Are you Sense or Sensibility? It is often said that people behave with certain ways as a direct result of their emotional state; while some on the other way round associate purely with logical mind.

In coming June, Opera Gallery is proudly presented Iranian Ali Esmaeilipour and Canadian Sylvian Tremblay; visually, whose works are diversified into two ends, realism and abstraction; mentally, a blend of questions in time and existence are found in both artists’. These works are deliberately expressive and powerful. The balance between Sense and sensibility is merely cast upon our own instinctive judgment and, thus, either side makes perfect us individual. Which do you find yourself resembling more?

Ali Esmaeilipour, considered one of the leading contemporary painters from Iran today, was born in Khomein, Iran. He received his academic training in painting through Zangar.

Following his father footsteps, Ali immigrated to Singapore where he is currently based and quickly became a favorite in the Singaporean art scene, especially thanks to his largely appealing compositions. Esmaeilipour’s paintings are mainly inspired by life around him with natural scenes of homely environment such as an open window, a backdoor corridor, a floating sheer of a curtain; With the sun shining into a room, shadows cast into the bedroom with personal belongings strewn on a cupboard, the romantic touch is in every essence of his poetic work. According to him, “these are the things that made up everyday life. The things that spell ‘home’, ‘life’ and ‘love’, for such are the simple beauty of everyday life that surrounds us. I come from a simple background and it’s the simple things in life that means the most to a person ultimately.” Beauty and subtlety are all that the artist sees and exactly all he aims to capture in his debut show in Hong Kong.

Representing Canada in the Canadian pavilion at the Shanghai 2010 Expo, Canadian-born artist, Sylvain Tremblay’s paintings are rich in texture and subtle expression. A young and promising artist, Tremblay’s new style is defined by creating pieces that draw inspiration from the obvious. Tremblay’s monochromatic shapes and immortal figures impose a tense duality between the still life and the 3-dimensional world.

Using the materials as a metaphor, Tremblay’s work provides the viewer with a dynamic experience – one that is both viscerally introspective and physically reflective of the inaccessible human spirit. Sylvain Tremblay’s work has been extensively exhibited throughout the world and been received widely as today’s most fascinating modern abstract.