Central, Hong Kong
Ted Gahl
Roam
VillepinVillepin is pleased to present Roam, the first solo presentation in Hong Kong of American artist, Ted Gahl. "Roam is a series of paintings tied together by a sense of longing. In Gahl's signature style, he merges abstraction and figuration to create exploratory paintings evoking immersive landscapes and fleeting memories of travel. Through layers of paint and washes, both added and subtracted, Gahl finds narrative moments emerging within his process-based practice. Many works presented reference different locations from the artist's life, and are instilled with a desire to recreate a singular moment of beauty. In Beached (Blue Fish) an ultramarine form centers on the canvas, abstracted but instantly recognizable as a prized fish just pulled onto shore. A muted glow of light oranges, greens and reds imbues the scene with the hazy warmth of a midday sun. The painting draws inspiration from Gahl's travels to Lamu, Kenya, while remaining ambiguous enough for the viewer's own imagination to embellish the scene. Similarly Untitled (Pétanque) shows two figures in swaths of luminous color hinting at an idyllic French landscape. An attempt to re-inhabit memories animates much of the work. Color plays an important role in the preservation of a moment, employed by Gahl like a mnemonic device to transport the viewer through time and space. Rich ochres and terracottas capture the rusty glow of a late fall sunset in the painting Bridgeport. Through successive layers of thin glazes, the post-industrial landscape on the New York/Connecticut border has a timeless quality, as if the setting could be yesterday, or 100 years ago. Homages to painters of the past are evident in both palettes and compositions. Gate, a square canvas that depicts an entryway to a lush jungle scene, was inspired by painter Henry Ossawa Tanner's series of doorway paintings. Gahl places dense foliage firmly between two pillars with a moody sky overhead. The looseness of the centered, organic scene is held in place by a formal framework, akin to Ossawa Tanner's studies from the artist's time in Tangier, Morocco in the early 1900's. In a timeframe marked by endless scrolling and the instant streaming of information, Gahl's work asks the viewer something that has become alien to us: to slow down. The work is a celebration of the analog and the still. When critics continually toy with the idea of painting being dead, perhaps the ability of painting to bring the present to a halt, even for a minute, is a radical gesture." —Lydia Enriquez, the wife of the artist, February 2026 "I collected my first work by Ted in 2021, when Villepin was a still a young gallery. At the time, I didn’t know him personally, but I fell in love with his world. His universe drew me in long before we ever spoke, and the more I lived with his work, the deeper I followed its quiet power. Eventually, I had the privilege of getting to know the person behind the paintings, and that relationship has only deepened my admiration. After presenting his work in our 2024 group exhibition, it is an honour to now dedicate a full exhibition to Ted, not only as one of the key artists of his generation, but as a companion whose vision has accompanied me since the very beginning of Villepin." —Arthur de Villepin, Founder of Villepin At Villepin, we are delighted to present Ted Gahl's quietly arresting world. His paintings hold that rare, suspended moment in which recollection becomes image, and image becomes feeling. We invite viewers to step into this atmosphere of roaming and return, to encounter works that are at once deeply personal and universally familiar. In witnessing Gahl's practice, one is reminded of how we move through life: carrying an interior world across shifting landscapes, remaining grounded even as everything around us seems to blur and reform. We welcome you to experience these paintings, and to find within them traces of your own journey. Ted Gahl (b. 1983) received his BFA from Pratt Institute in 2006 and his MFA from Rhode Island School of Design in 2010. Gahl has exhibited widely in the United States, Europe, and Asia. Recent exhibitions include Duarte Sequeira, Seoul, South Korea, Mamoth, London, UK; Harkawik, Los Angeles and New York; Sarah Brook, Los Angeles, CA; Ceysson & Bénétière, New York, NY; Alexander Berggruen, New York, NY; Towards, Toronto, Canada; Cooper Cole, Toronto, Canada; 56 Henry, New York, NY; Halsey McKay, East Hampton, NY; Freddy, Harris, NY; Zach Feuer, New York, NY; Retrospective, Hudson, NY; Dodge, New York, NY; Green Gallery, Milwaukee, WI, and ICA at Maine College of Art, Portland, ME. His work has been included in group exhibitions at Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art, Providence, RI; Queens Museum of Art, Queens, NY, SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, GA; Mass MoCA, North Adams, MA; White Columns, New York, NY; Matthew Brown, Los Angeles, CA; Analog Diary, Beacon, NY; Lindon & Co, London, UK; S.M.A.K., Ghent, BE; Petzel, New York, NY, and Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980, Cirrus gallery, Los Angeles, CA. Gahl is a 2022 recipient of a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, and lives and works between Queens, New York and Winsted, Connecticut.