Korean Eye: Contemporary Korean Art (Book)

A few weeks ago I met a Korean-American artist for a studio visit. The artist recommended that I make time to spend with artist books and get a sense of what is out there. And to know what I want to do, where to go, what to avoid, etc.

I have been slowly acquiring books at UChicago’s library and spending time looking at Korean artists’ works.

Korean Eye 2020 was an exhibition and curated by Dr. Dimitri Ozerkov, Serenella Ciclitria, and Phillippa Adams. Hana Bank sponsored the exhibition, and I was able to peruse the plethora of Korean artists making contemporary art.

Cha Jong Rye – she works in carving, cutting, and shaping, situating in environmentalism. The structures evoke landscape, suggesting mountain ranges and river valleys, but they could equally be interpreted as representing features of a microscopic world.” (46)

Seungean Cha – “creates paintings through weaving in reference to Korean and Western modern abstract paintings.” (cotton, polyester yarn, dye, handwaving) (50)

Jimok Choi – studied in Korea and Germany. Works in painting, sculpture, installation, and performance. “The process of dismantling, modifying, and reassembling national, religious, and cultural codes encapsulates Choi’s attitudes toward frames.” (62)

Chung Doo Hwa – “Paper books that transfer knowledge through letters and characters recollect ‘old records that make smile appear’, ‘memories that come with nostalgia’ and man’s basic essence of an incomplete being at the mercy of time’.” “He suggests ‘overlapping’ as a means of healing from traumas hidden deep within.” (86)

*Lee Leenam – considers themselves as a media historian or media archaeologist. “Juxtapose two or more media together so that they can confront each other, reveal what they can and can’t do, exchange properties, or enter into another type of relationship.” (222)

Hyewon Park – “My interest in life and death and their relationship in Korean culture and history relates to some of my personal experiences. I use threads as a symbolic medium to make the invisible ties visible.” Thread is seen as a representation of the beginning and end of life. (268)

Yoon Se Yeol – “records our contemporary scenery with Oriental ink, reinterpreting traditional painting in a modern perspective. This makes us realize the importance of spiritual rather than material values and offers a glimpse of today’s world through simple countryside imagery and the unworldly principles of our nature and tradition.” (322)

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