december 2024 overview
Gana Art Center presents Chun Kwang Young's solo exhibition "Aggregations: Resonance, In-between". The show features a total of 20 works from the early 1980s until 2024, including 4 installations and a video. His style is famous for the use of triangular sculptures instead of paint to express ideas on the canvas. The triangular pieces are wrapped up in traditional Korean Hanji paper and have Chinese characters and Korean letters on them. The text is fragments of Confucius's Analects. Chun's artworks present an attempt to build a new world on the canvas with the knowledge of the Ancients; to apply ancient wisdom to modern situations, to build a link between past and present; to dive into Modernity without leaving Tradition behind.
At a first glance, Lee So-Eul's "Mr. Mimyohae" shows us the child-like, warm-hearted journey of a cat on its way back home and it reflects a very a common theme in contemporary Korean art - that of the search for home and warmth. But there is a deeper story behind "Mr. Mimyohae" - it is a reference to the mountain spirit, to Korean folk traditions, beliefs and narratives. Spirits are Korea's indiginous Gods akin to modern-day energies and vibes - they live everywhere in Korea and influence the courses of our lives.
Lee Won's "Things which are present through their absence" taps into the never-dying (evergreen?) Buddhist theme of Nothingness, that Nothing which encompasses the All. The artworks are a reference to the meaning of silence and the interplay between polarities - a key theme in Daoism. As ancient as this motif may seem, it also lies at the core of Modernity - the digital world is built upon the alternation of 0s and 1s.
Park Jin-woo' "Still Alive" continues the Buddhist theme of this month with a look at pagodas, recreated through ink, paper and calligraphy. The artist has been exhibited at UNESCO's headquarters in Paris and has participated in the Hengshan International Calligraphy Biennale in Taiwan. This current show features over 50 works and explores the pagodas as a sumbol of the beauty of Korea.
Yoon Oh, son of novelist Oh Yeong-so, explores the lives of his contemporaries in a humorous and sarcastic way mixing sketches with traditional lay-out and Buddhist mandalas. His works are visual commentaries on the ironies of contemporary life, ironies created by the rapid industrialisation of Korea and the mixture of Eastern and Western influences.
Jung Kang-ja is the leading lady in the early days of Korea's experimental art scene but "Painting Dance" explores her other side - as a traveller exploring the world. In the early 1990s, she visited 14 countries in Africa and Southeast Asia experiencing other cultures and societies. Her art is a mixture of surrealism, native motifs, and Mexican murals.
Kang Hye-jeong's "I am OK" represents the artist's imaginary world - a world where we have the unlimited power to be the creators, to mix and match. The exhibition is a love letter to the playful approach to life and a reminder that our outer world begins from our inner world and therein lies or power. Jo Eun-son's "Hide and Seek" takes a different approach to the same topic - the artist takes us on a journey to discover ourselves through role-play and imagination. And lastly, "I like picture books" features over 250 original paintings by popular picture book authors from Korea and abroad.
ALL december 2024 shows
