Glike Gallery is pleased to announce an upcoming exhibition of new paintings by Chicago-based artist Diane Christiansen and New York City-based artist Seung Huh. This two-person exhibition will be their first with the gallery.

Christiansen's oil on plaster paintings appear to reveal figures and objects on surfaces which belie a history of having been poured, smoothed, worked over, sanded and scrubbed. Beyond the plaster surface, the oil paint stubbornly manages to form hints and ghosts of narrative. Most interesting is Christiansen's ability to evoke subconscious fragments of the natural world. In paintings such as "Enough Space in the Head to Breathe" there are un-namable but familiar forms which relate to the characters that show up in more solid cartoon-like forms in her compelling animations. These pieces evoke childhood memories and ancient fables while guiding us to treasure contact with the visual world.

Born in Seoul, Korea, artist Seung Huh dives headfirst into images of break-ups, portraits of ex-lovers and karaoke scenes that describe her current situation. Huh unapologetically captures both the humor and pain through her characters with bold brushwork and color. Always using the figure as her prime vocabulary, Huh finds personal and inventive ways to express her vulnerabilities through direct candor. Hallucinatory fields of color and unusual palette choices combine to create a world of imagined possibilities.

Diane Christiansen is a visual artist and musician based in Chicago. Her art practice includes painting, drawing, animation and large-scale collaborative installations. Solo exhibitions include Chicago, New York City, Los Angeles, Denver, Portland, New Orleans, and Edinburgh, Scotland. Her 2010 collaborative installation and animation "Notes to Nonself," created with her primary collaborator, Shoshanna Utchenik, was exhibited in Chicago, Indianapolis, and Ljubljana, Slovenia. Currently, Christiansen is collaborating with other artists to further explore themes of decay, impermanence and the importance of interconnectedness that informs her work. With five completed short animations, Christiansen is producing paintings and animations together in her studio. Christiansen received a BA from Grinnell College, an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and an MSW from Loyola University.

Seung Huh is based in New York City. Her exhibitions in 2014 include "Mellow Drama", a two-person exhibition at Temporary Agency, Chashama in Brooklyn and the Whitney Houston Biennial, "I'm Every Woman" curated by Christine Finley. Seung Huh received a BFA in Painting and Drawing, Film and Video from the School of Art Institute of Chicago 2007, and an MFA in Painting from Hunter College, New York, NY in 2014.