Paradigm Gallery + Studio is pleased to present Encapsulate featuring new artwork by Branche Coverdale, Danielle SeeWalker, and Kay Seohyung Lee.

Since the first humans, visual literacy has been a key element in the passing down of personal and community histories. The art of storytelling continues to evolve as generational cohorts morph and adapt to change. Each generation’s standout storytellers take on the task of encompassing the narrative of a people in a way that lives beyond a tale’s initial telling. Through their distinct cross-sections of cultural archives, each artist speaks to ethereal energy and timeless ancestral knowledge that connects the past to the present day, turns visual anecdote into allegory.

Looking at each artist’s collection, the viewer can feel the importance, the urgency, and the lasting message of what they are creating. This contemporary artwork isn’t only for the now or for the history books. The reverberations of these visual stories are already continuing into the future, even gaining importance and relevance over time. ENCAPSULATE: Storytelling Through Artwork by Branche Coverdale, Danielle SeeWalker, and Kay Seohyung Lee will be on view on the second floor of the Paradigm Arts Building (12 N. 3rd St) starting December 6, 2024 through January 5, 2025, with a public reception on Friday, December 6th from 6:00-8:00 pm.

Branche Coverdale is an artist based in Philadelphia. Originally from Yonkers, New York, Branche works in an expressive and playful manner inspired from silkscreen methods he acquired during his time at Rhode Island School of Design, seamlessly combining cartoons, pop culture, and his experiences in major cities in his playful and vibrant art. In particular, he traveled between New York and Japan for years as a studio assistant for Takashi Murakami. He celebrates the fusion of these influences, exploring themes such as city life, representation, and the blurred lines between reality and fiction, using iconic symbols that have shaped our collective consciousness. He is currently working as a full time illustrator as well as working in painting and fine arts.

Please email info@paradigm-gallery.com to request to be added to Branche Coverdales's digital collector preview list for all of his upcoming projects and exhibitions. You may also submit your request HERE.

Danielle SeeWalker

Danielle SeeWalker is a Húŋkpapȟa Lakȟóta citizen of the Standing Rock Sioux Nation in North Dakota. She is a mother, artist, muralist, writer, curator, activist and businesswoman and is currently based in Denver, Colorado. Her visual artwork often incorporates the use of mixed media and experimentation while incorporating traditional Native American materials, scenes, and messaging. Storytelling is an integral part of her artwork and pays homage to her identity as a Lakȟóta wíŋyaŋ as well as her passion to redirect the narrative to an accurate and insightful representation of contemporary Native America while still acknowledging historical events.

Alongside her work as a visual artist, Danielle is a freelance writer and recently published her first book, titled “Still Here: A Past to Present Insight of Native American People & Culture.” She is also very dedicated to staying connected and involved to the Native American community on the Denver American Indian Commission for the past five years and two-years as Chair. Through her work on the Commission, she has been able to be involved in several pieces of legislation that has directly affected her Native American community – including a law to abolish derogatory Native American mascots in schools (2021) and to create an Office and Liaison for Missing & Murdered Indigenous Relatives (MMIR) investigations (2022 and 2023). Danielle considers herself a “artivist” as she is able to voice many important topics through her artwork but also be boots on the ground to make change happen.

Danielle has also been working on a long-term personal project since 2013 with her long-time friend called The Red Road Project. The focus of the work is to document, through words, photographs, and video, what it means to be Native American in the 21st century by capturing inspiring and positive stories of people and communities within Indian Country. She recently evolved that project into a non-profit organization with a division to provide cultural arts opportunities to Native American people residing in urban areas.

SeeWalker’s collection will be supplemented with a parfleche painting workshop the artist will be teaching in person in the gallery.

Parfleche Painting Workshop
Saturday, December 7th, 2024 • 12 PM & 3:00 PM
Get your tickets here

Please email info@paradigm-gallery.com to request to be added to Danielle SeeWalker's digital collector preview list for all of her upcoming projects and exhibitions. You may also submit your request HERE.

Kay Seohyung Lee

"Dark"

Kay Seohyung Lee was born in 1995 in Seoul, Korea. She grew up next to the US Army Garrison Yongsan Base, in a neighborhood saturated with remnants of war, Japanese occupation and expectations of upcoming social conflicts. Lee was raised learning how to pronounce English words before she could even write in Korean, watching movies where people of color served as background props and their languages treated as noises, playing games where bodies like hers were treated as villains and sexual spectacles. She left her pain-filled country and moved to the US when she was 14 on a student visa, where she was constantly othered, and led her to foster intense hatred towards her culture, tongue, religion and body. Despite spending half of her life in the US, American society continues to remain an unsolvable mystery to Lee. English as a language doesn't make much sense to her still, and seeing things like that particular hot pink concession stand selling pizza and fried chicken in the midst of the January 6th US Capitol attack confuses yet amuses her. Whenever she returns to Seoul, she finds herself labeled as a foreigner and an outsider, where she is asked to use her English name instead of her Korean name in the art world. Absurdity, chaos, and solitude inspire and drive her practice.

What shapes Lee’s work, however, is Asian perspectivalism. Her work focuses on creating a psychological field of events, where multiple instances of embrace and violence exist on a singular plane. The repeated use of the same figures, all Asian women, can either function as a Japanese scroll painting-like representation of the progression of a singular event, or as a diorama, a multitude of interactions and events frozen in time. Korean Buddhist and Taoist philosophy of the world, especially the concept of “Samramansang,” - all things exist between the sky and earth, not only physical beings but also includes abstract beings such as phenomena, narratives, and emotions - informs and Lee’s exploration of the fluidity between the tangible and intangible, allowing her work to serve as a space where conflicting forces merge and coexist. Lee’s work is not about victory or resolution. Lee focuses on failures, losses, grief, and the complete, utter mess of the world we live in. There is a sense of relief in admitting that we are in a mess - its comforting because it is easier to not see the bigger picture. Instead, we obsess over small joys and tragedies, which overwhelm us on a minute-scale. Lee uses social images (memes, morally inept advertisements, product images) and inside jokes she shares with the world to examine her complex relationships with her own body, gender identity, sexuality, religion, culture, language, relationships, and surroundings. Hatred, embrace, and mild discomfort coexist in the dreamscapes she creates through paintings, drawings, sculptures,
installations, and VR art.

Kay Seohyung Lee was born in 1995 in Seoul, Korea. Lee earned her BFA from Washington University in St. Louis in 2018 and her MFA from the University of Pennsylvania in 2021. Her works have been shown in Seoul, Gimpo, Seongnam, Gongju, St. Louis, New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Paris. Lee currently lives and works in Philadelphia.

Please email info@paradigm-gallery.com to request to be added to Kay Seohyung Lee's digital collector preview list for all of her upcoming projects and exhibitions. You may also submit your request HERE.

OPENING RECEPTION
Friday, December 6, 2024
6:00 – 8:00 PM
RSVP here*
*appreciated but not required

EXHIBITION HOURS

Thursdays • 10 AM – 6 PM
Fridays • 10 AM – 6 PM
Saturdays • 11 AM – 6 PM
Sundays • 11 AM – 5 PM
And by appointment outside of hours.

For all inquiries contact info@paradigm-gallery.com 

About Paradigm Gallery + Studio
Paradigm Gallery + Studio® was established in 2010 by co-founders and curators, Jason Chen and Sara McCorriston. The gallery exhibits meaningful, process-intense contemporary artwork by emerging and mid-career artists from around the world, with a focus on Philadelphia. In 2023, Paradigm moved locations and opened its new 5-story, 7,000 sq. ft. home, The Paradigm Arts Building, in Old City, Philadelphia. Open to the public, the building boasts multiple floors of exhibition space, integrated in-house design and printmaking, a dedicated events floor, and art advisory offices. With this, Chen and McCorriston expanded their vision for the greater Philadelphia arts community. The gallery is at the heart of this vision, anchoring Paradigm’s overall mission of increasing access to the commercial art world, supporting artists and advancing their careers, and collaborating with like-minded partners to build a more equitable, sustainable arts economy for all.