“Shades of Time: An Exhibition from the Archive of Korean American Artists, Part Two, 1989-2001”

Queens Museum of Art

poster for “Shades of Time: An Exhibition from the Archive of Korean American Artists, Part Two, 1989-2001”

This event has ended.

Shades of Time: An Exhibition from the Archive of Korean American Artists, Part Two, 1989-2001 is the second exhibition organized with materials from the Archive of Korean American Artists by the AHL Foundation since 2012. This exhibition presents a group of younger generations who set up their studios and started a professional career in the late 1980s and the 1990s and include a wide range of media such as video, mixed media, computer-graphics, and installations. Curators selected about 45 artists among more than 200 Korean American artists of this generation. Selection was based on the merit of their art works and their contribution to contemporary art.

The first part of the exhibition from the Archive of Korean American Artists entitled Coloring Time: An Exhibition from the Archive of Korean-American Artists, Part 1, 1955-1989 was focused on Korean artists who arrived in the US from 1955 to 1989. It had about 45 artists including Whanki Kim, Po Kim, Nam June Paik, and Ik-Joong Kang. Unlike the first exhibition with chronological divisions, Shades of Time was organized thematically. The current display at Queens Museum Partnership Gallery is a third installment followed by two previous installments shown at Gallery Korea at Korean Cultural Service from April 9 to May 23, 2014. More than 40 artists are participating in the current exhibition.

Along with other major archive collections such as Asian Art Archive (AAA) based in Hong Kong and Brooklyn or A Digital Archive of Asian/Asian-American Contemporary Art History (artasiamerica.org) at the Asian American Arts Centre (AAAC) in New York City’s Chinatown, The Archive of Korean-American Artists (AKAA) has become an important source in the field of contemporary art. Although other collections include some Korean or Korean-American artists, many are missing in these archives. Compelled by lack of documents and encouraged by Korean-American communities, AHL Foundation started a multi-year project of AKAA since 2012. Many records, posters, photographs, catalogues, and digital materials have been accumulated thanks to enthusiastic support of artists and collectors. This exhibition is a crucial link to connect those documents to actual works of artists of Korean heritage. The third exhibition from the Archive of Korean American Artists for artists active from 2001 to 2013 will be organized in 2015.

Many artists started their careers in abstract oil paintings or traditional ink paintings. Nonetheless, they were also bold enough to venture out of their comfort zone and dared to incorporate a variety of objects and techniques to supplement their artistic languages. Although they used found objects or images of popular culture, their art works were related to their ethnic or cultural background as immigrant artists in the US. Like a translated word in another language, an object turns into a new art work with an altered meaning.

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