Talking Hand

Supples Gallery presents Talking Hands, a solo exhibition by Aye Ko, on view from 10 October – 27 December 2026.

The exhibition brings together 13 new works created especially for this show. Hands, human figures, colors, and fragmented forms merge into a visual language whose meaning cannot be confined to just one. Whether an open palm, a raised arm, or an outstretched gesture, each offers viewers a starting point for reading the image. Yet as the eye moves across the canvas, what once seemed familiar gradually shifts. The works open up a space where meaning changes with the gestures and the relationships between the elements within each painting.

Curatorial Statement

Are the hands talking? Are the colors talking? Are the human figures talking?

Talking Hands begins with a question about communication, but not one that needs an answer. Hands appear through various gestures alongside human figures, colors, and fragments of form. At times these gestures may seem familiar: a sign, a movement, an expression of anger, a scream, or a call for attention. We may recognize them instantly, but uncertainty follows just as quickly. As other elements in the painting begin to intrude, gestures that seemed to communicate clearly become difficult to interpret.

These paintings convey the inner chaos of someone, perhaps one person or many, without asking the viewer to step inside that chaos. Figures, colors, forms, and fragments appear together without merging into a single language. Some elements seem to speak clearly, while others interrupt, overlap, or pull the eye elsewhere. Though the hands are not the focal point of every painting, their gestures continue to provoke questions.

Perhaps this ambiguity is part of what the paintings are saying. Something is being conveyed, yet it remains fragmented, interrupted, and open to interpretation. The chaos within Aye Ko appears in the paintings not as a story waiting to be explained, but as something that continues to speak through them.

What are they talking about? Who are they talking to? Or are they, in fact, talking to you?

Mike Thukha Kyaw