Between Memory and Imaginary: Andrew Hem & Edwin Ushiro @ Château Lamazière

The CHENUS LONGHI Gallery is pleased to invite you to an off-site exhibition at Château Lamazière in Cormeilles-en-Parisis, in resonance with the city's animated film festival and a cultural season dedicated to contemporary Asian cultures.

Between Memory and Imagination highlights the work of two American artists with diverse identities: Andrew Hem, of Cambodian descent, and Edwin Ushiro, with Hawaiian and Japanese roots. Through their works, they weave a dialogue between memories and dreams, blending cultural influences with personal visions.

Born in Thailand in 1981, after his parents fled Cambodia following the Khmer Rouge genocide, Andrew Hem grew up between two worlds: the rural animist society of his Khmer ancestors and the graffiti and skate culture that thrived in the Los Angeles neighborhood where his family eventually settled. After earning a B.F.A. in Illustration from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena in 2006, Hem worked as an illustrator for several years before fully dedicating himself to painting, expressing his own unique vision.

For this exhibition, Andrew Hem has invited Edwin Ushiro, an artist originally from Hawai'i and now based in Southern California. Ushiro develops figurative paintings inspired by the Hawaiian storytelling tradition of "talk story", blending it with the eerie obake tales from his Japanese heritage. Like Andrew Hem, he explores reflections on the past and his multicultural identity, incorporating influences from illustration and anime. With exceptional technical mastery, the work of these two artists embodies a new wave of contemporary painting, infused with surrealist undertones.