Contributed by Kate Sherman / “Ghost Coast,” Ray Hwang’s solo show at Tempest Gallery in Ridgewood, conjures an alchemical whirlpool of memory, meaning, and the self. In the line of sight from the gallery’s entrance hangs where there’s smoke-, a large and densely layered painting that evokes stained glass reliquaries or maybe a personal treasure map of candle-lit memories. The surface of the painting contains Easter eggs best viewed in person and up close. Cut edges of the collaged joss paper are just visible, embedded within fast-brushed black and earthen brown shapes and shadows – flickers of warm internal light dynamically positioned among shadowy passages.
Hwang’s modus operandi is to draw small scenes, positioned around a central element. Some look like abstract grids and some like windows or waves, while still others evade clear description. The scenes are atmospheric vignettes that float ethereally and nostalgically like mirages of cities past, perhaps seen from a ship passing a port at midnight. where there’s smoke- puts the “ghost” as well as the “coast” in “Ghost Coast.”
Hwang’s schematic dexterity shines in the coffin dance get back, a painting of rapturous movement and gravity centered on a mound of forms. Rather than distributing contrasting elements, as in where there’s smoke-, he relies here on a subject-ground relationship to control jangled lines. His balance is exacting, analogous yellows and reds tempering the ensemble’s entropy. The piece initially imparts a sense of tension or instability, as if the central element could tumble out of place, but surrounding shapes sustain visual harmony.
Hwang’s ceramic works are comparably rich in their textural shifts and personal iconography. help again, one of the larger pieces, features a dragon with two spiky heads, a rectangular collar, and a spiky tail. As much as his shape-shifting abstract paintings, this spiked creature exemplifies Hwang’s way of seeing. The creature is presented as though on a trading card, framed by shallow-relief clay carved with swirly lines and stars. The imprint of a paper towel or a slab roller adds small arrays of dots to the dragon’s heads, bonding the action of producing the slab to the image carved upon it. One of Hwang’s strengths is his embrace of all matter as malleable and emotional. While nothing escapes its origins, new context is continually created.
Included in the show are twelve sketchbook spreads, rakishly hung with L-hooks in neat stacks of six on opposite sides of the room. They share some of the moments of drawing and personal discovery that nourish Hwang’s unadulterated sense of selfhood and his freewheeling visual poetry, which in turn yield activated and shimmering compositions.
“Ray Hwang: Ghost Coast”” Tempest, 1642 Weirfield Street, Ridgewood, Queens, NY. Through April 26, 2025.
About the author: Kate Sherman is a painter based in Brooklyn, NY. She has exhibited in various group exhibitions in New York City and Philadelphia. Sherman is currently pursuing her MFA at Hunter College.
