Prior to the Christmas holiday weekend I had the pleasure of dropping by Andrew Hem’s studio to check on progress for his upcoming solo show this January. Hem has been working on a new body of work focused on his memory and study of his native Cambodia. The show is titled “One Leads to Another” and is driven by the mythical “Butterfly Effect” – in which the theory goes that any action creates consequences and new actions from anyone and everything around it.
In this case Hem considers the possibility of lives transformed had the Khmer Rouge never taken power in his native country. The idea is fantastically executed in his series of dark blue hued paintings – where a sense of the emotional resonance behind each central figure and the detailed environments behind them is evoked at first glance.
Hem is still working on a series of sculptures that will balance the new paintings and I expect it to be an incredible body of work all around. For more preview images visit my blog on: DailyduJour.com
Andrew Hem
‘One Leads to Another’
LeBasse Projects
Saturday January 16th, 7-10pm
