The Kravets Wehby Gallery will reopen after a month long renovation with The Heroes: Judith and Salome, a solo exhibition of new paintings by Aya Uekawa opening on Saturday, March 14th, 2015 with a reception for the artist 6:00- 8:00 pm.

Aya Uekawa’s current body of work reflects a complicated world with much incongruence, a universe reminiscent of her personal experiences growing up in Japan and her subsequent adult life in New York. The push/pull between these two different identities are evident in the floating heads in her paintings, as they are feminine and delicate, yet surreal and seductive. With their Renaissance composition and restricted expressions, her figures are a nod to a bygone era. Their faces are seemingly serene and gently emotive, but it is ambiguous as to what they are actually thinking. It’s as if her figures have been displaced from their environment and wandered into an entirely new world. This new world is in fact Aya’s world – one where she is constantly fighting against her traditional heritage and embracing it as well with meticulous and mannered precision. While Aya’s world is unique, the deep sense of internal conflict is not. It is in fact one the viewer can relate to as it speaks to the universal dualities of human nature.

Aya Uekawa was born in Tokyo and currently resides in New York. She most recently had a solo exhibition at the Baltimore Museum of Art. She has also had a solo exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Center Cincinnati and this will be her third solo show at Kravets Wehby Gallery.