Jeongsu Woo “Tit for Tat”

Doosan Gallery

poster for Jeongsu Woo “Tit for Tat”

This event has ended.

DOOSAN Gallery presents Jeongsu Woo’s solo exhibition, Tit for Tat. Woo, who participated in Doosan Art LAB 2017, was selected for our Spring 2020 DOOSAN Residency New York. During his six-month stay in New York, he is given the opportunity to have his solo exhibition, Tit for Tat. Featuring the main work, Tit for Tat series (2019), along with the artist’s previous works and new works, this exhibition will explore Woo’s various approaches to his work.

Woo reorganizes the images that he encountered in our daily lives onto a canvas. These visual references implicate economic inequalities as a result of capitalism and instill a retro style to his work. They reflect anxiety and compulsion of the future from the present generation. “Tit for tat” is a strategy used in economics that is composed of four manners: being nice, retaliatory, forgiving, and clear.1) Such strategy puts the simple rules together to guide on how to deal with relationship with different interests in this complex society. The two men, wearing their suits while battling against each other, are originally found in the illustration of a martial art book and becomes the main subjects of the Tit for Tat series. The figures in the work create strong tension as if they are strictly following the rules. While the tension, conflict, and dynamic movements between the two are repeated, it is this ironical cycle and subversion—the assailant becomes the victim or vice versa, that reflects our society.

Woo’s works in 2019 show distinctive methods of painting and artistic expressions that differ from his previous works. He experiments with images and patterns on the canvas and expands his visual languages. These motifs are repeatedly deployed, covered, and re-emerged by the brush strokes. Throughout the process of overlap and erasure, each motif rendered on canvas becomes a complete work and creates their own visual language. Compared to the works created in 2019 where the images were layered in various ways, the new works present each subject of the image liberating by itself while revealing the space surrounding it.

In addition, the exhibition presents Sailing series (2017) that show different styles from the former ones. Woo used panels and absorbent ground in this series instead of paper that he has consistently used for drawing. The artist experiments with its materiality and expands the boundary of artistic expression through the ink immersing into the paper. This exhibition investigates Woo’s art practice and approach by presenting his body of work ranging from 2017 to 2019 along with the newest works.

1) Tit for tat strategy can be successful based on the following actions: If the opponent makes a cooperative move, then you begin cooperating. On the other hand, if they defect, then you retaliate. If they then try to cooperate, then you forgive and return to cooperate. Throughout this process, both people act clearly.

Jeongsu Woo (b. 1986) received a B.F.A and an M.F.A in Fine Arts from Korea National University of Arts. He has held solo exhibitions at Kumho Museum of Art (2018, Seoul, Korea), Onground 2 (2018, Seoul, Korea), GALLERY LUX (2017, Seoul, Korea), OCI Museum of Art (2016, Seoul, Korea), and the Project Space SARUBIA (2015, Seoul, Korea). He has also participated in group exhibitions at Seoul Museum of Art (2019, Seoul, Korea), The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (2019, Cheongju, Korea), Post Territory Ujeongguk (2019, Seoul, Korea), Kumho Museum of Art (2019, Seoul, Korea), Coex (2019, Seoul, Korea), Seoul Art Space Seogyo (2019, Seoul, Korea), 2018 Gwangju Biennale (2018, Gwangju, Korea), Hakgojae (2018, Seoul, Korea), Haedam House (2018, Seoul, Korea), Mimesis Art Museum (2018, Seoul, Korea), Chapter II (2018, Seoul, Korea), DOOSAN Gallery Seoul (2017, Seoul, Korea), Gallery 175 (2017, Seoul, Korea), Amado Art Space (2017, Seoul, Korea), UARTSPACE (2017, Seoul, Korea). Woo participated in MMCA Goyang Residency in 2017 and was selected to Doosan Art LAB 2017 in Seoul. Woo is currently staying in New York as a 2020 Spring DOOSAN Residency New York artist.

Media

Schedule

from March 05, 2020 to April 11, 2020

Opening Reception on 2020-03-05 from 18:00 to 20:00

Artist(s)

Jeongsu Woo

  • Facebook

    Reviews

    All content on this site is © their respective owner(s).
    New York Art Beat (2008) - About - Contact - Privacy - Terms of Use