Chantala Kommanivanh's "Like a Zenith" exhibition to open August 8th to September 1st

“Like a Zenith...” the latest exhibition of paintings by visual artist Chantala Kommanivanh is a personal narrative that regurgitates raw color, figures, and hood phenomena that is his life emerged and influenced by his Laotian heritage blended in hip hop and American pop culture.

Kommanivanh is interested in the way viewers ingest visual media driven culture and how it affects and impacts our identity. Immigrating to Chicago from Laos as refugees, he struggled with the complexity of duel identity in a violent foreign city; he sympathizes with those in the similar struggle.

The paintings in the exhibition are hybridized imagery where he sampled personal and found photographs as a way to remix and re-document.

“Like a Zenith...” details the point of Kommanivanh’s life that he come to learn, experienced, and often find surreal as an outcome. “You got to see it, to believe it...”

The exhibition will be held at Nych Gallery. 643 W. 18th St. Chicago IL, 60616. Opening reception scheduled August 8th (6pm-10pm). Show runs through September 1, 2014.