Anna Ortiz
Casco, 2020
Oil on panel
12″ x 16″
Anna Ortiz
Corona, 2020
Oil on panel
12″ x 16″
Anna Ortiz
La Noche, 2020
Oil on panel
30″ x 26″
Anna Ortiz
Hierve el Agu, 2020
Oil on canvas
48″ x 40″
Anna Ortiz
Huehueteotl, 2020
Oil on canvas
72″ x 52″
Anna Ortiz
Dual Citizen, 2019
Oil on panel
8″ x 10″
Anna Ortiz
Ermitaño, 2019
Oil on panel
10″ x 8″
Anna Ortiz
La Ofrenda, 2019
Oil on panel
14″ x 11″
Anna Ortiz
Nublado, 2019
Oil on canvas
27″ x 20″
Anna Ortiz
La Sequía, 2019
Oil on panel
11″ x 14″
Eun-Ha Paek
Egged, 2017
Glazed stoneware and porcelain
9 1/4″ x 6″ x 10 1/2″
Eun-Ha Paek
Ore, 2017
Glazed stoneware
24″ x 12″ x 17″
Eun-Ha Paek
Shed, 2016
Glazed stoneware
4 1/2″ x 5″ x 7 1/2″
Eun-Ha Paek
Urn #2, 2020
Glazed stoneware and wood
4 1/2″ x 2″ x 2″
Eun-Ha Paek
Teleporting , 2021
Glazed stoneware and gold leaf
4″ x 4″ x 5″
Eun-Ha Paek
Poodling Doodling #7, 2017
Glazed 3D printed and handbuilt stoneware
5 1/2″ x 4″ x 5″
Eun-Ha Paek
Jesa, 2021
Glazed stoneware, wax, thread, metal, plastic
4 1/2″ x 5″ x 5″
Eun-Ha Paek
Sphinx, 2021
Glazed stoneware, plastic, resin, wax
5″ x 7 1/2″ x 8 1/2″
Eun-Ha Paek
Untitled Head #1, 2021
Glazed stoneware, plastic, resin
4 1/4″ x 4 1/4″ x 5 1/2″
Eun-Ha Paek
Untitled Head #2 , 2021
Glazed stoneware, plastic, resin
3 1/2″ x 2 1/2″ x 5″
Soft Elegy
March 5th – April 4th, 2021
Curated by Barry Hazard & Katie Hector
The Royal @ RSOAA is pleased to present, Soft Elegy a two-person exhibition curated by Barry Hazard and Katie Hector which features the work of Anna Ortiz and Eun-Ha Paek. Surreal at times and playful at others, the dynamic between Ortiz’s singular-subject paintings and Paek’s biomorphic sculptures capture the dreamy timelessness of the present. .
Like Maya Deren’s Meshes of the Afternoon, Soft Elegy flexes the notion of linear time and guides viewers down a path latent with symbolic queues. For example, the monolithic statues depicted in many of Ortiz’s paintings are informed by Mesoamerican aesthetics and contain within them a metalanguage of grief, longing, and reverence. Rendered in various stages of concealment and transfiguration these emblematic entities rest in situ drenched in the diffused neon glow of a liminal twilight.
Ranging in scale from bust-length vessels to lilliputian figurines, Paek’s ceramic sculptures similarly blur the line between daydream and waking life. Combining earnest playfulness with material precision Paek’s intuitive figuration is akin to works by artists such as Jean Dubuffet, Judith Scott, and Colin Radcliffe. Poodles, people, furniture, and a variety of recurring characters represent observations of an ephemeral self. One that is faceted, permeable, fluid, susceptible to change, and constantly in flux.
Blending together the vision of Ortiz and Paek Soft Elegy displays a range of paradoxes that speak to tension, longing, generational memory, and the enduring depth of the human psyche.