Solo flights
In a small art scene of many gallery hoppers incestuously propping each other with selfcongratulatory blurbs, premiere solo shows are exciting events. In induction exhibits such as Edric Go’s “Under the Hammer” and Beejay Esber’s “We’re Now Floating in Narrowed Space”—both exciting additions to the expanding catalog of the still-getting-known Secret Fresh Gallery (SFG)—there
lives the hope for new figures to stir up the game and to build on what are freshly started. With gallery owner Bigboy Cheng’s inclination for changing mindsets, these two artists’ works look just the part to do the job.
Shaped by his degree in advertising, his early exposure to local comics as well as to video games, to icons of the 1980s and 1990s, and to the pop surrealist Todd Schorr, Go promises a high concept—that art is a hammer that shapes society. But rather than getting trapped in a “deep” passé, he paints it literally. “My interpretation of that [concept] enabled me to play on my fantasies and create situations as solutions,” he says.
Esber, on the other hand, is as preoccupied with music as much as art. His bands—the shoegaze Tether, the punk Dropouts, the electronic Toshi Andoroid, and spacey Dayuhan— illustrate his interest in all beings, in all states. Of the show’s “narrowed space,” he says, “It is the present society that has a tendency of dictating people’s actions and thoughts.” Where the literal is tempting, he goes all
figurative — the controlling image condensed into sets of glowing, hypnotic eyes.
“I’m just juxtaposing everything to create a composition that brings out my ideas,” says Go. In his flights of fancy, “Art Eater, Zombie Painter,
and Biased Critic” belong to once story (sounds familiar?). Esber says, “I get ideas from favorite film scenes, interesting music lines, and usapang lasing with artist friends.” His statement paintings on the city’s loss of natural views will be cramped into the gallery’s partitioned area. For this pair, time hasn’t been so right and so ripe.
Edric Go and Beejay Esber’s solo shows will open tomorrow, 2 June 2012 at Secret Fresh Gallery