"Faces & Facts: Korean Contemporary Art in New York" Exhibition
Gallery Korea
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Three Decades of Korean Contemporary Art at Three Locations!
The Korean Cultural Service NY (KCSNY) presents the exhibition "Faces & Facts: Korean Contemporary Art in New York" to celebrate its 30th anniversary. Over 60 works of 54 Korean and Korean American artists are featured at three different venues: Gallery Korea of the KCSNY, the Sylvia Wald and Po Kim Art Gallery, and the Queens Museum of Art (QMA). The opening reception will be held at Gallery Korea on December 3, 6-8pm, at the QMA on December 6, 3-6 pm, and at Sylvia Wald and Po Kim Art Gallery on December 10, 6-8pm.
The largest contemporary art exhibit the KCSNY has ever organized, not only in terms of the number of participating artists, but also the number of venues, “Faces & Facts” showcases a variety of interests, styles, and issues of the Korean art practiced in the New York area. Its three sections, “Abstraction Now”, “Into the Life” and “Media, Media” will be presented respectively at Gallery Korea of the KCSNY, the Sylvia Wald and Po Kim Art Gallery and the QMA. The exhibition is a special tribute to the achievements of many Korean artists who have enriched the KCSNY with their significant works and creativity. The artists in the show have been living in the New York area for up to forty five years, and are actively engaged in the local and international art scenes.
The works on view range from drawings, paintings, sculpture, mixed media, assemblage, installation, video, animation, photographs, and performances dating from the sixties. Gallery Korea’s “Abstraction Now” section includes a variety of abstract practices of Theresa Chong, Yong Jin Han, Chung Yoon Kim, Jung Hyang Kim, Po Kim, Tchah-Sup Kim, Whanki Kim, Woong Kim, Young Gill Kim, Il Lee, Sang Nam Lee, Choong Sup Lim, Byoung Ok Min, Miae Moon, John Pai, Joseph Pang, ChungHwan Park, and Ga Hae Park.
The Queens Museum’s “Media, Media” section presents the photographs and videos of Miru Kim, Kimsooja, Do Ho Suh, Nam June Paik, Eunjung Hwang, Shin Il Kim, Young Sam Kim, Koh Sang Woo, Kakyoung Lee, and Jaye Rhee.
The Sylvia Wald and Po Kim Art Gallery exhibits works that are part of the “Into the Life” theme and includes artists whose subject matter or materials are taken from everyday life. Artists featured in this series include: Chong Gon Byun, Ildan Choi, Jung Hee Choi, Sung Ho Choi, Nancy Hwang, Chan S. Jung, Kyung Jeon, Sook Jin Jo, Ik-Joong Kang, Jin Soo Kim, Mikyung Kim, Myong Hi Kim, Sun K. Kwak, Seong Lee, Soo Im Lee, Jong Il Ma, Jaye Moon, Hyungsub Shin, Jean Shin, Chan Hee Hong, Hong Seon Jang, Hee Soo Kim, Jung In Kim, Eung Ho Park, J.Grace Rim and Haeri Yoo.
Highlights of the exhibition “Faces & Facts” include Whanki Kim’s abstract composition Untitled (1969), which has a cross structure in the center with Kim’s signature blue dots and planes around; Tchah-Sup Kim’s painting Pi’s Window(2009), photorealistic rendering of river rocks in Korea, a subject Kim has used since the 70s as a signifier for tried yet undefeated existence; Chong Gon Byun’s assemblage 12906(2008), an exquisite combination of found objects and painterly realism, which pays a specific tribute to the late Nam June Paik, with its title indicating the date of his passing away, January 29, 2006; Sung Ho Choi’s mixed media piece American Dream(2008), composed of twelve panels covered by hundreds of lottery tickets, marked as “American Dream” by ballpoint pen, which illustrates the immigrants’ wish to achieve the American dream and its discrepancy from reality; Ik-Joong Kang’s mixed media Mountain and Wind(2008), where the wave images on the hundreds of three-by-three-inch wood panels—the format that Kang has used for a long time—are leading up to the ridges of mountains while the mixed media ceramic pieces on the floor have an effect of wind; Kimsooja’s single channel video Bottari Truck: Migrateurs(2007), which records her performance in Paris, showing her back with local immigrants' bedcovers and used clothing donated from all over Paris which was loaded on top of an old French Peugeot pick-up truck; Do Ho Suh’s iris print Who am We?(red)(2000), made of hundreds of reduced and repeated photographs of students’ faces from a Korean high school graduation yearbook, which questions cultural identity; and Jung Hee Choi’s installation Composition 2008 #1: Spirit (2006) and Tonecycle Base 65 Hz, 2:3:7 (2007), where the audiences experience the subtle change, stillness, and variations of light and sound, while questioning the relationship between being and understanding, perceiving and communicating, and oneself and others.
The exhibition “Faces & Facts” starts at Gallery Korea of the KCSNY, which has held more than 200 contemporary art exhibits. Other venues that are exhibiting works have also had a significant role in the development of the Korean art scene in New York. The Queens Museum of Art has been a pioneering promoter of Korean and Korean American contemporary artists for over 20 years. More than half of the artists in “Faces & Facts” have been exhibited at QMA, ranging from Sung Ho Choi in 1993’s “Across the Pacific,” to Jaye Rhee in 2009’s Queens International 4. The Sylvia Wald and Po Kim Art Gallery, which opened in April 2009, is the first art museum a Korean artist has inaugurated in New York. Po Kim has been a practicing New York artist since 1957 and is one of the elder statesmen of contemporary art.
Media
Schedule
from December 03, 2009 to February 19, 2010
Opening Reception on 2009-12-03 from 18:00 to 20:00
Artist(s)
Theresa Chong, Yong Jin Han, Chung Yoon Kim, Jung Hyang Kim, Po Kim, Tchah-Sup Kim, Whanki Kim, Woong Kim, Young Gill Kim, Il Lee, Sang Nam Lee, Choong Sup Lim, Byoung Ok Min, Miae Moon, John Pai, Joseph Pang, ChungHwan Park, Ga Hae Park, Miru Kim, Kimsooja, Do Ho Suh, Nam June Paik, Eunjung Hwang, Shin Il Kim, Young Sam Kim, Koh Sang Woo, Kakyoung Lee, and Jaye Rhee et al.