Review

A review of Mixed Perceptions: Aileen Chong, Patricia Kochaver, Daniel Ochoa

Installation view of "Mixed Perceptions" Exhibition at Blue Gallery in June 2010. Photo: courtesy of the gallery

Blue Gallery
Kansas City, Missouri
June 4 — 28, 2010

Mixed Perceptions presents a diverse circle of artistic vision: Aileen Chong is known for her ability to emphasize visual language and the projection of emotion or feeling in her work; Daniel Ochoa sees a struggle between the visceral and the rational; and Patricia Kochaver’s works capture a moment in time through the use of glazes and precise pottery forms, which she sees as emphasizing life and existence.

Daniel Ochoa, "Jeeti Retrato," oil on canvas, 48" x 36". Image: courtesy of the gallery

The works in the exhibition all emphasize form, although each accomplishes this task in different ways. Chong presents interpretive forms through abstraction and the use of blocks of color as a stand-in for an architectural approach. The paintings have wonderful foundation and structure expressed through mark-making and the specific application of color — raw emotions are visible, almost lyrical in their presentation.

Daniel Ochoa lives and works in the San Francisco Bay area and is the child of a bi-cultural family. He describes his father as a Mexican immigrant and his mother as a white American. This Anglo-Hispanic artist is interested in language from a visual point of view, as well as the language he creates on the canvases, a language that speaks of duality.

Daniel Ochoa, "Oreja, Ear," oil on canvas, 48" x 36". Photo: Jade Ganson

The compositions reference vivisection, with human forms fractured and fragmented, their organic foundation clearly visible. Some create a visual collage of additional elements, and others confront the challenge of selective removal. Through these articulations and strong visual associations with the human self, Ochoa challenges the viewer to confront who they are, or perhaps, what they are not. “What’s missing,” he asks, “that keeps any of us from being a whole person?”

Daniel Ochoa, "Poulos Retrato," oil on canvas, 48" x 36". Image: courtesy of the gallery

Ochoa states he struggles with who he is. He is interested in the superficial quality of people and rips away all fake substance with his portraits.

Geoff Wichert eloquently articulates a spot-on commentary of Ochoa’s work in this passage from his review of an exhibition in Park City, Utah, January 2010:

Scanning across these extensive, energetic canvases, the eye recalls many of the best painters of the last century. The frenetic movement of arms and legs recalls the early Duchamp of Nude Descending a Staircase. The sudden emergence and immediate subsidence of seemingly solid flesh stretched over unmistakable bones — knees, fingers, noses popping out of a tornado of flat brush marks — pays tribute to the phantasmagoric paint, if not to the grotesque pain and existential despair, of Francis Bacon.*

Ochoa’s work recalls the classics, but it also references what could be interpreted as a quasi-violence, a silent torture of the forms going beyond the obvious or provocative straight into the fearful subconscious. The images make the viewer uncomfortable and nearly agitated. This quality seems to relate to the artist's views about himself and the fragmented culture in which he grew up.

When asked if the figures were coming together, moving apart or what other influences they contain, the artist replied he is interested in the plurality of the figure, how its elements are being broken and put back together. The suggestion of motion implies the pieces of the self might be somewhere else, momentarily.

Daniel Ochoa, "Walk Adelante Study," oil on board, 15" x 12". Image: courtesy of the gallery

Ochoa’s Walk Adelante Study illustrates this struggle as does To The Lado. Along with connections Bacon and Duchamp, charts or illustrations of evolutionary progression persist. The illustrations of Ochoa’s figures mirror or abstract typical charts of the development of man from primate. Ochoa’s pieces Jeeti Retrato and Poulos Retrato, straight-on facial views, depict a fragmented personality; the subjects also appear to be in motion, which can be interpreted as mental or physical energy.

The way there seems to be a form depicted behind the main figure in To The Lado brings to mind a popular culture image of a traditional religious angel. There is a temptation to use the word “wing" and to expand this interpretation so that To The Lado is no longer just showing a step to the side but a step into a form of interpretive spiritual pop-cultural image. I see a relationship with pre-Columbian imagery, specifically depictions of personal decoration.

Daniel Ochoa, "To the Lado," oil on canvas, 60" x 36". Photo: Jade Ganson

Aileen Chong’s oil and mixed media on canvases are created out of her sense of a fractured identity, similar yet different from Ochoa’s. Multi-cultural dichotomies were highlighted in Chong's specific life situation, too, as a Chinese Peruvian growing up in Long Island, New York. Her grandparents were Chinese, but her sense of identity was rooted in Peruvian customs, and the language spoken most often at home was Spanish.

Chong's pieces manifest in abstractions, inspired by dualities or contrasts in her life. The work presents a unique way of interpreting feelings and thought processes, as the artist sees the pieces as immersed in emotion — each one as a place in a specific time. She sees her methods as very direct and stripped of pretense or false bravado. Layers of paint become layers of feeling or life emphasis.

Aileen Chong, "Avencina Nube," oil and mixed media on panel, 48" x 36". Image: courtesy of the gallery

The perceptions of the paintings vary greatly by what colors are used and how those colors interact with each other. Avecina Nube creates an atmospheric place in time, similar to watching a tornado-producing sky. The serene grays are overshadowed by dark, ominous representations of whatever storm is dominating the severe weather alerts. Carda de Niebla presents a similar feel, again reminiscent of a landscape in an unspecified location.

Aileen Chong, "Caida de Niebla," oil and mixed media on canvas, 60" x 96". Photo: courtesy of the gallery

Like many time-based pieces, Chong’s work resonates with a sense of continual immediacy. This makes it possible for artist and viewer to truly spend some time with a certain thought within a specific time.

Aileen Chong, "Vistazo de Oro," oil and mixed media on canvas, 24" x 24". Image: courtesy of the gallery

Llamando Verde presents a square composition, with emphasis on the color green, which can represent new ideas, growth, wealth, or prosperity. It can also represent inexperience, melancholy or indecision.

Aileen Chong, "Llamandro Verde," oil and mixed media on canvas, 48" x 48". Photo: Jade Ganson

The formal qualities of Chong’s work add to the richness, as she clearly has a sound sense of composition and technique, as well as a mastery of the materials and matrixes she works with.

Patricia Kochaver’s sagger-fired bottles stem from a connection with specific techniques, manifesting in emotional response. Kochaver’s Re-assembled Sagger Fired Bottle #3 has the feel of an artifact or an antique. The precise metal detailing adds to its mystery and appeal.

Patricia Kochaver, "Re-assembled Sagger Fired Bottle #3," clay and mixed media. Image: courtesy of the gallery

The viewer is uncertain of any intended function of these pieces, as their seems slightly off for any “traditional” use, such as a vase or something to hold liquid or foodstuffs. Kochaver’s vessels have appealing and interpretive shapes, and a charming, even friendly demeanor.

Patricia Kochaver, "Sagger Fired Bottle #2." clay and mixed media, 20" x 16". Image: courtesy of the gallery

Kochaver sees her pieces as manifestations of a desire to create breath or inhalation from clay and glaze. This effort combines alternative firing techniques with a love of form, as opposed to a need for function. Though not entirely convincing as living objects, the pieces possess a unique representation of the artist’s experience and emotion. Their ease of familiarity and unique personalities add interest.

Blue Gallery’s Kelly Kuhn comments about the curatorial philosophy of the exhibition:

The artists chosen for the exhibition were selected based on their command of technique and aesthetic beauty as well as their depiction of contrasts and plays on perception. In Aileen Chong's abstract paintings, the largely monochromatic surface belie a complex palette of mediums and color. The heavy appearance of Patricia Kochaver's clay vessels contradict a lighter reality. And the fierce exteriors of Daniel Ochoa's oil on canvas portraits, thinly veil an interior of flesh, tissue, and emotional vulnerability.

The vision of the exhibition results in a stunning immersion of evocative images and philosophies, provoking both thought and strong emotion through the perception of  representation, or not.

Aileen Chong, "Mirada Roja," oil and mixed media on canvas, 72" x 48". Photo: Jade Ganson

Note:
* Geoff Wichert, “Daniel Ochoa at Julie Nester Gallery,” www.artistsofutah.org January 10, 2010 < www.artistsofutah.org/15bytes/10jan/page7.html>, accessed July 5, 2010.

-re-