Lunar Disco, Solo Exhibition by Hannah Seki
Curated by Rebecca George

April 2022, Exclusively at The Art House Gallery

A review by Kristen Beaulieu
 

Does this sound orange to you? Some people experience a phenomenon called synesthesia – an involuntary coming together of different cognitive pathways -- which is the ability to hear colors, for example, or see the passage of time.
 

Hannah Seki writes that she experiences a unification of the senses as she creates of her work, working from instinct as sound and movement "vibrate" into gestures that visible on the page.
 

In Lunar Disco, Seki favors white sumi ink on black printmaking paper. About half of the works in the show are lyrical compositions in black, white, and grey. The Thorns that Define Us, Beat Drop, Night Vision 1, and On the Brink share an elegance that demonstrates Seki's confident mastery of gesture in this familiar medium of sumi ink on paper.
 

Compared to these "night sky" paintings, the "nightlife" paintings are less mediative and restrained. As she ventures into wilder territory, Seki begins to incorporate more color (mainly blues and golds, with a bit of lime green and orange) using both oil sticks and conte crayon. Seki narrates through titles like Glow Stick Euphoria, Two Right Feet, Rager, Maniacal Two Step, Sentimental Oblivion, Sticky Fusion and How is My Makeup? using gesture and color to make visible the pulsing, sweaty sensations of a dance club.
 

Rounding out Seki's exploration of movement and the visual gesture in Lunar Disco are a trio of works that harken back to Seki's years as a pre-school teacher. These reference the playful and inhibited movements of childhood. Tag You're It! is a natural transition from Sentimental Oblivion. Disco Jacket, and Work Hard, Play Harder have an unrestrained, unself-conscious joyful quality that completes Seki's exploration of painting as a practice of "dancing like no one is watching."
 

Kristen Beaulieu
Art Critic, The Art House

View exhibition here.