EVENT DESCRIPTION
Square Street Gallery is pleased to present “Skin in Limbo” by Emily Kueis, marking the artist’s debut solo exhibition with the gallery. At its centre are three new large-scale oil paintings. Shown alongside recent works on canvas and paper, they form a kind of metaphysical landscape shaped by a pictorial language that unfolds like a diary, reflecting Kueis’ shifting sense of self, place, and identity as a painter in Hong Kong.
Kueis’ practice fluidly combines abstraction and figuration. Her distorted, floating figures appear suspended in indeterminate, cosmic-like spaces. These partial bodies, often depicted in precarious or contorted poses, explore the tension between physical and psychological boundaries. Here, flesh becomes not just a vessel but a repository of lived experience.
Her recent works incorporate recurring motifs drawn from the mundane. Mannequins, scarecrows, and raven silhouettes are subtly transformed into psychological markers, prompting viewers to re-engage with what is often overlooked. This perspective finds affinity with Martin Heidegger’s notion that everyday existence is frequently forgotten until it is disrupted, much like a stone unnoticed in one’s shoe until it shifts underfoot. Kueis reimagines allegory as disruptions, gently unsettling the familiar to reveal what is typically unseen.
