Friday, March 27, 2009
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.
Monday, March 23, 2009
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.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
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'"
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.
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