IOI OOI New Primitives

Andrew Ooi : IOI OOI New Primitives features a series of objects that reassess principles of painting and sculpture through a combination of primitive design and novel application of Japanese joinery and origami techniques. With a limited color palette, Ooi paints studied shapes and patterns onto individual strips of handmade gampi papers he previously cut to size. He then folds the hundreds to thousands of painted strips into each other to create artworks with multiple planes – including a front and a back, inside and outside – similar to various prehistoric textiles, vessels, and adornments. Ooi’s intentional use of paper in constructing the artifacts by hand is a contemporary evolution of the stone, sticks, and finger-painting-in-the-sand methods of long ago.

Born in 1979, Andrew Ooi is based in his birthplace of Toronto, Ontario. Self-taught, his art instruction began after attempting to replicate the printmaking process of his childhood idol, artist Albrecht Dürer. Ooi discovered how incising wood or metal, that is treating a plane in three-dimensions, was necessary in creating the uneven surface to make a print. Interested in experimenting with materials entailing the same sculptural aspects–available anywhere and only requiring his hands – Ooi embraced paper folding as his medium of choice. Since then, Ooi’s artistic development has increased to include inspiration from artists Alexander Calder, George Braque, Frank Stella and more; publication in Illuminate Contemporary Craft Lighting (Bloomsbury Publishing) and 1,000 Product Designs: Form, Function, and Technology from Around the World (Rockport Publishers); exhibition regionally, abroad, and of late, SOFA 2016 and Indigo Art Buffalo; and heaps of collected paper cuttings and supplies, fortunately for now, allocable anyplace in the world. IOI OOI New Primitives is Andrew Ooi’s first exhibit as a BoxHeart Gallery artist!

Reception with the Artist
Andrew Ooi: IOI OOI New Primitives will be on exhibit from August 22nd through September 22nd in our 2nd floor gallery. The exhibition coincides with our main gallery exhibit, William DeBernardi and Dale Huffman. The reception with the artists will be held Saturday, August 26th from 5 to 8 pm. It is free and open to the public.