Hugh Jia is a Brooklyn-based artist working in oil painting and illustration. His work depicts worlds tangent to our own, suspended in time and populated by anonymous figures. The barren landscapes and isolation of his scenes draw focus onto the movements of these individuals and the ways they choose to navigate their world.

Faced with a place they did not build, most yield to the structures around them, following worn paths and inherited routes without weighing an alternative. A few grow curious about their surroundings and search for ways to see past them. Occasionally a figure turns from its actions to address the viewer directly, seeking guidance, or studying how you would navigate this terrain in their place.

b. 1999