Invisible Rituals — a group exhibit featuring work by noted artists Flying Knight (aka Jayda Knight,) Jun Kuang, Joe Velez and Wei Yan — deftly explores the ways in which perception shapes aspects of contemporary representational painting. Where pattern, repetition and atmosphere appear vibrantly in the paintings and mixed-media work by Flying Knight (aka Jayda Knight) and Jun Kuang, works by Joe Velez and Wei Yan display a keen, concentrated self-awareness and psychological depth. Works by Velez present nuanced yet structured subject matter, while in Yan’s paintings, subjects appear contorted or concealed. Figuration forms the crux of the exhibit, while meaning appears clouded under the auspice of mystery: intimated by a knowing glance, a gesture, a curve, or en edge. Each artwork appears to hold the truth just out of reach, whether behind patterns, a turned shoulder, or just beyond the horizon line.
Where Velez suffuses his subjects with expressions that intimate a deep longing or self-confidence, aligned with Old Masters portrait painters such as Diego Velazquez and Francisco Goya, other artworks on view take a more oblique approach. Wei Yan’s paintings depict inscrutable figures whose bodies are obscured or only partially revealed. Her adroit curvilinear sensibilities only add to the sense of deliberate obfuscation embedded within these compositions. Unnatural colors and curves meander through Jun Kuang’s otherworldly compositions, while Flying Knight combines disparate elements to form unified and unexpected whole tableaux that feel mythic yet germane to our present day moment. Each artist perceives aspects of the world around them and shapes a visual experience for the viewer that feels prescient and fantastical, yet furtive. On view from May 28 - July 4, 2026, this daring and curious group survey explores contemporary approaches to representational painting ripe with a sense of curiosity, questioning us to reflect on the ways in which we view the world we inhabit: both the reality in front of our eyes and the version that is shaped by our imagination.
