OCHI is pleased to participate in the 3rd edition of Frieze Los Angeles to take place at the Santa Monica Airport from February 16 through 19, 2023. The gallery will feature a solo presentation of new works by Hana Ward in the Focus section, curated by Amanda Hunt and Sonya Tamaddon.

Hana Ward makes paintings and ceramic works that explore themes of identity, introspection, and transformation. Appearing both ethereal and visceral, Ward weaves together moods, motives, and narratives to depict Black and Brown feminine figures who reflect and dream as they build their own sovereign worlds from the inside out. Cloaked in an air of mystery, these visions of unfolding self-actualizations are sometimes sheltered in the solitude of domestic space and other times liberated into landscapes. Ward’s characters navigate an unknown land, relying on clues and messages from the natural environment to propel them forward. Barren trees, ceremonial flowers, abandoned cars, pathways, moons, and divinatory tools appear throughout the paintings—a symbolic vocabulary within introspective landscapes and rooms. Color is always its own character in Ward’s stories: an energetic orange, fiery crimson, vibrant violet, or penetrating black drives narrative as much as it acts as backdrop. Influenced by anticolonial histories, spiritual texts, and cycles of the natural world, as well as by the canon of art history, Ward’s paintings relay deeply personal inner metamorphoses that offer outward manifestations. 

Hana Ward (b. 1989, Los Angeles, CA) received a BA from Brown University in 2011. Ward’s work has been exhibited at venues including Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Harun Gallery, Beyond Baroque, and OCHI in Los Angeles, CA; Mrs. in Queens, NY; Giant Robot in Oakland, CA; and The Breeder in Athens, Greece (forthcoming). In 2017 Ward was awarded a Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs Artist-in-Residence Grant. Ward’s work has been featured in publications including Artforum, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Financial Times, Amadeus, Artillery Magazine, and AUTRE. Ward was also featured in the Voices on Art Podcast in conjunction with Independent Art Fair. Ward currently lives and works in Los Angeles, CA is represented by OCHI in Los Angeles and Sun Valley, ID.