ATREMENTUM

Vanilla Gallery presents beautiful, sensuous, and elegant artworks of three Los-Angeles-based artists: Karen Hsiao,Dan Quintana, and Steve Diet Goedde. In their works, we see realities where the prosaic, the simulated, and the surreal are entangled; and with restraints, resistance, and defiance in their cores. Whether it’s a struggle against the restraints of the finiteness of life, one’s prescribed role in life, or one’s environment, none of these artists’ subject is lying down without a (silent) fight. And, she is doing this in spite of knowing she is in a no-win situation. Each one of them never stops reaching for the thing she desires even though she knows what she can grasp will never be enough.

Vanilla Gallery

(New Gallery Exhibition Room A)
8-10-7 Ginza Chuo-ku,
TOSEI Bld.B2F
Tokyo, JAPAn

Karen Hsiao is a self-taught fine art photographer who started her career in the art industry as a figurative painter. Graduated from Art Center College of Design with a BFA in Illustration, she has explored various art mediums and find photography a natural extension of her artistic endeavors. Her first book – Karen Hsiao: Rubber Duck – is a pictorial representation of the conscious and unconscious mind, starting from childhood, to adolescence, and death. Her latest book – Black Cherries – expresses subtle hints of lust and rebellion within bondage.

Karen Hsiao

Dan Quintana‘s works are the results of his ruminations on the power of life and the reality of death. Known for his macabre yet elegant works, the beautiful and decadent subjects of his paintings serve as constant reminders of the finiteness of life and exhortations to hold onto the beautiful aspects of life even though they are in constant processes of deterioration.

Dan Quintana

Steve Diet Goedde is a fetish photographer who has been lauded as the Ansell Adams in the fetish world. This exhibition features his brand new works – the results of his first collaboration with sculptor Colin Christian – as well as several of his previous works. He celebrates his 25 years of photography in 2015 with a 3-volume book retrospective of his works entitled “ARRANGEMENTS”. The three volumes will be released over a 3-year period beginning in the fall of 2015.

Steve Diet Goedde