Adele Mills, Eat Cake (All Photos By Gail)

One of our favorite places in Chelsea to see new and interesting art, C24 Gallery is currently hosting YELL-O, a group exhibition featuring work by J. Mikal Davis, Nick Gentry, Adele Mills and Ekaterina Panikanova. This one is must see!

The show’s title is a play on words, referring to the act of ‘Yell’-ing “O!” and the color yellow itself. Yellow symbolizes warmth, summer and happiness. YELL-O brings together a vibrant group of international artists who conceptually and literally reinterpret materials within their practice.

J. Mikal Davis a.k.a. Hellbent (USA) has achieved acclaim for his unique street art and public murals throughout New York City and Europe, which fuse intense colors to create a bold, freeform geometry. Davis employs a variety of techniques that add a unique 3D quality to his work, including ornate stenciling of neoclassical patterns that create a kaleidoscope “quilt” of color in cubist patterns.

The patterns remind me of a bunch of men’s ties laid out together. Instead of a paintbrush, Davis often uses found materials and aerosol paint. Here Davis presents works from his most recent series, taking his signature street technique and translating it onto canvas to create a post-pop twist on Op Art.

Nick Gentry (UK) integrates obsolete technology into his artwork, primarily floppy disks and film negatives, placing an emphasis on recycling outdated media and reusing objects. I appreciate his use of upcycled materials! His work reflects on the quick pace of technology and how easily we forget what is deemed obsolete.

On exhibition are Gentry’s portraits of anonymous strangers that examine identity. The portraits incorporate floppy disks sent to him from around the world, with each disk containing an individual’s anonymous personal files.

Adele Mills (USA) creates otherworldly, multi-dimensional artworks by combining slightly different photographs of the same object or two entirely different illusions, resulting in changing, seemingly moving image. Hers’ are my favorites pieces from the show. See details from the above work just below.

Mills achieves this engaging effect by creating a layered visual – a digitally printed photograph based on paper or linen, merged with painted acrylics on layers of transparent silk. Mills will present work from her most recent series, Parallax Gap, which explores the representation of simultaneous stillness and collision. Just gorgeous.

Ekaterina Panikanova (Russia) paints across large spreads of old books and other documents mounted on wood, resulting in artwork that blurs the lines between painting, installation and collage. She arranges found books, notebooks and prints from different eras into an irregular grid, creating an unconventional canvas of disjointed surfaces.

In this exhibit you will see Panikanova’s new work that creates a striking visual synthesis of drawings, mapping a vivid journey into the subconscious through images and symbols. Very fun!

YELL-O: A Group Exhibition will be on Exhibit Through August 23rd, 2104 at C24 Gallery in the Chelsea Gallery District.