Australian artists Cindy Parsley and Jacky Cheng at Agora Gallery NYC!

About Cindy Parsley

Using acrylic on paper or canvas, Cindy Parsley creates paintings that balance abstraction and descriptive, vibrant forms. Short brush strokes mix and layer, building up scenes that emphasize texture and atmosphere. Saturated primary colors convey a range of emotions and add excitement to each scene, providing a base for more unexpected neon hues and darker shades. The bright colors combine with bursting and swirling brushstrokes, resulting in figures and landscapes that pulse with abstract color and pattern. Royal blue and bright crimson collaborate to create inherent drama, covering the negative space with impactful pigments and providing a point of contrast for opposing colors and forms. Parsley uses a variety of techniques to create texturally diverse works; curvilinear shapes building a tree, or smooth and feathered strokes becoming the contours of a human form. Three-dimensional additions in the gesso add another element to each piece, allowing real world lighting and environment to enhance and counterbalance the subjects on the canvas, paper, or board. Working from the United States and Australia, Parsley's work is a harmonious reinterpretation of the world around her.

About Jacky Cheng

Jacky Cheng makes art that is multicultural in every aspect of its being. While growing up in Malaysia, Cheng was introduced to the art of cutting and folding joss paper by her grandmother. "I owe the significant part of my practice to that process," she says. "The practice and pride in knowing every single cut is of purpose and intent." But that tradition takes on a new form in her works: a series of pieces that also show the influence of and her connection with the Aboriginal culture of northwestern Australia, where Cheng has lived, worked, and taught since 2006. Trained as an architect, Cheng brings her cultural influences together in works that marry a strong feeling for structure and form with a dynamic sense of energy. In her pieces, the delicacy of cut paper exists alongside bold splashes of color and an adventurous, boundary-pushing spirit. The symmetrical regularity of the mandala can be seen, but that balance and harmony is juxtaposed with a variety of textures, a sensitivity to light and shadow, and an open-ended spontaneity that make each image feel fresh and contemporary.

About the Exhibition

Unbound Perspectives - Exploring Mediums and the World at Agora Gallery Agora Gallery presents Unbound Perspectives, a group exhibition highlighting work that presents reality with heightened aesthetic possibilities. Bringing together no fewer than eighteen artists, the exhibition is an eclectic mixture of photography, painting, and sculpture. Some pieces present subtler, updated forms of surrealism: familiar objects and figures taken out of context and placed into new environments, or classic art historical tableaux with present-day icons swapped in. Other pieces are rooted in abstraction and approach the familiar from the opposite end of the spectrum. There are investigations into color, line, and texture, all as they relate to depicting things from the real world "“ and especially, imagining them differently. Every work in Unbound Perspectives shares the tension of seeing foreign elements integrated with everyday things. The exhibition celebrates the new and the unexpected, with eyes forward but always carrying knowledge of the past.

About Agora Gallery

Agora Gallery is a contemporary fine art gallery located in the heart of Chelsea's fine art district in New York. Established in 1984, Agora Gallery specializes in connecting art dealers and collectors with national and international artists. The art gallery's expert consultants are available to assist corporate and private clients in procuring original artwork to meet their organization's specific needs and budget requirements. With a strong online presence and popular online gallery, ARTmine, coupled with the spacious and elegant physical gallery space, the work of our talented artists, who work in diverse media and styles, can receive the attention it deserves. Over the years Agora Gallery has sponsored and catered to special events aimed at fostering social awareness and promoting the use of art to help those in need.

Reception: Thursday September 1, 2016, 6:00pm - 8:00pm
Gallery Hours: Tues-Sat 11:00am "“ 6:00pm
Gallery Location: 530 West 25th St, Chelsea, New York
Event URL:
Cindy Parsley - http://www.agora-gallery.com/artistpage/Cindy_Parsley.aspx
Jacky Cheng - http://www.agora-gallery.com/artistpage/Jacky_Cheng.aspx