In Motion

NAVA Contemporary is pleased to present In Motion, a group exhibition celebrating the rhythms and cycles of life as we transition seasons from summer to fall. Featuring the work of Meredith Bingham, Linda Bradford, Amélie Ducommun, Firouz FarmanFarmaian, Andrés Galeano, George Kanonidis, and Loreen Oren, In Motion examines movement in art as both a physical action and an emotional force of change.

 

As the title In Motion suggests, life is never entirely still. We move through seasons, landscapes, and states of being, constantly shifting, transforming, and returning to begin anew. The artists in this exhibition capture these inevitable transitions, addressing the cycles of life through both purely formal artistic means and profound symbolic layers.

 

In the artwork of Meredith Bingham, Amélie Ducommun, Firouz FarmanFarmaian, and Andrés Galeano, these recurring patterns and cycles manifest as symbolic assemblages and poetic meditations on life. The circle appears as both an emblem of renewal and continuity in Meredith Bingham’s paintings and Andrés Galeano’s collages. Meanwhile, organic forms emerge in Amélie Ducommun and Firouz FarmanFarmaian’s studies of transformation, mapping the memories and shifting footprints left behind by the natural world.

 

Extensive mark-making and meticulous layering create movement elsewhere in the exhibition, employing formal painting techniques to express life's essential tempos. In the work of Linda Bradford, George Kanonidis, and Loreen Oren, forms and marks dissolve and reassemble, colors migrate across surfaces, and layers accumulate, recede, and reveal what came before. These works invite the eye to move directly with the artist’s hand, leaving traces of what was and gestures toward what might be.

 

In Motion is ultimately an exploration of transition and the beauty found within the process of change. A deep sense of time is embedded within each piece, reminding us that nothing remains fixed for long.

 

 

 

Meredith Bingham’s abstract artwork uses free-form circles, energetic movement, and a carefully crafted under-layer to create a powerful sense of time and vitality. Her paintings blend contrasting elements to achieve a robust and unique dynamism. Ultimately, Bingham utilizes the imperfect, instinctive nature of these circles to symbolize and celebrate the flawed, broken, and beautifully unfinished aspects of human nature.

 

Linda Bradford uses custom-fabricated industrial foam brushes to collaborate with the movements of nature and the physics of paint. By pivoting her brushes mid-stroke, she captures three-dimensional shifts on a flat surface to create a striking illusion of depth and dimensionality. In her work, Bradford seeks to open up visual space, allowing viewers to become fully absorbed in the artwork where perception becomes the core narrative.

 

Amélie Ducommun’s textured, luminous paintings harness the beauty and energy of natural landscapes, specifically focusing on the behaviors and visual qualities of marine environments. Inspired by travel and the fleeting candor of first impressions, she uses layered brushstrokes of vibrant colors to explore the subjectivity of memory and the footprints left by time. In her practice, Ducommun uncovers the hidden rhythms, echoes, and hums of different ecologies, translating the depths of aquatic movement and sound into a powerful visual experience.

 

Persian-born artist Firouz FarmanFarmaian draws deeply from history, memory, and a lifetime in exile to create diverse works spanning painting, sculpture, film, and music. Rooted in Persian lore, nature, and the interplay between realism and abstraction, his compositions blend spontaneous energy with meticulous craftsmanship and unique visual rhythms. FarmanFarmaian uses raw, visceral emotion and symbolic motifs to actively engage in a dialogue with the past and explore the forces that shape human lives.

 

Andrés Galeano transforms discarded flea market snapshots into unexpected collages that illuminate the poetic possibilities and shared continuity of everyday life. By treating these anonymous photographs as abstract objects, he carefully aligns visual parallels to reveal latent meanings and narratives. Galeano's post-photographic work investigates the relationship between photography and the celestial, exploring how the myth of heaven lives on through the photographic medium.

 

Self-taught Greek artist George Kanonidis draws inspiration from the sensory spectrum of everyday life—including light, darkness, nature, and sound—to channel his emotions onto the canvas. Heavily influenced by abstract expressionism, he treats his canvases as a stage where passionate chromatic combinations and restless feelings marry to reveal his internal visions. Kanonidis dives into the chaos of human emotion to capture an honest, unique moment in time through raw and vibrant color.

 

Loreen Oren uses repetitive mark-making and restricted palettes to distill her travels across 40 countries into the essential patterns and lines found in nature. Prioritizing spontaneity and the freshness of the initial brushstroke over perfection, her overlapping lines and sweeping ribbons of paint shift fluidly between microscopic biology and the vastness of the cosmos. Oren uses watercolors, ink, acrylic, and oil to transform realistic landscapes into continuous, infinite patterns that expand and contract across the canvas.