Hashimoto Contemporary is excited to announce the inaugural exhibition at our new Lower East Side location in New York City. The space will debut with a solo exhibition by Bronx-based artist Bianca Nemelc, titled Austral Summer.
Inspired by summertime in the Southern Hemisphere, which takes place from November to February, the artist looked specifically to the Antarctic, drawing upon natural occurrences such as Blood Falls, moss forests and striped glaciers. These elements are found throughout the work, merging seamlessly with brown bodies which fluidly become a part of the natural topography. Rounded breasts and stomachs swell and form land masses, creating sweeping and powerful scenic vistas. Austral Summer features a series of ten new paintings which blur the lines between the figurative, the landscape, and the abstract, serving as a meditative exploration of our own connection to space and nature.
About the new body of work, the artist states,
"I'm currently really interested in bridging a connection between brown bodies and a continent that is devoid of governance, and seemingly neutral in the global history of colonialism. How can we see ourselves in this uninhabitable space? How do we find connection and belonging in places we don't feel we belong and how do we advocate for these same spaces, because our existence is dependent on it?"
