UniX gallery is pleased to announce its reopening at a new location on 520 West 24thstreet.

Fast Forward–the first show to inaugurate the new space will feature works by gallery artists Athena Anastasiou, Justin Bower, Norbert Brunner, Ellen de Meijer, Flavia Junqueira, Kwangho Shin, Llewellyn Xavier, and Richard Garet.

Athena Anastasiou creates multilayered mythological tableaus that explore the core concerns of human existence. Her signature style incorporates traditional oil painting and weaving techniques, with long colorful threads bursting picture frames. Anastasiou’s lush works connect humans with nature in a very organic and intuitive way. Justin Bower, known for large-scale anonymous portraits, uses his elaborate technique to reinvent the traditional genre of portraiture. His works look like they are created by AI algorithms and belong to a dystopian future where humans and machines merge together in a new cyborg form. His works highlight the advance of technology in contemporary life and our increasing dependence on it.

Norbert Brunner creates opulent, reflective works that are made from a combination of Plexiglas, mirrors, and Swarovski crystals; their surfaces are such that the viewer’s reflection is thrust into the composition, which to Brunner is the final realization of his artistic process. He creates a world of affirmation, acceptance, and participation, where the viewer becomes part of the work. His art bridges pop culture and minimalism and indirectly references such masters as Donald Judd, Dan Flavin, and Christopher Wool.

Flavia Junqueira’s complex phantasmagorical installations encompass history, architecture, and the whimsical world of inflatable balloons. In her festive landscapes, we become immersed in the distant scenery of national culture and listen to the silence of the past. Balloons in her works are the performers taking the stage, whatever the theatre is, be it the street, the palace, or the sky.

Ellen de Meijer paints exquisite portraits of contemporary Western society protagonists – both children and adults, representing the status quo but also questioning the societal hierarchical structures in the process. Impeccably dressed and outwardly successful, her characters also carry an air of aloofness, disassociation, and unhappiness that is often present under the facade of success and the Instagram - perfect life of our contemporaries.

Kwangho Shin is known for his large - scale virtuosic portraits that take the human figure into a new realm of sculptural tactile physicality. Inspired by Abstract Expressionism he uses oil paint in his own unique way to highlight the possibilities of portraiture in the digital age. Thick oil impas to swirls in vibrant colors reveal both bright pop - art explosions and a dark er distorted side of the human psyche. Llewellyn Xavier ’s multifaceted artistic practice is defined by his Caribbean cultural heritage, Western art education, and life experiences that took him from Santa Lucia to England to a Cistercian monastery near Montreal, to Boston, and back to the Caribbean. His works reflect this complex trajectory and are informed by both American Abstract Expressionism and the bright light and colors of his native country. His carefully constructed painterly surfaces shimmer like the ocean in the Caribbean and bring a ray of sunshine to viewers across the world.

Richard Garet has a unique artistic vision that occupies a complex intersection of Light and Space art, digital art, abstraction, and conceptualism. His practice explores light, sound, digital artifacts, and visual perception as they lay the foundations of contemporary life. His work exists in an area between immateriality, object, optical phenomena, beauty, and discomfort. Drawing on great examples of other conceptual artists before him, his works echo James Turrell, Dan Flavin, Mark Rothko, and Donald Judd. What makes Garet ʼ s works truly unique is his focus on sound and how it can be articulated to reference color and light.

Athena Anastasiou

Justin Bower

Norbert Brunner

Ellen de Meijer

Flavia Junqueira

Kwangho Shin

Llewellyn Xavier

Richard Garet.