Strange Fauna
ChiaoHan Chueh
15 Sep. – 28 Oct. 2023
Future Gallery is proud to present Strange Fauna, a solo exhibition featuring new paintings by Taiwanese-artist ChiaoHan Chueh. Her work delves deep into the recesses of psychological landscapes, where symbolic and metaphorical narratives emerge within her partially figurative compositions. Her creative process is a delicate dance of composition, color, and distortion.
Within Chueh’s work, one encounters scenes that teeter on the precipice of danger and imbalance, reminding us that even our daily routines are intertwined with the unknown, capable of dramatic transformations at any moment. These paintings in Strange Fauna are deeply connected to emotional memory, offering a retrospective glimpse into the artist’s world where memories change, people evolve, and the past is often revisited as a solitary observer.
Chueh’s unintuitive juxtaposition of color creates an ambiguity in the compositions; airy light pastel tones which evoke positive vibes are in extreme proximity to harsher grays and darker hues which recall scenarios of conflict resulting in a layer of obscurity. In the work CPR Practice Under Coconut Tree, CPR training, a noble act of saving lives, is portrayed in a manner that straddles the line between violent imagery and a playful student jest, offering a glimpse into potential tragedy in a tropical climate under a coconut tree. Further ambiguity of form can be imagined in the composition Romantic Scene at Pacific Ocean Chueh revels in illustrating intimacy, depicting lovers, partners, and classmates engaged in simple yet profound interactions by the sea at sunset, where emotions and bodies take on a romantic fragility.
In Strange Fauna, ChiaoHan Chueh invites us to navigate the intricate labyrinth of her artistic imagination. Chueh’s masterful evocation of emotional memory invites us to wander through the corridors of our own recollections, where time and people shift like shadows in a perpetual movement.
ChiaoHan Chueh (1989* Taiwan) graduated with an MFA from Hamburg Art Academy. Recent exhibitions include: Nunu Fine Art (Taipei, Taiwan) and XX space (Seoul, Korea); and group shows at Newwave Space (Reykjavík, Iceland), Kunstraum Kreuzberg (Berlin, Germany), and Ne’na Contemporary Art Space (Chiang Mai, Thailand). In 2019, Chueh was awarded the DAAD Stipendium in the Fields of Fine Art. She has participated in artist residencies including at Somos Art House A.I.R (Berlin, Germany), Ne’na Contemporary Art Space (Chiang Mai, Thailand), and Pier-2 Art Center (Kaohsiung, Taiwan).
