101/EXHIBIT presents Koi No Yokan II, a group exhibition co-curated by New York City curator and artist Colette Robbins and gallery director Kevin Van Gorp. This is the second annual installment of the Koi No Yokan summer invitational. The exhibition will be accompanied by a forthcoming full-color 46-page catalog. The opening reception with the artists will be held on Saturday, June 7th, from 7 – 10pm, and will conclude on July 26th. 101/EXHIBIT is located in Hollywood at 6205 Santa Monica Blvd on the corner of North El Centro Ave, one block east of Vine St.

Koi No Yokan (Japanese) is a truly beautiful concept. It can be defined as the sense one can have upon first meeting another person that the two of them are going to fall in love. In other words, it is the knowledge one has that he/she is going to fall in love with another person. This differs from the idea of “love at first sight” in that it does not imply that the feeling of love exists, rather it refers to the knowledge that a future love is inevitable.

— Nita Sharma, "Untranslatable Words," High Tower Flashes (July 24, 2013).

For the second annual Koi No Yokan summer invitational, 101/EXHIBIT continues to explore new relationships with artists in flourishing states of practice, either emerging or mid-career. As is often the case, the gallery system involves being confronted with non-gallery artists whose work nonetheless commands strict attention, yet neither party can immediately expound upon the new relationship due to scheduling, program direction, and other gallery dynamics. Despite this speed bump, time is kind and destinies curve towards an intersection. This instance is explored in our annual survey.

Over this past year, through inter-gallery relationships, we were fortunate to meet Colette Robbins who came to us with the notion of exploring the usage of semiotics amongst practitioners of contemporary art. With the proliferation of Taschen’s The Book of Symbols seemingly popping up in personal book collections of friends and colleagues everywhere, this proposition proved to be a relevant direction of potential.

After numerous tentative and energetically charged conversations regarding Carl Gustav Jung’s work and research into the Archive for Research in Archetypical Symbolism (who authored Taschen’s recent mystic encyclopedia, The Book of Symbols), a call + response scenario was developed that would inspire the participants to delve into a mode of self exploration to investigate the existence of any recurring symbolic motifs in their work.

Five artists were ultimately chosen to realize these four points:

1. Provide works that are evidence of past usage of a particular recurring symbol.

2. Explore and include personal objects that support the preoccupation with said symbol.

3. Write a short essay of 200 words to literally or poetically contextualize one’s findings.

4. Create new works that strategically refine and further realize the chosen symbol.

The artists selected for participation are: Tanya Batura (LA), Michelle Hinebrook (NYC), Rachel Roske (LA), Kristen Schiele (NYC), and Colette Robbins (NYC).

Each artist will occupy their own section of the gallery in order for the viewer to compare and contrast the artists’ responses. As five different answers to the same criteria are presented, the casual show attendee and aficionados of theoretical underpinnings alike will share in the opportunity to gain greater insight into various forms of contemporary artistic process.

TANYA BATURA – THE HEAD, THE EYE, THE GHOST: Los Angeles sculptor Tanya Batura creates work with a tendency for the absurd, incongruous, and dispossessed. The scale of her disembodied heads challenges their materiality, transforming the parameters of ceramics from the familiar towards a commanding sculptural form. The dialogue between the geometric and biological gestures in these forms turns the idea of sculptural figuration on its ear, creating a delicate balance between the sensual and the monumental. The anonymity of the non-gaze these figures engages the viewer in a meditation on creator and the created.

MICHELLE HINEBROOK – COLOR: New York painter Michelle Hinebrook works within geometric abstraction, bearing varied experiences such as memory, sensation, revelation, and material experimentation. The information encoded in her work is veiled by a fragmented construction of explosive light, color, and space. The work recalls a thorough exploration of faceting patterns and crystallography, which acts as the platform for an emotionally kaleidoscopic experience. Additionally, the physicality of these paintings encompasses a keen interest in new imaging technologies, which reveals a dialogue between virtual and physical mediums.

COLETTE ROBBINS – THE RORSCHACH: New York artist and Koi No Yokan co-curator Colette Robbins makes work that explores the psychological end of her previous series, Archaeological Fiction, by using Rorschach imagery as the motif for her landscapes. This foundation abstracts the landscape to a large degree, while still retaining the meticulous texture and feel of its subject. This work also addresses a phenomena author Michael Shermer refers to  as “patternicity.” In Shermer's words, patternicity is “the tendency to infuse patterns with meaning, intention, and agency,” which Shermer calls “agenticity.” To that end, Robbin’s work commands the viewer to consider the positively transformative aspects of our brains that ignite curiosity and imagination.

RACHEL ROSKE – THE SHADOW AND THE SUN: The works of Los Angeles painter Rachel Roske operate on two levels. Formally, they are singular objects that express their own internal logic through fixed scale, light, and surface quality. As paintings, they bear the burden of historical art’s rarified status in culture. They possess, however, a dark unconscious psychology that contradicts this historical form of painting, creating a schism between expectation and perception. In essence, these paintings describe an intangible moment in time loaded with existential heft.

KRISTEN SCHIELE – THE TIGER, THE HAND, WATER: New York artist Kristen Schiele works in both painting and sculpture. Her narratives are informed by a variety of influences including set design, film, mythology, kitsch aesthetics and folklore. In her current work, her playful application of these influences elevates the notion of childhood discovery from personal to theatrical.

101/EXHIBIT was founded in 2008 by Sloan Schaffer in Miami, FL. Named after its original location at 101 NE 40th St., the gallery actively represents an international group of prolific emerging and established contemporary artists. Initially built around artists who emphasize the human form and figurative concerns, the gallery program embraces counter-trend experimentation and deviations into abstraction, New Media, installation, and object-based works.