Julian Opie at the Kukje Gallery

Yes, I know he's not Korean. We can't all be. Julian Opie has more than a couple other things going for him however. He's a graduate of the Goldsmith's School of Art in London, he has work at the Tate Modern, New York Museum of Modern Art, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo, he designed this pretty dope Blur album cover, and (most importantly) he is my favorite living artsit and he has his first solo exhibition in Seoul right now. 

About himself, Opie has stated, "I seem to deal with working in chunks - I file them as "projects" - it might be a way of drawing or a particular model or a new source of reference. Each project takes a while to get on top of but then seems to expand out into many possibilities." Two such "projects" are represented at Opie's Kukje Gallery exhibition. 

The first floor is reserved for his dancer "Caterina" and for his art collector "Ruth." In this "chunk" of works, Opie explores and expresses human movement. For this project, Julian Opie collaborated with the London Royal Ballet's as part of a project to catch the dancers' movements. Even the LCD work that portrays "Ruth" endlessly shimmering or constantly walking did not completely but me off, perhaps because it stays so true to Opie's signature style despite the embrace of new technologies. 

The second floor of the exhibition hall presents portraits of collectors and the artist's family and coworkers. The portraits are drawn with more detail and precision than anything I'd seen by Opie before. And to top it off, the viewer gets to see how Opie would depict a tree. 

Julian Opie's work has sold for as much as US$70,000 at Christies recently. You might wanna opt for a couple postcards or a baby bib: http://www.julianopieshop.com/

Artists at Work: Kim Dong Won and Ju Ki Han

I had the good fortune recently to meet two young, Seoul-based artists at work in their studios. Kim Dong Won and Han Ju Ki's biographical similarities are striking. Both were born in 1979 and both are graduates of Kyunghee University in Seoul. But the similarities stop there. Each is hard at work developing what they hope will become their distinct, trademark style.  As a Seoul art curator told me, "Everybody knows you don't go to art school to learn how to paint. Young artists have to put in the time and develop their technique in the privacy of their studios."

Kim Dong Won explained that he begins by photographing his subject. After printing twenty of more copies, he bends, folds, and crumbles photos until he gets one just the way he wants it. He also revealed that he recently purchased some professional lighting equipment he hopes will give him greater control in the studio. 

Han Ju Ki takes a more traditional approach to his visual art. He is currently studying Chinese calligraphy and when I met him he went on for some time about the strength required to maintain a clear line using a traditional Korean ink brush; his paintings are mounted on scrolls and "signed" with the classic red stamp common prior to the west's influence on Korean art. Western influence is there, however, despite his conservative techniques, and Han's art might remind some of a high school stoner doodling in the back of homeroom. Or maybe it's just me...

Han Ju Ki's work has appeared at several art fairs in recent years and Kim Dong Won is currently anticipating his first one man show at a Cheongdam gallery. 

In-ter-alia Gallery

It's hard to believe that the Internalia Gallery (next to Coex Mall at the Samseong subway station in Seoul) was established as recently as 2002. Talk about perfect timing. It's ridden a 7 year international art wave to crest and has become one of the wealthiest private galleries in Korea. Just a couple months back I attended an opening there that included work by Alex Katz, Damien Hirst, Julian Opie, and Keith Haring. So yes, they've got a lot cash. 

Next time you visit COEX, I'd recommend dropping in on Internalia to see what's going on. They are located across from the Duty Free corner of the mall, just beyond the Buddhist temple. I stopped in last night before they closed at six and was surprised to discover four artists that were new to me in a group exhibition that seemed to be united by the content of butterflies and/or flowers in their work. Unfortunately, no information was available in English. 

The work that follows is that of Kyung Dal Pyo, Choe Hyun Joo, Chung Young Han, and Cha Kyu Sun (in that order). 

Beyond the Line

UNC Gallery of Insadong has recently opened a sister gallery in Cheongdam. It's so new, in fact, that if you were there last week you could still see the previous occupant's nail salon sign on the back door.  Don't be fooled. 

Though it's a small space (probably suited well to solo exhibitions), the UNC crew decided to kick off their new branch with three contemporary Korean artists united in their struggle to get "beyond the line."  As the official exhibition statement states, "Three artists' work processes are in common serious and resolute in that all of them search for truth..." Whatever that means. 

Luckily it doesn't take a press release to see that each of these artists (Ham Myeong-su, Hyeja, and Jokk Han) resist the straight, clean, and crisp lines that mark much of the animation-influenced Asian art today. Hyeja's fluid, almost surreal color shapes remind one of looking at a street scene through a rain-slicked windshield, while Ham Myeong-su creates cityscapes and still lifes from "tubes" of color that sometimes look like yarn and sometimes like something more organic, like grass. 

The stand-out of the exhibition, however, is Jokk Han, who uses abstract expressionist techniques to depict disturbing psychic and dream-like landscapes in oil. At his best, Han conveys the feeling that you are escaping from a plane crash only to find yourself in a dark, marshy swamp--or awakening from a bad dream with the traces of that inner turmoil burned onto canvas for all to see.

Han's work is available for roughly US$3,000 and is worth checking out.

SOAF @ COEX

The Seoul Open Art Fair is happening at Coex Mall in Gangnam this weekend. Perhaps to distinguish itself from the myriad of other art fairs, perhaps as an ever-too-predictable form of Korean celebrity worship, the fourth annual SOAF had significant floor/ wall space reserved for "celebrity" artists. That alone would seem good enough reason to skip (writing about) the event completely.

Upon entering the hall, a couple prints of Damien Hirst's diamond skulls glittered like McDonald's signs (they are the golden arches of the art world these days) and the rest of the fair exhibited many of the predictable heavy-hitters of the Korean contemporary art scene: Chun Kwangyoung, Kim Tschang (Chang)-Yeul. However, besides these more predictable staples (and the celeb-art), there is always something new to be discovered.


One such artist for me was Kim Hee Jin. His work is currently being exhibited at Keumsan Gallery in Paju (north of Seoul). A small work of his was selling for 600,000 won (US$450), believe it or not. A minuscule amount in this market, which (for some reason) has showed little signs of slowing.

The Great Hands at Gallery Hyundai

Sequins, staples, nails, wood, granite, Legos: these are just some of the materials that obsessive (and Hyundai would claim "great") hands have arranged into very interesting art. It's easily the most fun and accessible exhibition going. Where else will you find a pair of jeans stitched entirely out of Levi tags? 

Gone are all other art questions like What does it mean?, replaced instead  by a marvel of technique. Tom Stoppard wrote, "Imagination without skill gives us contemporary art." The exact opposite seems to be true sometimes in Korea. While some of "The Great Hands" artists seem to lack imagination (ie. a glass-bead rendition of James Dean), there is no dearth of skill. In fact, it is the same single-minded and unyielding work ethic that has driven the Korean economy for the last 20 years. And it's great to see it manifest in more creative ways. 

Some of the artists are already quite well-known. Chun Kwangyoung's lunar landscapes made from Korean mulberry paper seem to be everywhere, for instance. One work varies very little from another from what I've witnessed. I would say Yoon Jongseok's acrylic dots of folded pajamas are pretty predictable too. Maybe an exhibition of just one of these artists would lose its charm fairly quickly. Credit the curators at Gallery Hyundai for combining an eclectic group and creating quite a show. 

Hong Ji Yeun at Sun Gallery

Wandering through Kawashima Hideaki

Tokyo-based artist Kawashima Hideaki possesses quite the pedigree, having studied with Neo-Pop icon Nara Yoshitomo and exhibited in New York with Takashi Murakami. Walking through Kawashima's Wandering exhibition at Kukje Gallery in Insadong, however, one senses something missing. While Kawakshima employs the Manga and animation influences of his forebears, the pop and counter-cultural references that a friend once said, "Make a Westerner feel at home in Asia," are completely absent from Kawashima's work, replaced instead by more organic forms (like vegetables and deep sea creatures).

After dulling to the exhibit's array of colors and the slightly varied contexts for Kawashima's decapitated little-girl-heads, one can survey any room at Kukje and notice one thing: eyes. Everything else seems to blur into the background. Kawashima's large, expressive sets of eyes contrast the pale faces of his subjects and their abyss-like surroundings.

If you would like these eyes on your own wall... say, imposed onto a white egg (below), it will cost you 13 million won (US $10,000). And that's Kawashima's smallest canvas (33.3 x 33.3cm)

If you'd prefer to just visit the gallery and leave with the memories, the exhibition continues through March 29th.

Yim Man-Hyeok at DOSI Gallery, Busan

While at the BEXCO Art Fair in Busan this weekend, I stopped by DOSI Gallery in the Gwangalli Beach neighborhood. An exhibition of Yim Man-Hyeok will be showing until April 10, 2009. If you are in the area at any point after, however, I would still recommend checking out the DOSI Gallery space. The arched doorways and stuccoed walls and ceilings give the impression that one is in a cave dwelling or mud hut. Although it's much darker than most exhibition spaces, the unique atmosphere enhances the viewing experience.  (The pictures can't quite do it justice.) Yim Man-Hyeok's work is also available for sale through Park Ryu Sook Gallery.

Busan Bexco Art Fair

The Korea Galleries Art Fair happened this weekend (March 19-23) at the BEXCO Convention Center in Busan. Here's the official website: http://www.seoulartfair.net/.

What impressed me most was the ample amount of wall space reserved for emerging artists. 5o artists under 35 were recommended by the participating galleries; these works were all priced under 2 million won (US $1,440), with some as low as 700,000 won (US $500), giving much needed exposure to the struggling artists while simultaneously making original art affordable to a larger audience.  

One standout among several was Park Sung-Soo, a 28-year-old who synthesizes global trends in contemporary art with Korean tradition. Park continues the work of 1980s ink revivalists with his innovative use of Korean ink on paper. Long time ink painter Song Soo-nam (1938-), once said that he sees the act of painting as the rhythm of human disposition confronting nature. At 130 x 162cm, Park's saturated Bear painting forces the viewer to confront nature and all her strange beauty and terror. The curious yet menacing stance of the bear combined with the ink drips evokes the work of British graffiti artist Banksy while the lichen-green colored fur has the concurrent effect of a harmless, rooted hedgerow sculpture. Park Sung-Soo's Bear sold on the first day of the fair for 2 million won (US $1,440). If you are interested in his work contact Seoshin Gallery. 

Pioneers of Oil: Ko Hui-Dong

"Western-style artists like Ko [Hui-dong]were scorned by the average person, who thought of Western art as some sort of trick. Ko relates the following anecdote: 'When I came back to this country, sometimes I would tie up my sketch box and go outside the city. All those who saw me thought I was selling taffy or cigarettes. Some friends argued with me for having spent all my money to go suffer in a foreign land [Japan], only to learn something disrespectable that looks like bitter medicine or shit'"

Kim, Yong-na from Modern And Contemporary Art in Korea 

A Modernist Primer

The “Modern Korea Rediscovered” exhibition at the National Museum of Contemporary Art is as good a survey of modern Korean art as you’re going to find. http://deoksugung.moca.go.kr/deok.jsp (no English website I could find) Just go to Deoksu Palace (City Hall subway stop); admission is 1,000 won. At the time I’m writing this, however, there are only two days left to check it out.

The exhibition contains work by Yi Kwae-dae (who mixes a proud sense of Korean identity with Renaissance and Baroque influences), Yi Yu-tae, (whose work is among the first to depict the “New Woman” with responsibilities that move beyond wise mother and good wife), and Park Soo-keun (an elementary school dropout whose geometric representations of everyday working people has made his work a national treasure). Park Soo-keun’s “Women Washing Laundry” fetched a record 4.52 billion won (US$3.25 million) at auction last May.

The exhibition also charts Korea’s forays into Cubism, geometric and Expressionist abstract art, and the Art Informel movement.