+ All Categories
Home > Documents > Young Korean Painters | London 2014 04 Sep - 27 Sep 2014

Young Korean Painters | London 2014 04 Sep - 27 Sep 2014

Date post: 02-Apr-2016
Category:
Upload: albemarle-gallery
View: 224 times
Download: 4 times
Share this document with a friend
Description:
Exhibiting Artists: Lee Jeongwoong Chansong Kim Im Changwook
Popular Tags:
20
Young Korean Painters
Transcript
Page 1: Young Korean Painters | London 2014 04 Sep - 27 Sep 2014

Young Korean Painters

Page 2: Young Korean Painters | London 2014 04 Sep - 27 Sep 2014
Page 3: Young Korean Painters | London 2014 04 Sep - 27 Sep 2014

The advent of the era of reproduction, the plethora of images, and the appropriation of the

original have long been the primary concepts of contemporary art. Diverse ways by which

an artist can adopt and reconstruct an image have been already discovered. However,

artists such as Im Chang Wook releases newly created images on to the canvas

through a process involving his unique perception. He presents the multi-faceted works

that can be interpreted in ambivalent ways. Based on news photographs, his works can be

reread through their relationship with the world surrounding the artist. Although Im’s works

are based on realistic issues, they do not explicitly carry any assertions or suggestions. He

portrays intense and provocative images such as those of the ruined houses, group assault,

and a confrontation between soldiers and the Pope. These, however, are not used as a

means to project his voice but as a mere motivation to trigger the viewer’s thoughts.

Human figures, objects, and landscape in Im’s paintings are not arranged according to

the conventions of paintings, but rather the order the artist recognized when he first saw

the original news photographs. His work process includes contemplating on the forms of

the news images he discovers on the Internet and recomposing them according to their

essential meanings. He chooses the photographs with a critical character, but leaves a room

for diverse interpretations of the political or cultural issues through his ambiguous gray

images. Since creating his early pieces, Im has been dropping pigments directly onto the

canvas. His primary media are automotive paints on aluminum panels, but he also has been

using acrylic, oil, and latex. His works are blurred as if those are seen through a window on a

rainy day, but we are able to identify the general background situation of the images. These

scenes are more of fragmented images of life rather than narratives, and thus remind us of

the memories that have been imprinted on our inner world.

His images that imply historical events and scars are similar to the selective information

stored to remember. Human brains effectively combine or divide images to process the

countless visual information encountered in life. If one considers that the memories stored

in such way trigger further thoughts, it seems natural to say that Im’s paintings provide us

with the visual and historical food for thought. A French historian Pierre Nora showed that

a specific object can become a metaphor for memory, through the concept of “lieux de

IM CHANG WOOK

memoire” (sites of memory) that refers to the surplus of memories we cannot help but keep.

According to Nora, the sites of memory include both the concrete and the abstract. In an

attempt to rediscover the past using present memory, Im’s reconstructed photographic

images may open up another perspective on the past.

Societal events that can be inferred from the titles of Im’s works are composed of the

seemingly inharmonious background and subject matter. For instance, A Feast of Flowers

in Full Bloom in Afghanistan presents colossal flowers in highly ornate colors in front of

an achromatic architectural structure. Such dramatic juxtaposition, in terms of space and

content, is often adopted in his work. In his recent Way of Maternal Love, a mother and a

child walk in a forward direction, toward a pavilion in the middle of the sea. What is unique

is that the path they take is not a road on land but on the sea. As if making a pathway

for memories, water in this painting bridges the past and the present and tradition and

modernity. The artist also addresses the themes of right and wrong and sin and innocence.

In his large-scale work I Do Not Believe in Redemption painted in 2011, the scene of the two

figures chasing a lamb is dynamically portrayed. However, it is difficult to judge if they are

trying to capture the lamb to sacrifice it for their atonement or to deny atonement.

Without any narrative, his recent works also address the themes pertaining to the right and

wrong. The two pieces titled Role Playing illustrate several policemen inflicting violence on

a man. While these pictures do not explicitly indicate specific background information such

as location or societal situation, the only evident fact is that the violence is taking place. Im’s

paintings make us realize that our freedom of thought and conscience might be violated

even in a modern society. Also, he allows us to contemplate on whether the suppression

under law can ever, or in which cases, be justifiable. Im’s paintings that are based on

the actual events help us to view the world through flexible and various approaches by

intentionally recomposing and obscuring images. Although his works are vague scenes

that allow a flexible thinking and diverse interpretations, the images themselves are highly

intense. Just as more varied and unbelievable contents can be found in reality than fiction,

Im’s works will continue to bring about diverse and complicated questions and ideas to

their viewers.

Page 4: Young Korean Painters | London 2014 04 Sep - 27 Sep 2014

Way of Maternal Love Acrylic on canvas, 119.5 x 102 cm, 2014

Page 5: Young Korean Painters | London 2014 04 Sep - 27 Sep 2014

Just Love Acrylic on canvas69.5 x 84.5 cm, 2013

Page 6: Young Korean Painters | London 2014 04 Sep - 27 Sep 2014

First encounter by the seahoreAcrylic on canvas

117 x 88 cm cm, 2013

Gray Dream Acrylic on canvas125.5 x 110 cm, 2013

Page 7: Young Korean Painters | London 2014 04 Sep - 27 Sep 2014
Page 8: Young Korean Painters | London 2014 04 Sep - 27 Sep 2014

I’m HomeAcrylic on canvas87 x 69.5 cm, 2014

Page 9: Young Korean Painters | London 2014 04 Sep - 27 Sep 2014

Breaking Away from the JourneyAcrylic on canvas 64.5 x 93.5 cm, 2013

Green LandAcrylic on canvas84 x 100 cm, 2013

Page 10: Young Korean Painters | London 2014 04 Sep - 27 Sep 2014
Page 11: Young Korean Painters | London 2014 04 Sep - 27 Sep 2014

Lee Jeong Woong was born in Seoul, South Korea in 1982. He trained at the

Sungkyungkwan University in Seoul. After his graduation in 2008, he participated in several

group exhibitions and had two solo shows in major art galleries in Seoul. He is an ardent

student of the art of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema yet his works reflect his own aestheticism

which tests the viewer’s mind with complex threads of symbolism and visual experiment.

For modern British viewers, it can be puzzling to see a Korean painter re-creating the style of

the eminent Victorian painter with a high degree of technical capacity. While late Victorian

art has hardly been introduced into Korea, Lee’s close study of artists in the period, such

as Alma-Tadema and Waterhouse enables him to create a peculiar vision in 21st century

Korea. Just as Victorian aestheticism contrives to attack the senses of the viewer directly

with its elevated naturalism, Lee’s pictures speak out to the viewer by themselves through

exploiting the power of mimesis. At the same time, it is easily noticeable that he does

not intend to forge convincing illusions. His figures are collaged and not quite integrated

within the same space, and they cannot represent any explicit narrative or theme despite

his frequent playing with the titles. Rather his paintings aspire to an abstract quality as

he carefully experiments on the formal qualities, such as tone, colour and space with his

brush. At the same time, he uses his technique to crack his own problems and those of

his society. The elegant marble set in his pictures is occupied by contemporary Koreans

including himself. His attempt to recapitulate the consciousness and experience of himself

and his nation through the odd mixture between the symbol of western ideals (marble)

and Korean images might be seen as reversed exoticism. But that is far from the case, as

he trained in Western modern art at a university which once was an ancient Confucian

academy; the mentality of modern Koreans is reflected in this visual conundrum. It is

impossible to decipher the complexity of the modern experience of the Koreans with one

simple logical framework. For instance, the traditional Japanese costume in his pictures is

an object of beauty while it can function as an object of aversion for the Korean viewers

who remember the Japanese occupation (1910-1945). Concurrently, his pictures are not a

mere insipid construction of a collective memory. The individual concerns of the young

artist to life, such as beauty, affection and death, are always circulating on Lee’s canvas as

the motivating force of his art.

LEE JEONG WOONG

The PipeOil on canvas112 x 162 cm, 2014

Page 12: Young Korean Painters | London 2014 04 Sep - 27 Sep 2014
Page 13: Young Korean Painters | London 2014 04 Sep - 27 Sep 2014

The IdolOil on canvas 130 x 193 cm, 2014

Page 14: Young Korean Painters | London 2014 04 Sep - 27 Sep 2014

Red Fragment out of the Window Oil on canvas, 162.2 x 112 cm, 2014

Page 15: Young Korean Painters | London 2014 04 Sep - 27 Sep 2014

KIM CHAN SONG

Island of LossOil on canvas 116.8 x 80.3 cm, 2014

1988 Born in Daejeon

2011 B.F.A. College of Fine Arts, Kookmin University, Seoul

Solo Exhibitions

2014 Floating Forest, Alternative Space Noon, Suwon

2012 Sticky Room, The K Gallery, Seoul

2010 Cocoon House, Kookmin Art Gallery, Seoul

Group Exhibitions

2014 Scribbles 4, Unofficial Preview Gallery, Seoul

8th residency artists show, Cheongju Art Studio, Cheongju

2012 ASYAAF 2012, Culture Station Seoul 284, Seoul

2011 ASYAAF 2011, Hongik University, Seoul

Tomorrow’s Artist, Kyumjae-Jeongseon Memorial Museum, Seoul

2010 ASYAAF 2010, Sungsin Woman’s University, Seoul

Award

2011 Tomorrow’s Artist award (Kyumjae-Jeongseon Memorial Museum, Seoul)

Residency

2014 Cheongju Art Studio residency

Page 16: Young Korean Painters | London 2014 04 Sep - 27 Sep 2014

Distrust Oil on canvas, 80.3 x 116.8 cm, 2013

Page 17: Young Korean Painters | London 2014 04 Sep - 27 Sep 2014

Fallen Leaves, a Broken Piece Oil on canvas, 162.2 x 112.1 cm, 2013 Canvas in Gray Oil on canvas, 162.2 x 112.1 cm, 2014

Page 18: Young Korean Painters | London 2014 04 Sep - 27 Sep 2014

Erased Island Oil on canvas, 80.3 x 116.8 cm, 2014

Page 19: Young Korean Painters | London 2014 04 Sep - 27 Sep 2014
Page 20: Young Korean Painters | London 2014 04 Sep - 27 Sep 2014

49 Albemarle Street London, W1S 4JR www.shineartists.com [email protected] mobile +44 7957346729 tel +44 20 7499 1616

IM CHANG WOOK

LEE JEONG WOONG

KIM CHAN SONG


Recommended