Sui Park and Jacob Hicks bring sculpture and painting to MADE Bush Terminal

ChaShaMa at MADE Bush Terminal is presenting Crépuscule, a two-person exhibition featuring work by Korean American sculptor Sui Park and oil painter Jacob Hicks, through May 31.

The exhibition explores twilight, the threshold between day and night, as a space of transformation. Through sculpture and painting, Park and Hicks build a visual world where opposites meet, memory shifts, identity becomes fluid and the line between reality and dream begins to blur.

The title comes from Crépuscule, the French word for twilight. In the exhibition, the word also points toward the poem of the same name by Polish-French poet Guillaume Apollinaire, where the moment between day and night becomes a doorway into transformation, doubled forms and an inverted world.

The two artists work in very different ways. Park uses industrial materials, including monofilament and cable ties, in labor-intensive woven works. Her practice transforms disposable materials into lasting forms, making overlooked objects feel precious.

Hicks is a figurative surrealist painter whose work is at once spiritual and intimate. His paintings bring together Western art history, the psychology of Carl Jung and imagined patterns drawn from marine and equatorial ecologies.

The artists first met 13 years ago during a residency at Trestle Project Space. Both remembered each other’s work, and the early versions of themselves they had encountered there.

“We didn’t see each other for many years after that, until we met again in this space,” Hicks said. “When I saw her, I thought: OK, we definitely have to do something together.”

Hicks said the title Crépuscule also has a personal meaning. His mother, an English professor and poet, often used the word, which he associates with a mysterious and magical moment of transition.

“In the poem, there are half-human, half-divine, mythical creatures interacting in this time, almost like a space between reality and fantasy,” Hicks said. “I think Sui’s work and my work both have that feeling of transformation. She transforms cable ties into forms that feel almost like microorganisms, and my paintings also exist in a space between human and nonhuman.”

“Crépuscule presents a state that is actually similar to our work,” Park said. “Even though we use different materials and methods, there are connections in the colors and atmosphere.”

Park said she hopes viewers feel a sense of surprise when they see Hicks’ paintings, which are rich in color, detail and layered imagery. She hopes her own work creates a similar response.

“From far away, people may not know what materials were used,” she said. “But when they come closer, they realize the work is made from very ordinary, even inexpensive materials.”

Park said that kind of surprise also applies to people.

“People are the same way,” she said. “Each person may look ordinary or individual at first, but if you look closely, every person is very precious.”

“What I hope people take away is that creativity and focused attention are beautiful things,” Hicks added. “However you express yourself, that is something worth cherishing.”

Crépuscule is on view through May 31 at ChaShaMa, 13 42nd Street, Building A, Suite 207. Visits are by appointment. To schedule, call (432) 413-9787 or email jacobhickspainter@gmail.com.