Pearl Lam Galleries presents “The Evanescent”, the latest group exhibition featuring a collection of works by eight prominent international artists. Featuring significant works by Jana Benitez (b. 1985, USA), Dale Frank (b. 1959, Australia), Mr Doodle (b. 1994, UK), Michal Korman (b. 1987, Slovakia, based in France), A.A. Murakami (b. 1983, UK & b. 1984, Japan), Thukral and Tagra (b. 1976 & 1979, India), Zhang Jianjun (b. 1955, China) and Zhu Jinshi (b. 1954, China), “The Evanescent acknowledges” the innate temporal and sensible qualities that are embodied by an artwork. By embracing the ephemeral nature of our visual experience, the grouping of artworks aims to connect with audiences and allow new meanings to emerge.
Jana Benitez
Jana Benitez’s painting practice explores concepts of Buddhism, Daoism, and Tantra, using the medium as a mindful, somatic exploration. Her gestural, vibrant works oscillate between abstraction and figuration, conveying a sense of fullness and emptiness, presence and absence. Hitting on a Sunbeam, Isadora and Valley Spirit are all critical examples that serve as meta-manifestations of philosophical and spiritual ideals, offering art as a form of healing.
Dale Frank
Dale Frank’s paintings engage the audience subconsciously through universal codes like colour and form, transporting non-verbal communication to a physical dimension. His works depict abstract impressions, emitting a pop sheen and jewel-like luminosity. Frank’s peculiar artwork titles inject another psychological dimension to his works that often propose uncertain outcomes. His perspex paintings shown in this exhibition emphasise the schizophrenic quality of the materials and challenge viewers to contemplate their own interpretation of what they see.
Mr Doodle
Mr Doodle’s graphic style, often featuring black ink on white backgrounds, creates a mesmerising world of quirky, anthropomorphic forms. His free-hand doodles, seen in works like Dusty Flowers and Day, emerge with a fluid, hypnotic rhythm, filling surfaces and spilling out to cover the world. As a form of release or meditation, his process is fluid, therapeutic, and uncalculated, channelling his imagined land into ours and seeking to spread a sense of wonder, mayhem, and hope, while exploring his place in the universe.
Michal Korman
Michal Korman finds inspiration in the natural world, transforming plants, flowers, and gardens on canvas. Fascinated by light, colour, and form, he adds ornamental “motifs” to interrupt their presence. Korman works in oil paint using a super-flat, cloisonné-style technique with music as a strong source of inspiration. His style conveys a sense of timelessness, as the cut flowers in his latest alluring painting series, The Flowers of the Twelve Months, do not wilt. Though he avoids overtly political themes, Korman’s work is imbued with personality, focusing on the quiet, everyday moments of life. He sees painting as an intellectual activity, aiming to engage the viewer beyond the surface of his subjects.
Thukral and Tagra
Thukral and Tagra’s artworks blur the lines between art and popular culture. Their playful works comment on the globalisation of consumer culture and its impact on Indian identity. Their Mythological Induction series narrates the story of Kalki, the final incarnation of Lord Vishnu, reflecting on how society is conditioned to think about God and prayer. The series probes the connection between the spiritual and the mathematical. The artist duo delves into their subconscious and questions our reliance on conventional belief systems and institutional structures. Rather than adhere to the formal language of Western modernism, they opt for instinctive working processes to project a prophetic vision of a new future.
Zhang Jianjun
The core of Zhang Jianjun’s artistic practice is his use of ink and water to explore Daoist concepts of time and existence. His First Drop of Water series (2015–16) connects the past and present, building on his earlier Pond series (1990s) that celebrated the versatility of form. Across his oeuvre, Zhang employs geometric forms from traditional Chinese paintings to depict the material-universal relationship and water as a symbolic motif to visualise Daoist beliefs, reflecting the influence of Oriental cosmology and existentialism in his abstract paintings.
A.A. Murakami
Day 1 is a large translucent coloured gradient glass panel by the artist duo A.A. Murakami, which captures daylight from the gallery to create a more natural experience. Drawing inspiration from the Metabolism architectural movement in post-war Japan, the duo bridges technological advancement with vernacular aesthetics to investigate the cultural, historic, and economic changes of the postmodern world. Driven by a fascination with materials and how they shape human societies, A.A. Murakami seeks to occupy the blurred line between dream and reality by combining material research with new technology and their backgrounds in art and architecture. Their interdisciplinary practice celebrates the cyclical and metamorphic relationships between nature, the built environment, and the human body.
Zhu Jinshi
Zhu Jinshi’s paintings Thirty Ways No. 1 and Thirty Ways No. 2 embody fleeting experiences through inert substances, inviting viewers to explore the intersection of metaphor and materiality with Taoist philosophy. The artist’s distinctive “thick painting” style utilises heavy, textured applications of colour to create sculptural, three-dimensional effects. The expressive power of his paintings derives from the fluidity of the paint itself, reflecting a Taoist-inspired perspective that views the works as self-contained visual systems. His unconventional tools, like palettes and shovels, imbue the paintings with a sense of monumental, natural forces.