Twelve Gates Arts will debut its new space located at 51 N 2nd Street in Philadelphia’s Old City gallery district, with the opening of an exhibition titled “Reflections Between.” The show brings together the work of two American artists with significant connections to the South Asia region, its imagery and sensibilities. The identity of the artists speaks to Twelve Gates Arts mission to bring the contemporary arts of South Asia into dialogue with a wider American audience, as a continuation of its work at Twelve Gates Art Gallery since 2009. 

Kathryn Myers is a Professor of Art at the University of Connecticut where she has taught painting and drawing since 1984. She received her B.A in art from St. Xavier College in Chicago and her MFA in painting from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. A recipient of two Fulbright Fellowships to India, for the past decade her small oil and gouache paintings of architecture and space have been inspired and influenced by her interest in Indian art and culture. Her work has been shown in the United States and India, recent exhibitions include “Penumbra” at the International Center, Dona Paula, Goa, “Emptied Gestures” at Laburnum and Indigo Galleries, Cholomandal Center for the Arts, and Siddhartha Gallery, Kathmandu, Nepal. She has also organized exhibitions of contemporary Indian art, including “Fellowship, Fulbright Alumni Artists” at the American Center in New Delhi, and “Masala, Diversity and Democracy in South Asian Art” at the William Benton Museum of Art at the University of Connecticut in Storrs.
Tim “Taimur” Cleary currently lives in Columbus, Ohio where he teaches at The Columbus College of Art and Design. Prior to that, he had taught art in Lahore, Pakistan at Aitchison College. He received a B.A. in painting and photography from Miami University and his MFA from Pratt Institute. His connection to Pakistan comes through his marriage to Pakistani artist, Lali Khalid; the pair lived their together and Tim exhibited work twice in Lahore. Some of the work being shown in “Reflections Between” has been exhibited in Pakistan. He has also exhibited work widely in New York City and Denver, Colorado since 2004. 
Tim Cleary paints landscapes, “mostly free of people. This choice is made to highlight the relationship of the viewer to the canvas, the scene depicted and the viewer's own environment." (McFarlane, 2011, leelanau.com) Kathryn Myers’ architectural paintings often depict a solitary figure or two at a distance; she explains that she sees them as, “individuals who have realized a deep sense of solitude within, while being a part of the dazzling and diverse material world they live in.” ( www.kathrymeyers.com/statement) Both seem to be interested in the intersections between different planes and integration of something ethereal on the ground and in each moment. The exhibition holds potential intrigue to start a new dialogue about diaspora that takes the South Asian community as a particular case, but compels viewers to think about the topic more broadly, like the work itself.