What: Art Exhibition
Where: Nolias Gallery, 60 Great Suffolk Street, London SE1 0BL
When: Thursday 8 March – Tuesday 13 March 2007, Thu-Mon 1-6pm, Tue 1-3pm
Private View: Fri 9 March 5:30-9pm

Title: “ID”

In our show, we investigate the notion of 'individual identity'. Posing the question of “What things does a person need to identify themselves?”, we approach identity through a series of topics – Portraits (Ayaka), Memory (Jenny), and Becoming (Can) - focusing on the 'fixed' and 'changing' potential of a person's identity. Rather than strictly defining in advance what each topic may mean to us, we encourage each viewer to develop their own perspectives through non-verbal thought and appreciation – instigated by viewing the works. Please enjoy the show, and we wish you happy and exciting new perspectives.

Ayaka Gen – Portraits – “see the world filled with love”

In my portraits, I am recording people, showing their lives, and proving their existence. I could make a portrait of anybody. My fine art paintings used to be very emotional. Colours as well as shapes were very significant in telling those emotions. However, when painting portraits, I use a different approach. Portraits are something you keep forever. S in the portraits, I stop showing my emotions. Instead, the sitter becomes the starting point. I start by loving the person, I think about “making someone happy and smile”, and the colour follows. Sometimes I wonder whether the person in the portrait is different from the person who is sitting. Perhaps I am creating an idealized, imaginary, or fantasy version of the sitter. On viewing the portraits, I want people to recognise the love, and use colour rather than shapes to that effect

Tsuin (Jenny) So – Memory

My paintings are a way of finding out about myself and my innermost thoughts. I have noticed that in my paintings, I am expressing the idea of 'searching for light'. I believe that this light represents happiness. So perhaps I am searching for happiness. I have also found myself creating moods of nostalgia. In particular, I long for childhood. Perhaps light and nostalgia counterbalance each other, and form the dynamic of an interplay between opposing forces. Memory forms the foundation for my 'vision qu ts'. Could memory be a means for making a quest into one's own being? Could light be consciousness?

Can Koluman – Becoming

Are my paintings an expression of the stories that my spirit is telling? Based on the development of my work, I know that I am thinking. Yet the thinking involved is silent or non-verbal. And were it not for the resulting paintings, the thoughts might have gone unnoticed. The stories seems to exist in their own right – gradually becoming attached to paintings. The stories as well as my paintings involve people. In this sense, my work could be considered people-centric. I prefer making full-body images, where, rather than facial gestures, body language and mimicry convey sense and expression – in effect, recording the signature of the story through the signature of the person.