Allouche Gallery is thrilled to announce Untamable Spirit, a dynamic group exhibition featuring 3 contemporary artists from around the globe, premiering on Saturday, September 7th in Los Angeles with an opening reception from 5-8 pm. Untamable Spirit brings together three female artists of Asian heritage, divergent in subject matter, style, and medium. Hannah Yata will be joined by Kyungmin Park and Sophie- Yen Bretez in this showcase of otherworldly femininity with influences rooted in each artists’ Asian heritage.
Hannah Yata utilizes the intricate technique of great masters in her all-consuming paintings, transporting viewers to her world of whimsy and play. Yata’s paintings serve as a personal narrative, exploring themes of female empowerment, spirituality, and ecological transformation. Bold and confrontational, her figures and nature-inspired psychedelic language take viewers on a journey, encouraging them to perceive the world through a fresh perspective. Yata skillfully manipulates mythical and feminine motifs as extensions of nature, prompting contemplation of the reality or surreality inherent in the stories that shape our existence. Her colossal female forms initiate us into their world and play in the realm of both the material and spiritual.
Hannah Yata has received incredible praise for her technical skill-set and distinct voice, with headlining publications in Hypeart, Juxtapoz, Hi-Fructose, and Beautiful Bizarre, among others. Her works have been exhibited internationally at esteemed gallery, art fair, and museum showings.
Kyungmin Park is a South Korean-born artist, favoring ceramics as her tool of expressing themes of introspection, diversity, and human connections across cultures and language. After two decades in South Korea, Park moved to the United States. Experiencing a new language and culture and the many challenges faced as an immigrant is expressed in her figurative sculptures, which serve as a vessel to
communicate emotions, experiences, and ideas without the limitations that words and customs can impose.
Kyungmin earned her BFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University in 2008 and her MFA from the University of Georgia in 2012. She currently lives and works in Boston and is an Associate Professor at Endicott College in Beverly, MA. She has conducted over 40 workshops and lectures at various art institutions. Park has exhibited internationally with a multitude of esteemed galleries as well as a strong museum presence, having shown with Fuller Craft Museum, The Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, and the Canton Museum of Art to name a few.
Sophie-Yen Bretez’s soft yet sharp approach to resilience reflects an autobiographical portrayal of her personal journey. The Vietnamese-born artist moved to France at the age of four, providing a rich and unique tapestry of cultural touchstones. Bretez’s nude female subjects unfalteringly engage with the viewer, asserting identity and control unapologetically. As an adopted French-Asian woman, Bretez draws from the rich plurality of her identity in her surrealistic and dreamy representations of strength. A strategic insertion of symbols into her paintings creates a puzzle of imagery to deconstruct. From the faces of playing cards, to fortune cookies, to insightful written passages, Bretez’s paintings are a playful game to put together, with each piece providing more insight into the artist’s distinct perspective and personal vulnerabilities. Having started painting professionally in just 2022, Bretez has quickly garnered incredible respect in the art world, exhibiting with esteemed galleries in London, Bangkok, and Minorca, among others.
