Ophelia Jacarini: ORIGIN On View at LIGHTSTAGE Gallery Thursday, 23 February 2017 through Friday, 3 March 2017 / February 24, 2017 by Kalina King

LIGHTSTAGE GALLERY PRESENTS “ORIGIN”, A SOLO EXHIBITION BY FRENCH ARTIST OPHELIA JACARINI EXPLORING VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE ASPECTS OF THE HUMAN FORM, HER ENDURING INSPIRATION FROM INDIA, AND THE INEXTRICABLE VITALITY OF MOVEMENT INFORMING BEING:

LIGHTSTAGE Gallery is pleased to present “ORIGIN”, a solo exhibition by French-born and Hong Kong-based artist Ophelia Jacarini opening 23 February through 3 March 2017 at LIGHTSTAGE Gallery on 218 Hollywood Road.

The exhibition includes two series of paintings completed 2014 – 2017, organism and subconscient, as well as a large-scale installation comprising two works on fabric the artist painted earlier in February during her in-studio show “ATELIER OPHELIA”. Curated by gallery director Kalina King, “ORIGIN” marks Ophelia’s debut exhibition and first formal art presentation in Hong Kong however established she may be in other spheres of dance and fashion design.

“ORIGIN” is a distillation of her enquiries into the seeds of humanity and visualization of birth and biological creation, the complex relationship between our active mind, our subconscious understanding and our physical bodies in movement, the daunting multiplicity of ways to express the life-force of an organism. Ophelia wields a colourful palette of vivid pinks, oranges and blues and an intimacy with the language of human form and movement to challenge the influence of societal judgements on our perception. Drawn and painted free-hand, her visual works share a practiced looseness and vitality with integrity born of the undoubtable, indelible and ethereal influence of Ophelia’s classical ballet upbringing. Her brushstrokes dance with the cryptic power of kinetic energy, as practiced in her own body and drawn by keen observation of the carriage in others.

“ORIGIN’ moreover cues the personal importance attributed to Ophelia’s origination points in Asia, the watershed of her artistic beginnings. For ORIGIN is inextricably tied to India, whose land first welcomed Ophelia’s feet to Asia in 2013, whose people and energetic vitality captured and has held Ophelia’s heart and interest, and whose vibrant colours, pigments and textures have shaped the visual lexicon of this portfolio of works.

Ophelia Jacarini: ATELIER OPHELIA studio show 1 - 8 February 2017 / January 21, 2017 by Kalina King

“My inspiration came through frustration: constantly asking why and being told ‘because this is the way it is’, my observations of societal norms and implicit judgements, dreaming of removing restrictions or divisions between people, and liberating human movement. Without all the questions I have asked myself, I wouldn’t have started on this investigation.” – Ophelia Jacarini

LIGHTSTAGE Gallery is pleased to present “Atelier Ophelia”, a solo atelier show featuring French painter Ophelia Jacarini. The artist will participate in an exhibition at LIGHTSTAGE later this spring.

Opening 1 – 8 February 2017, this studio show shares Ophelia’s painting process with the public and illuminates the visceral, experimental energy of artistic creation.

The artist will enter and build her ‘pop-up’ studio in the front hall of LIGHTSTAGE with tens of meters of canvas and accompanied by her tools and her talismans of inspiration and artistic reference.

In a week of free-form artistic progress including erasure and revision, Ophelia will work to realise her vision of a finished 15-metre-long canvas painting of liberated and faceless human bodies in movement.

Margot Errante: 20 Years of China — Moments in Shadow on view 6 - 13 Dec 2016 at LIGHTSTAGE Gallery / November 1, 2016 by Kalina King

LIGHTSTAGE GALLERY PRESENTS A FIRST RETROSPECTIVE EXHIBITION OF ARTIST AND AWARD-WINNING PHOTOGRAPHER MARGOT ERRANTE. “20 YEARS OF CHINA — MOMENTS IN SHADOW” (二十年在中國 — 陰霾人生) :

We spend much of our days chasing the light, bright, the stark, the sometimes over-exposed. With a delicate and voluptuous precision, Margot invites us to dance in the dark, to revel in the innuendo of shadows and restraint, and to re-anoint our feelings and memories of China with this, her, journey over two decades to celebrate moments of humanity.

“China to me was very much about silence. This is how I learned to dig deep inside myself.” — Margot Errante

LIGHTSTAGE Gallery is pleased to present “Twenty Years of China – Moments in Shadow” a solo retrospective exhibition of works by internationally acclaimed Italian photographer and artist Margot Errante.

This exhibition comprises a participatory projection installation and sound installation and a collection of photographic works accompanied by written texts. The images represent Margot’s moments of China spanning from 1996 through 2016 through a country she has identified with as ‘home’ from a young age. “Twenty Years of China” neither purports to be documentary nor another compilation of historic moments nor a national narrative. The collection is bound together by the overarching theme of stories of humanity and Margot’s evolving relationship with the land, its people, and her artistic eye.

Often minimally-lit and drawing influence if not inspiration from chiaroscuro technique, Margot plays with light and shadow to draw attention to what might otherwise be unseen or overshadowed, seeking ever to transmit emotion rather than describe in explicit granularity.

Each photograph thus invites a reflective exchange between the recognition of Margot’s vision, her scaffolding of light and emotion, and the onlooker’s individual exploration of the stories suspended in the shadows of each photograph, the details shaped by stirred memories, their individual experience and imagination.