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Young Korean Painters
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.
Way of Maternal Love Acrylic on canvas, 119.5 x 102 cm, 2014
Just Love Acrylic on canvas69.5 x 84.5 cm, 2013
First encounter by the seahoreAcrylic on canvas
117 x 88 cm cm, 2013
Gray Dream Acrylic on canvas125.5 x 110 cm, 2013
I’m HomeAcrylic on canvas87 x 69.5 cm, 2014
Breaking Away from the JourneyAcrylic on canvas 64.5 x 93.5 cm, 2013
Green LandAcrylic on canvas84 x 100 cm, 2013
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
The IdolOil on canvas 130 x 193 cm, 2014
Red Fragment out of the Window Oil on canvas, 162.2 x 112 cm, 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
Distrust Oil on canvas, 80.3 x 116.8 cm, 2013
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
Erased Island Oil on canvas, 80.3 x 116.8 cm, 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