Sugar Press Art Presents Breath Meets Body

A Multi Layered Collection From Artists Noëmi Manser and Mahya Shamai

June 25 - July 16

620 S. Main Street

Los Angeles, CA 90014

Wed - Sat | 1pm - 6pm

Opening Reception

June 25, 2022

5pm - 8pm

Los Angeles, CA (June 2, 2022) - The LA art scene is rich and spread, just like the city itself, spanning genres and styles. The newest light in the art skyline, Sugar Press Art presents Breath Meets Body, a beautiful layered collection from Noëmi Manser and Mahya Shamai.

The two artists’ bodies of work compliment each other as not two separate collections, but one cohesive show, juxtaposing grounded figures and airy floral displays, all shrouded in an ethereal air. The result is a dreamstate, a world similar to our own, but with more levity, evoking emotion with every glance. Audiences are invited to journey through the show, taking particularly note of the titular elements–their breath and their awareness of their own bodies. With playful interpretations of gravity, the show touches on both the emotional and the physical. While both artists’ work exists in a liminal space, they vary in color palette and subject.

Manser’s pieces evoke the feeling of love, not as a cliche, but as a true and pure driving force. Viewers see the world Manser has created through rose-colored glasses, a bit blurry and upside down, but radiating warm feelings. The flowers themselves appear to be floating away, based upon the idea that gardens would fly up into the sky if it weren’t for the stems that tether them to the earth.

Shamai’s work is similarly connected to breath, although it sits on the other end of the spectrum, dealing with some of life’s heaviest questions like mortality with a light approach. A simple meditation on the truly unanswerable queries, these works are an invitation to openly perceive and contemplate the mysterious nature of existence. Shamai manages to explore extremes and opposites—inhale and exhale; black and white; allness and nothing; life and death–gently and silently.

Breath Meets Body opens with a reception on June 25th, remaining on view until July 16th.

About Mahya Shamai

Mahya Shamai was born and raised in Southern California, where she currently works and resides. Drawing and painting have always come naturally to her, which she treasures for their ability to communicate what is beyond language. The most fundamental questions of existence are her primary subject matter- topics such as death, being, and formation of self. Recognizing that these are questions without answers, she finds value in the experience of not knowing. Shamai creates spaces for the unknown to be contemplated in a way that is beautiful and still graspable with points of evocative realism. Her interest in spirituality, especially from her Islamic background, heavily informs the visual imagery of her work.

About Noëmi Manser

Noëmi is a Swiss Artist, based in New York. Her artwork is like a visual diary. Examining the strain between spiritual and matter, ideals and perversion, Noëmi`s works present these tensions, evoking confusion and eroticism, while remaining colorful and hopeful. Holding the principle of polarity, she shows an uninhibited, provoking and direct character that is documenting her personal process. The common elements in her works are single parts of the body, faces, and symbols that she places in her paintings in a symmetric and dramatic way. In picturing her own inner conflicts, processes, and transformations, she translates what can not be described in words but with the universal language of art.

About Sugar Press Art

Sugar Press Art is the leader in contemporary, ecologically sustainable, archival art prints. Launched on Earth Day in early 2016, once technology had advanced enough to create museum quality fine art prints on state-of-the-art, 100% recycled paper, they started with just six artists and have grown to represent over 100. Their personal, unique and often philanthropic partnerships with artists, galleries, companies and charitable organizations makes them exceptionally positioned in a brand-new niche. Every print is made at their printing studio, in Los Angeles, where they print for museums and gallery exhibitions throughout the world. Sugar Press also represents original works from our eclectic roster of artists.

Media Inquiries: Hijinx PR | Heidi Johnson | heidi@hijinxarts.com | 323.204.7246