The RBFAA supported German artist Surya Gied’s solo exhibition entitled “Looking into the Distance Becomes Difficult” at Hillyer Art Center in Washington, DC on October 2, 2015.  The new series of abstract paintings is a personal response to upsetting contemporary realities, namely the refugee crisis in Europe.  Each work takes as its starting point a journalistic photograph found on the internet, which is then abstracted and fractured to reflect the intense emotions surrounding these images and the concomitant stories of people fleeing war, persecution, torture, rape, and hopelessness.  No attempt is made to create a literal representation or a similar narrative: rather, fragmentation and abstraction function as a means to a more universal comprehension of these deep and fundamental emotions.  Meanwhile, a counter-intuitive palette expresses the naive yet arguably beautiful dreams undeniably at play in the midst of this ongoing tragedy.  The exhibition opening took place on October 2 as part of the Dupont Circle Gallery First Friday Art Walk and brought together over 200 people.  Her works will remain on show through October 30.

Born in Cologne, Germany, Surya Gied spent her early childhood in South Korea and her adolescence and adult life in Germany.  She completed her MFA from the University of the Arts (Universität der Künste) in Berlin, Germany.  Working predominantly in the medium of painting and drawing, Gied has also completed site-specific installations and works.  Since 2008, she has exhibited in project spaces, art institutes, and galleries in Berlin, Seoul, Sydney, and Los Angeles.  Gied lives and works between Berlin and Fairfield, Iowa, where she is an Assistant Professor of Art at the Maharishi University of Management (MUM).