phenomenon made us finally pay close attention to Gia, the Mother Earth. We chose to ignore her agony, pain, and desperate scream for a long time until she could take no more.

This exhibition will bring together five compelling international artists in a show that challenges how we observe, perceive, recreate, and reinterpret the Five Elements of Nature, Fire, Water, Air, Earth, and Space (Aether/Void). The connective tissue that links their works is found in organic images and metaphors which suggest alternative, metaphoric readings of identity, sexuality, fertility, transformation, growth, spirituality, and personal interpretation of living. Each artist represents an element engaging in stirring gestures and organic forms with the powerful life forces of Gaia that float, multiply, clash, divide, regenerate and evolve within their vigorous vitality.   

Photographer/multi-media artist Peter C. Emerick received a Master’s Degree in Photography from Pratt Institute. He has expanded his audience through numerous exhibitions in Asia and the US, including the Gwangju Biennale, Ssamzie Space, and the Governors Island Art Fair. His work has been reviewed in the Washington Post, The Korea Herald, PhotoNet Magazine, and Art World Magazine.

Peter C. Emerick represents masculine energy the Fire Element in the exhibition. His longtime obsession with his subject matter, a “traffic cone”, has been evolving into a hybrid species over the years.  A traffic cone on a street was nothing but an orange plastic object that no one gave any special thought to until one day 25 years ago when Emerick paid special attention to it. It has become alive and grown within the viewers’ eyes since then. His recent hexagon series merges intricate microcosms with an immense map of topographies. By employing systems of patterning and layering, the grid taps into particular emotive conditions.

Born in Algiers and raised in Switzerland and France Pauline Galiana received an MFA from ESAG in Paris and has a Christie’s Art Business Certificate. Her work has been exhibited at the New York Public Library, Memorial Sloan Kettering, Kentler International Drawing Space, the Columbus Museum, Durham Arts Council, Islip Art Museum, New York Institute of Technology, and the Robert Henry Gallery. Her work is included in the collections of UBS, New York University, and the National Museum of Romanian Literature, where she won a 2018 Bibliophile Object-Book Biennale award.

Paper loops sculpture by Pauline Galiana represents another masculine energy Air. Largely intangible without permanent form, air is the most active, masculine element. Galiana mindfully collects discarded and shredded documents with care, just like a forensic scientist. Using her looping technique, she deconstructs the paper, and then reconstructs it by redistributing the fragments of wasted contents on a rigorous grid. The final products of her labor-intensive, meticulous collage work contain patience, sweat and reveal unknown mysterious stories that are hidden in the shredded documents.   

Born and raised in Seoul, Korea Joohyun Kang received a Master’s Degree in Painting from Pratt Institute. She has exhibited in major cities around the world, including New York, Seoul and Rome. Her work has been reviewed by KoaLife, The Korea Times, The Central Daily News, SBS TV and The Wall Street Journal.

The sanctuary of the feminine energy Water is deeply grounded in Joohyun Kang’s painting. Water is the element of emotion and unconscious and is considered less material to earth. Kang borrows representational painting techniques to render nature in an abstract manner. She tunes into a womanly tailored yet with a sense of masculinity, transforms subtle arrangements of abstract forms which possess strong motions and  currents underneath pulsating mountains. She lets her understanding of life naturally soaks into her work and her calm gaze settles on the warmth of life.   

Donna Conklin King received a MFA in Sculpture from Rutgers University and a Bachelor of Science in Studio Art from Skidmore College. She has received several public art projects, including from the NY Wildflower Sculpture Park, and Essex County NJ Parks Department. She is a recipient of the Creative Capital Professional Development Program Fellowship and her work is included in the collection of Newark Public Library, Book Arts Collection, and Museum Of Modern Art, Artists Books Collection.

Donna Conklin King presents the element of stability, groundedness, fertility, materiality, and stillness; the Earth. As life comes from the ground and then decomposes back into the earth, King’s massive concert floor installations pay homage to the cycle of life. King mines a range of materials, from concrete and gold leaf, to found ceramic and porcelain objects and mosaic tile that together create environments addressing the relationship between nature, architecture, and the inevitable ruins of civilization. Referencing patterns of behavior around food and survival, she creates settings that reveal the current complexities of the human condition.

Jay Christopher King is an alumnus of the Skowhegan artist residency and he holds a BFA from the School of Visual Arts and an MFA from Bard College. He has been shown at venues including the Museo de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; James Cohan Gallery, New York; and MoMA PS1’s Greater New York. 

Jay Christopher King represents the only non-physical element, Space (Aether/Void). This element is a bridge between the physical and spiritual/celestial realms and body and soul within the microcosm. King connects a known space with an altered space and maps out the Matrix in the grid. He works across media to examine themes of appropriation, contemporary myth, visual puzzles, and narrative abstraction. He draws on his experience in writing and producing television—including popular scripted adventure and reality programming—to inform his current practice.