Exhibition Review of "Intermingling" written for Asian Art Contemporary: Be it in the past or a speculative future, “Intermingling” walks us through the stories of a world teetering in its stability between the forces of nature and the detrimental presence of mankind. This solo exhibition by Minnesota-born, Hong Kong-raised, and Brooklyn-based oil painter Timon I, captures an unparalleled surreal omniscience as time, place, and perspective continually shift, not only from painting to painting but often within a singular composition. “Intermingling,” on view at VillageOneArt Gallery in Chelsea from July 25th through September 7th, drew on the parallels of Timon I’s work with the gallery’s vision, redefining the boundaries of temporal perception to allow each of us to dig deeper into understanding the balance of nature and the industrialization of man.

This exhibition is an entryway into the worldbuilding of Timon I. Throughout his work, his personal juggling of the urban and rural environments, taken from his lived experiences, has been translated into anthropological and even archeological explorations across time. Figuration and perspective are masterfully altered to transform the microscopic and macroscopic elements of the everyday into patterns, forms, and geometries bordering on the fantastical. His narratives remove the human element, leaving only the objects, actions, and spaces we inhabit, now positioned as artifacts that simultaneously clash and coalesce among a natural world that existed long before our arrival and undoubtedly outlive each of us.

Traversing the gallery space, Timon I’s paintings of compiled vignettes flow into large, singular scenes. What would be presumed to be a jarring shift in approach to composition in turn allows us to reposition, refocus, and reexamine the underlying themes of this world Timon is presenting to us; allowing his established works to blend seamlessly with his new unexhibited paintings. His dream world is expanding before our eyes.

Entranced by the beauty of the earth and the familiarity of the surroundings, he reconceives the idea of everyday life, the mundane, the routine, within his new environmental narratives. His loose technical approach preserves each form while allowing a fuzziness to invade each piece, forging a visceral feeling for the viewer of trying to recollect a dream or memory. Whether it be puddles of water, rather than murky, now embody the jagged brutalist skyline of a metropolis or a lone couch now displaced along the shore, viewers become aware that the contradictions of the world we believed we grasped are now upended as the balance between nature and man shifts within Timon I’s universe.

“Speed N Light” epitomizes the ambiguity that arises from Timon I’s manipulation of contradictions. Here, in two stacked panels, we see the tail end of a car zooming past in the twilight juxtaposed with a tornado touching down and raging across the earth in the dead of night. With a palette of ominous tones, we are reminded of the unsettling fact that human capability to create machines with such power and speed now rivals that of one of nature’s most catastrophic elements. The paradox between the two is heightened as his textured application of oil paints creates a sense of opposing movement. While maintaining the intensity of the medium, he creates a series of subtle lines running in perpendicular directions. The car speeding horizontally out of frame is mimicked in his painterly movements. At the same time, the depiction of the tornado sweeps up the earth towards the sky. The loose and mysterious narrative leaves us questioning which event precipitated the other—was it the storm forcing a desperate flee or did the vehicle’s power lead to the force of natural destruction across this landscape?

Channeling his signature neo-Cubist perspective, Timon I’s “Mirage” allows us to enter a residential space filled with rooms and hallways. The central image is surrounded by individual squares, each a different scene, a different element to the story unfolding. Each panel is a different space, time, and vantage point. With each glimpse, we see plant life invading the space: vines crawling through doors, petals fusing with the patterns of the walls, and growths emerging dripping from light fixtures. The central image becomes a chandelier of light and foliage where each outstretched arm culminates. Shimmering contrasts of color, graceful lines, and a composition that repeatedly forces viewers to reconfigure their perspectives exemplifies how Timon I’s non-linear storytelling shakes loose our complacency with the relationships we have formed with nature, technology, and society.

The immersive experience of “Intermingling” draws viewers into a realm of dichotomies, where day merges with night, the micro expands to the macro, and the boundaries between light and dark dissolve. Timon I masterfully intertwines the first- and third-person perspectives with two- and three-dimensional spaces, allowing each visitor to embed their narratives into the unfolding stories within his work. As man-made and nature intertwine, a palpable tension between the known and the unknown leaves us surprised and challenged by the simple shifting of our perceptions. Envisioning ourselves in the world of Timon I, the familiarity of our everyday lives is called into question, allowing each of us to create our own dream worlds that defy our understanding of reality.

Exhibition on view at https://villageoneart.com

Review by Shannon Permenter

Shannon Permenter is a freelance writer and art historian based in Arizona. After completing her Masters in History & Theory of Contemporary Art from the San Francisco Art Institute she has channeled her passion for the arts into a career helping artists, curators, and nonprofits share their work with the world.