The Cons of Skipping a Consultation

Many people will ask me if I can work on their restorations without coming to see me for a consultation. The answer is of course yes. I have many clients who live half way around the world from my NYC Oral Design Center and simply cannot come in for a one on one consultation. Today's technology allows me to use photographs and skype to really see the shapes, sizes and colors that are best for your perfect smile. This does not mean, however, that you should opt out of a consultation! 

The best way to describe the benefits of a consultation is to recount the stories of patients who have come to me to fix their teeth after using another master ceramist who didn't see them in person before doing their restorations. Check out my video below to learn more about the issues I see in work done by those who do not spend time in person with their clients. 

Shades of Time Exhibit Part Two

Part 2 of an exhibit I am so excited about it on display at the Queens Museum. You may remember the Shades of Time Exhibition I blogged about a while back (which you can see HERE). Part 2's opening reception was just last week thanks to the AHL Foundation in collaboration with Korean Cultural Service of New York. It's titled:

Community Partnership Exhibition Program
Shades of Time: An Exhibition from the Archive of Korean American Artists, Part Two, 1989-2001

While Part One focused on Korean artists who arrived in the US from 1955 to 1989, Part two showcases materials from the Archive of Korean American Artists by the AHL Foundation since 2012. This exhibition presents a group of younger generations who set up their studios and started a professional career in the late 1980s and the 1990s and include a wide range of media such as video, mixed media, computer-graphics, and installations. Curators selected about 45 artists among more than 200 Korean American artists of this generation. Selection was based on the merit of their art works and their contribution to contemporary art.

As witnesses of the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, this new era of artists arriving in the US from Korea in the early 1990s dreamed of a world without barriers, communicable through common artistic languages. This younger generation tested the boundaries with their innovative ideas and methods. But at the same time Asian communities in the US, including Korean immigrants, were fraught with racial tensions with other ethnic groups, such as the 1990 Red Apple Boycott in Brooklyn . In the midst of the gentrification of urban areas, artists pursued public art projects that would raise social awareness. With a fresh perspective of multiculturalism made popular in the 1990s, artists pursued a long quest to shape their unique cultural identities.

I am so proud to help sponsor this event, as I see myself as an extension of these artists now working in NYC. The exhibit will run through July 20th so if you can make your way over to The Queens Museum in the New York City Building at Flushing Meadows Corona Park, it's well worth your time!

Congratulations to Don Ahn On His Solo Exhibit!

Just want to congratulate Don Ahn (Dongkuk Ahn) for his wonderful solo exhibition with The AHL Foundation!

As you know it's important to me to support artists from my country and Don Ahn was born in Seoul, Korea and moved to New York after graduating from Seoul University. I was proud to help sponsor this event which runs through September so please go check it out if you are in NYC!

Ahn’s ink and acrylic paintings on canvas are reminiscent of Eastern Calligraphy and paintings, with their quick brushstrokes and elegant compositions. Ahn paints natural forms and environments, which he abstracts into brushstrokes, drips, and splatters and these works blend Eastern brush painting with Abstract Expressionist “action painting.” Another influence or concept in Ahn’s work is the dragon, a good and powerful figure from Korean and Chinese mythology, whose movements and forms Ahn suggests in whimsical ribbon-like marks and trails of paint.

You can learn more about Don Ahn and the work of Asian Artists and Abtractionism in this well written New York Times Article.

The City in Mind Art Exhibit

I am proud to be part of a wonderful exhibit going on right now called "The City In Mind." In it, three local artists, Rachel Kohn, Jiyoung Lee, and Young Kim, see different scenes in New York City and express their ideas and feeling through paintings. I'm inspired by what I see in NYC every day and helping to support and sponsor such talent is very important to me.  I invite you to stop by and to learn more on the AHL Website HERE. And learn more about Rachel Kohn, Jiyoung Lee, and Young Ja Kim.