Recollection

&

Relazioni Pericolose

OPENING RECEPTION
November 2, 2019 | 7pm - 11pm

ON VIEW
November 2 – December 7, 2019

Miho Hirano’s “Dialogue” and Nicoletta Ceccoli’s “Safe from Harm”

Click here for sample of exhibit images

Downtown Los Angeles’ Corey Helford Gallery is proud to announce solo shows from Japan-based artist Miho Hirano and San Marinian artist Nicoletta Ceccoli, opening November 2nd in Gallery 3.

CHG was honored to showcase Miho Hirano's first exhibit in the U.S. in 2017 and are even more excited to present her newest body of work, entitled Recollection. Hirano is known for her dreamy oil paintings, inhabited by ephemeral spirits at one with their natural environment. Each of her paintings represents a world where humans and nature can coexist, communicating a delicate beauty through the use of soft colors and fluid brushstrokes.

Regarding her increasingly well-known style of painting, Miho shares: “I'm trying to express a single landscape on the canvas through the motif of nature and accessories that are familiar to the viewer. I have been working on this concept for a long time, but this time, I made it with the theme of Recollection or remembrance. The world I draw is ‘fancy’ but I often realize that my imagery is based on my memories and experiences and I realized that I’m creating works that look back on my life’s memories. This new body of work expresses the emotion and scenes of my past, with a little sadness and healing, and sometimes soaked in sentiment.”

Ceccoli’s new show, entitled Relazioni Pericolose, which translates to “Dangerous Liaisons,” is a beautiful and bizarre wonderland dreamworld you don’t want to miss. There is a sense of impending seductive jeopardy behind each of the works from the world-renowned children’s book illustrator. Child-like fantasy scenes are punctuated with anxieties from the artist’s adulthood: choices that must be made, demons that haunt us, and the beauty that conceals the danger. Sometimes, precarious girls can be seen enticing the man, while in other works, the girls are seduced by evil creatures in a struggle between the omnipresent forces of love and death, pleasure and pain. Ceccoli shares, “These new works embody many of the recurring themes and obsessions that inhabit my universe and reveal my ‘darker sides’: the fear of being hunted, hurt by others, losing myself in a relationship, both fear and desire of taking possession of the beloved, and falling under the control of someone else.”

Relazioni Pericolose is the result of Ceccoli’s inner duality transposed and given a narrative. The narratives often tap into the world of the funny and macabre, the pretty and violent, the disturbing and delectable. Ceccoli shares, “I make up visual stories that address the dilemmas, illusions and fears that are so personal, yet are also universal. Just like in life, there is duality in my work. Nothing is completely black or white. A story that is either all good or all evil feels like it is missing something. Life is like that as well - you can’t have the good without the bad.”

Recollection and Relazioni Pericolose open Saturday, November 2nd from 7:00pm-11:00pm in Gallery 3, alongside a solo show from Handiedan, entitled Torus, in the Main Gallery and a solo show from Nicole Gordon, entitled Despite the Fantasy, in Gallery 2. Corey Helford Gallery is located at 571 S. Anderson St. Los Angeles, CA 90033 and normal hours are Tuesday – Saturday, from 12pm - 6pm.

About Miho Hirano:
Based in Chiba, Japan, Japanese artist Miho Hirano first studied at the Musashino Art University, and began painting professionally soon after her graduation in 2008. Her dreamy oil paintings are inhabited by ephemeral spirits at one with their natural environment, whose hair flows into flowering tree branches or flowing strands of seaweed. She adorns their hair with accessories made of flora and fauna like swarming bees, hummingbirds, and goldfish, each carrying their own weight as elements of beauty and symbols of Hirano’s identity. In essence, each of her paintings represents a world where humans and nature can coexist. In 2016, Hirano exhibited for the first time in the United States with “Beauties of Nature” at Corey Helford Gallery in Los Angeles.

About Nicoletta Ceccoli:
Nicoletta Ceccoli is a San Marinian artist who is known for her richly detailed, dreamlike work. She was born in and still lives in the Republic of San Marino and studied animation at the Institute of Art in San Marino, Italy. She has illustrated many books with U.S., UK, Italian, Swiss and Taiwanese publishers, among her clients are Random House, Mondadori, Simon and Shuster, Barefoot Books, Greem Press, Fabbri, Arka, Fatatrac, Europacorp, Macy, Diesel, Houghton Mifflin, Henry Holt, Mc Cann Lowe, United Airlines, Vogue.

Her work has been exhibited and sold internationally. Ceccoli has won the Andersen Prize, honoring her as the best children's book illustrator in Italy.

About Corey Helford Gallery:
Corey Helford Gallery (CHG) was first established in 2006 by Jan Corey Helford and her husband, television producer and creator, Bruce Helford (The Conners, Anger Management, The Drew Carey Show, George Lopez) and has since evolved into one of the premier galleries of New Contemporary art. Its goals as an institution are the support and growth of young and emerging, to well-known and internationally established artists.

CHG represents a diverse collection of international artists, primarily influenced by today’s pop culture and collectively encompassing style genres such as New Figurative Art, Pop Surrealism, Neo Pop, Graffiti and Street Art. CHG is located in Downtown Los Angeles in a robust 12,000 square foot building presenting new exhibitions approximately every six weeks.

For more info and an upcoming exhibition schedule, visit CoreyHelfordGallery.com and connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.

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