Picnic at Hanging Rock Chapter II

Dabin Ahn • Eve Biddle • Emily Coan • Dana DeGiulio • Gwynna Dille • vanessa german • Yaron Michael Hakim • Angela Heisch • Minako Iwamura • Debbie Lawson • Kristine Moran • Øleg&Kaśka

July 27 – September 7, 2024

In Peter Weir’s 1975 film, “Picnic at Hanging Rock,” the contrasting spaces of the visible world, inhabited by prim Victorian school mistresses and dreamy adolescent girls, and the unseen world, embodied by the monolithic ancient rock cropping in the Australian Bush, are brought together is a lush visual union.

Weir’s film is based on Joan Lindsey’s 1967 novel (itself based on a painting from 1875), in which a group of girls vanishes while on a St. Valentine’s Day outing to the countryside.  The film, with its otherworldly light and mystical music, has a transcendental quality that allows the audience to speculate on the girls’ fate, but answers no questions and resolves no mysteries.  

This enigma is the crux of the story, in which longing, repression, and desire meet a timeless force that can be neither explained nor seen.  The difference between looking and seeing are directly addressed by the artists in this exhibition, whose works embody a quality that cannot be directly confronted, but must instead be approached with another set of eyes.

As Lindsey writes: “The thought…would not be denied: a search with dogs and trackers and policemen was only one way of looking, perhaps not even the right way.”

What do we miss when we seek only one explanation — a physical, understandable one – instead of seeing, as the film and exhibition encourage us, beyond what is allowable to our notions of reality?

Dabin Ahn (b. 1988, Seoul, South Korea) is a Chicago-based artist renowned for his canvas paintings, sculptural objects, and installations that delve into the nuanced interplay between perceptual illusion and material history. Central to his recent projects is the exploration of trompe l’oeil techniques—French for "trick of the eye"—which form the foundation of his artistic presentation. Ahn seamlessly integrates elements of humor and the contextual significance of collectible artifacts into his work, offering reflections on personal adolescence while exploring themes of creative, cultural, and individual identity. Ahn holds a BFA and MFA in painting from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and was honored as the 2020 Municipal Art League Fellowship recipient by the same institution. His work has been exhibited at prominent venues including Chicago Manual Style and the Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago, The Green Gallery in Milwaukee, and various international and national exhibitions. Dabin Ahn's practice continues to captivate audiences with its blend of technical prowess, narrative complexity, and profound exploration of perception and identity in contemporary art.

Eve Biddle (b. 1982, Manhattan, NY) is a contemporary American artist and co-founder/co-director of The Wassaic Project, an arts organization. Alongside her husband, Joshua Frankel, she specializes in creating public art murals such as "Queens is the Future," and print art showcased in exhibitions. Additionally, Biddle serves on the board of Working Assumptions, a foundation known for its photographic depictions of pregnant women at work, focusing on the intersection of art and family.

Established in 2008, The Wassaic Project revitalized Wassaic, NY, transforming an unused grain elevator and livestock auction barn into a vibrant hub for emerging artists. Supported by prestigious entities like the Warhol Foundation, Empire State Development Fund, Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, NYSCA, and numerous individual donors, the project fosters community engagement through artist residencies, exhibitions, and diverse programming.

Emily Coan (b. 1991, St. Petersburg, FL) resides and works in New York’s Hudson Valley. She earned her BFA in Sculpture from the University of Florida in 2013 and relocated to New York City in 2015. Coan’s intricately glazed oil paintings delve into themes of femininity, shame, and women’s labor within fantastical realms reminiscent of fairy tales. Throughout her body of work, femininity emerges as a recurring motif—challenging, embracing, and sometimes confining. Reflecting on her artistic journey, Coan recalls a youthful pride in femininity tempered by a cultural landscape that devalues it: “I truly expected misogyny to be figured out by the time I came of age.” Her recent artistic direction reflects a shift towards embracing more optimistic feminine energies from within. 

Coan participated in the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild Residency in 2018 and the Macedonian Institute Residency in 2020. Her recent group exhibitions include  DIMIN, New York; Nino Mier, New York; Monya Rowe Gallery, New York; De Boer, Los Angeles; Gowen Contemporary, Geneva; CH and Kutlesa, Goldau, CH. Spider Silk at DIMIN will be Coan’s fourth solo show in New York and her first with DIMIN.

Dana DeGiulio (b. 1978, Chicago Heights, IL) is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans painting, video, drawing, installation, and writing, deeply informed by themes of edges, touch and the nuances of attention. Her work delves into the interconnectedness of mediums, exploring how painting can articulate concepts as varied as writing and citizenship. DeGiulio’s artistic inquiry is driven by a persistent exploration of means and ends, probing the complexities of existence through her expressive forms.

DeGiulio earned her BFA in 2001 and MFA in 2007 from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In 2022, she presented a significant solo exhibition titled "Live or Die" at the Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT. Her work has been featured in solo and two-person exhibitions at esteemed venues including the California Museum of Photography, Riverside, CA; Carrie Secrist Gallery, Chicago, IL; Iceberg Projects, Chicago, IL; Lyles and King, New York, NY; take care, Los Angeles, CA; and The Suburban, Oak Park, IL.

DeGiulio’s contributions extend to numerous group exhibitions at institutions such as Cooper Cole, Toronto, Canada; Marli Matsumoto, São Paulo, Brazil; Fredric Snitzer Gallery, Miami, FL; Goldfinch, Chicago, IL; ICA at Maine College of Art, Portland, ME; Socrates Sculpture Park, New York, NY; and The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN. Notably, she created a series of animations for SFMoMA’s Open Space program at the invitation of grupa o.k.. DeGiulio is recognized for her dedication to education as an Adjunct Professor of Visual Arts at New York University, New York, NY; Columbia University, New York, NY; and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL. She is also a co-founder of Julius Caesar, an artist-run gallery in Chicago, IL, established with Molly Zuckerman-Hartung, Colby Shaft, Diego Leclery, and Hans-Peter Sundquist. DeGiulio’s work continues to challenge and enrich contemporary discourse through its profound engagement with materiality, narrative, and the poetics of visual expression.

Gwynna Dille (b. 2001, Los Angeles, CA) explores themes of friendship, intimacy, and personal narrative through her art, which lovingly observes both the mundane and the profound. Drawing from a rich tapestry of influences including literature, myth, religion, and personal anecdotes passed down from her father, Dille's work serves as a bridge between her lived experiences and her storytelling. A recent graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design (2023), Dille holds a degree in Painting with a concentration in History, focusing on rituals, rites, and sacred sites in Paganism and Christianity of Northern Europe. Her artistic practice often intertwines these academic interests with personal narratives, transforming everyday moments into allegorical scenes. For instance, inspired by a minor illness diagnosis, she portrays herself as a modern-day Ophelia lounging poolside surrounded by friends who humorously engage with the drama. Similarly, reflections on past experiences with friends are rendered as poignant scenes where they metaphorically "bury their dead" among tombstones. Dille's work invites viewers to contemplate the intersection of personal history, cultural mythologies, and contemporary life. Through her intertextual approach and nuanced storytelling, she challenges conventional narratives and celebrates the complexities of human connection.

vanessa german (b. 1976, Milwaukee, WI) is a self-taught citizen artist working across sculpture, performance, communal rituals, immersive installation, and photography, in order to repair and reshape disrupted systems, spaces, and connections. The artist’s practice proposes new models for social healing, utilizing creativity and tenderness as vital forces to reckon with the historical and ongoing catastrophes of structural racism, white supremacy, heteropatriarchy, resource extraction, and misogynoir. A visual storyteller, german utilizes assemblage and mixed media, combining locally found objects to build protective ritualistic structures known as her power figures. Modeled on Congolese Nkisi sculptures and drawing on folk art practices, they are embellished with materials including beading, glass, fabric, and sculpted wood, and come into existence at the axis on which Black power, spirituality, mysticism, and feminism converge. german’s artistic practice is intertwined with and inextricable from her dedicated role in activism and community leadership.

In 2011, german founded the Love Front Porch, an arts initiative for the women, children, and families of the local neighborhood that began after she moved her studio practice onto the front steps of her home. Three years later, in 2014, german opened the ARThouse, which combines a community studio, a large garden, an outdoor theater, and an artist residency. Upholding artmaking as an act of restorative justice, german confronts and begins to dismantle the emotional and spiritual weight imposed by the multi-generational oppression of African American communities. As a queer Black woman living in the United States, german has described this as a deeply necessary process of adventuring into the wild freedom that the inhabitation of such identities demands. This activist instinct emerges in german’s work to postulate powerful narratives of freedom and love.

In 2022, german was awarded the Heinz Award for the Arts. Other awards include the Don Tyson Prize from the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and the United States Artist Grant in 2018, the Jacob Lawrence Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2017, and the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Grant in 2015. Her work is held in private and public collections including the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR; Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Akron Art Museum, Akron, OH; Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, South Hadley, MA; Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY; Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ; Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, MI and Figge Art Museum, Davenport, IA.

german’s premier exhibition at Kasmin, Sad Rapper, opened in September 2022 to critical praise and was named one of the top fifty exhibitions of that year by Hyperallergic. Her work has been exhibited at museums across the United States, most recently at The Contemporary Dayton, Montclair Art Museum, Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, Figge Art Museum, The Union for Contemporary Art, The Fralin Museum of Art at the University of Virginia, Flint Institute of Arts, Mattress Factory, Everson Museum of Art, Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Studio Museum, Ringling Museum of Art and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. In August 2023, german unveiled a new commission for the exhibition Beyond Granite: Pulling Together on The National Mall in Washington, D.C. Exploring the role of monuments in the telling of American history, the exhibition marks the first organized group art exhibition ever staged on The National Mall.

Yaron Michael Hakim (b. 1980, Bogotá, Colombia) resides and works in Los Angeles. Working across media, Hakim’s practice reflects upon assimilation, living between cultures, and exoticization.  Through detailed, surrealistic depictions of flora and fauna, his paintings on recycled sailcloth investigate translation and migrancy, offering new insights and approaches to understanding hybrid identities, in which the exotic is rendered personal and familiar. In these paintings, as well as in small sculptural works, Hakim reconsiders identity through the lens of speciation, disrupting the established boundaries of self and other, human and animal.

Hakim’s artist book, Yaron Michael Hakim: Psittaciformes was published with Grand Central Art Center and X Artists’ Books in September 2023. The book features a foreword by John D. Spiak, GCAC Director/Chief Curator, a text by poet Amy Gerstler, and a conversation between Hakim and MoCA Senior Curator José Luis Blondet. It received the Bronze award from the Publisher’s Association of the West’s 2023 Book Design Awards  in the Photography/Art/Design Category. 

Hakim received an MFA from the University of California (Irvine, CA) in 2013 and a BFA in Painting from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2002. He has had recent solo exhibitions at Sargent’s Daughters (Los Angeles, CA), California State University (Sacramento, CA), Grand Central Art Center (Santa Ana, CA), Herrnando’s Hideaway (Miami, FL), and LAXART (Los Angeles, CA). His work has been included in group exhibitions at The Floating Gallery (Los Angeles, CA), California State University (San Francisco, CA), Praz-Delavallade (Los Angeles, CA), Art+Chateau (Ladoix-Serrigny, France), The Pit (Los Angeles, CA), BBQLA (Los Angeles, CA); and  The Box (Los Angeles, CA), among others. Hakim’s work has been featured in Los Angeles Magazine, Hyperallergic, Georgia Review, and the Miami New Times, among other publications. He is represented by Sargent’s Daughters.

Angela Heisch (b. 1989, Auckland, NZ) holds a BFA from University at Potsdam, SUNY, NY (2011) and an MFA from University at Albany, SUNY, NY (2014). Renowned for her luminous use of color, Heisch constructs paintings characterized by repeated motifs, sinuous forms, and delicate, gestural lines. Her work draws inspiration from organic forms, patterns in nature, and celestial phenomena, capturing moments of balance and stillness infused with waves of energy and tension. Heisch paints carefully in multi-layered applications of oil on canvas to achieve the desired atmospheric qualities and emotional tenor of the final work. Each composition embodies a sense of movement, juxtaposing elements such as hard and soft, light and dark, flatness and depth. This tension defines her practice, inviting viewers into open-ended explorations of possibility and meaning. Heisch's art has garnered international acclaim and has been showcased in numerous solo and group exhibitions worldwide. Her work has been highlighted in publications such as Maake Magazine, ArtForum, and ArtNews. Currently, her pieces are on display in the group exhibition "Fruit and Fruition" at Grimm Gallery in New York City, running until August 9th.

Minako Iwamura (b. 1967, Australia) received her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. Her artistic practice delves into the intricate interplay of geometry, patterns, and color, exploring their psychological resonances. Iwamura’s oeuvre spans from early series incorporating fractals and natural motifs within her pictorial structures to her current focus on silhouetted vessel forms, evoking symbolic entities.

Fascinated by dualities such as the relationship between geometry and nature, individual and collective consciousness, and the tension between planned delineation and spontaneous gestures, Iwamura’s work captures states of liminality and their psychological implications. Her paintings merge curvilinear forms with nuanced shifts in color, generating compositions that exude dynamic energy. With biomorphic shapes that straddle the abstract and corporeal realms, her artworks evoke a sense of ambiguity and presence.

Recently, Iwamura presented her exhibition BARNSTORM at The Catskills Barn Gallery from July 18th to 21st. Her works have also been showcased at notable venues including JDJ Gallery and Anderson Contemporary in New York, NY; COL Gallery in San Francisco, CA; and White Box in New York, NY, among others. Based in New York City, she continues to live and work in the vibrant artistic milieu of the metropolis.

Debbie Lawson (b. 1966, Dundee, Scotland) lives and works in Kent, England. She holds an MA in Sculpture from the Royal College of Art, a BA (First Class Hons) in Fine Art from Central Saint Martins, and a BA (Hons) in English Literature from the University of East Anglia. Her work is featured in prestigious collections worldwide, including The UK Parliamentary Collection, The Saatchi Gallery, Nottingham Castle Museum, University of the Arts London, and Dundee University. Lawson’s artistic practice unfolds as a series of narrative episodes that invite viewers on a journey through the domestic interior. Her work originates from a minimalist concept of sculpture: patterned carpets serve as outer surfaces, accentuating inherent qualities of form while disrupting them to create a visual interplay between three-dimensional and two-dimensional space. Drawing inspiration from the picaresque narrative tradition, Lawson explores the monumental through the lens of small-scale and domestic contexts, revealing hidden and often unsettling meanings behind seemingly innocuous settings.

Lawson’s recent solo exhibitions include Art In Focus: Debbie Lawson, Rockefeller Center (New York, NY), commissioned by Art Production Fund; The Fergusson Prize: Magic Carpet, Fergusson Gallery (Perth, Scotland); Our House, McManus Gallery and Museum (Dundee, Scotland), supported by the Scottish Arts Council; Living Rooms, Nordisk Kunst Plattform (Brusand, Norway) supported by the British Council; and Chairway to Heaven, Economist Plaza (London, UK), commissioned by the Contemporary Art Society. Recent group exhibitions include Reimag(in)ing The Victorians, Djanogly Gallery (Nottingham, UK); Seeing With Your Feet: The Carpet in Contemporary Art, Museum Villa Rot (Burgrieden, Germany); The 197th Annual Exhibition, The Royal Scottish Academy (Edinburgh, UK); The Turner Contemporary Open, Turner Contemporary (Margate, UK); the 250th Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts (London, UK) where her work was selected by curator/artist Grayson Perry RA, The Ruskin Prize, Millennium Gallery (Sheffield, UK); and Eccentric Spaces, Riccardo Costantini Gallery (Turin, Italy). Lawson’s first US solo exhibition, Hidden Territories, presented by Sargent’s Daughters (New York, NY) opened in February 2024. 

Kristine Moran (b. 1974, Montreal, Canada) is a prominent visual artist with a distinguished career spanning two decades, recognized for her abstract painting practice that intricately weaves autobiographical narratives. Her artistic evolution encompasses various series under overarching thematic explorations, transitioning from figurative-based lyrical abstraction to rigorous geometric forms. Her recent work calls upon a vocabulary of gestures the artist has developed over time to explore ideas surrounding the public garden as a place that reflects historical utopian desires and aspirations.  The artist has consistently explored the possibilities of certain formal elements—such as gesture and, above all, color—combining references to art history, utopian history, and the personal, to create work that is defined by an interplay between the formally composed and the intuitive.

Born in Montreal, Moran earned her BFA from the Ontario College of Art and Design in 2004, followed by an MFA from Hunter College, NYC in 2008. Her work is housed in prestigious collections including the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Glenbow Museum, University of Toronto, and Tom Thomson Art Gallery. She has exhibited widely at renowned galleries such as Monica DeCardenas Gallery in Milan, Western Exhibitions in Chicago, Nicelle Beauchene Gallery and The Hole NYC in New York City, and the Glenbow Museum in Calgary. Moran's contributions to contemporary painting have been featured in Phaidon’s anthology "Vitamin P2: New Perspectives in Painting" and reviewed in leading art publications including Artforum, FlashArt, MOMUS, Hyperallergic, and Artslant.com, as well as in print in NYArts Magazine, Canadian Art Magazine, Bordercrossings, Art Papers, Elle Magazine, and Harper’s.

Øleg&Kaśka is a collective superorganism founded in the summer of 2018. They received their MFA from The University of The Arts in Poznań, Poland, in 2020. Their artistic practice is distinguished by multi-layered installations that envelop viewers, engaging speculative strategies that intertwine past and present, myth and reality, and queerness and alchemy. Employing mediums ranging from painting and sculpture to video and fragrance, Øleg&Kaśka creates immersive environments that prompt viewer engagement. Their practice is grounded in the dilemmas of the Z generation, navigating responsibility amidst global crises. Their hybrid language draws from Eastern European mythologies, legends, and alchemy intertwined with their upbringing in pop culture—an approach to explore escapism, fatalism, hope, societal conditions, gender, and the environment. Through the figure of the quasi-artist, the androgynous Øleg&Kaśka challenges the classical notion of art and the individual artist. Their recent exhibition, "Frightened of The Red Moon," at Suprainfinit Art Gallery in Bucharest, Romania, draws parallels between medieval history, politics, science, alchemy, fairy tales, and contemporary society. Øleg&Kaśka's works have been exhibited widely in prestigious institutions and galleries in Poland and internationally, including Zachęta National Gallery of Art and MoMA in Warsaw, Poland; Suprainfinit Gallery in Bucharest, Romania; Gallery in Poznań, Poland; Gdańsk City Gallery in Gdańsk, Poland; Belinskej Model in Prague, Czech Republic; Spread Museum in Entrevaux, France; Sonneundsolche in Düsseldorf, Germany; PLATFORM Munich in Munich, Germany; Liste Art Fair Basel in Basel, Switzerland; and Felix Art Fair in Los Angeles, CA, among others.