Korean Eye, the exhibition currently on at the Saatchi gallery, showcases the work of emerging Korean sculptors and painters. Not knowing much about contemporary Korean art, I had very fuzzy and undefined expectations. Yayoi Kusama’s exhibition at the Tate Modern is the closest thing to contemporary asian art that I have seen recently.The first artist’s work that I ran into was Lee Jaehyo: as I walked in the room, I saw a beautiful spheric wooden sculpture. Lee Jaehyo, from the Korean town Yangpyeong, is known for his organic shaped sculptures made out of metal or wood. His house, designed by him, has an exhibition space that he uses to showcase all of his pieces, including the very first ones he made during his studies. His aim is to create something extraordinary out of ordinary materials, as this shows their true nature.
If you are interested in seeing more of Lee’s pieces and how they are made here’s a great video.You Myung Gyun also took a natural approach with his work, looking at nature as detached from human culture. While I really like the media and the effects he managed to create, I found the shapes of his sculptures a little odd and not as organic as they could have been. Nonetheless they created an interesting effect that somewhat reminded me of Guillermo Del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth.
I then walked through a room where a series of vases were exhibited. Each piece was placed on top of a wooden crate with mailing addresses on it. The vases looked like antiques, so I assumed that the room was showcasing older examples of korean art, as part of the exhibition. On the contrary, as it turned out.
The artist Shin Meekyoung took a different path compared to Lee Jaehyo’s, and she made something fairly ordinary using an unfamiliar material: soap. Even though I did not know this fundamental detail, I was still really fascinated by this part of the exhibition. I really liked the way the vases were displayed and the contrast of the smooth shiny surface of the vases, with the roughness of the wooden crates.
The last part of the exhibition that I saw included Cho Duck Hyun’s photorealistic paintings of historical characters. At first I thought he glued a piece of fabric to the paintings to make them “alive”. As I found the technique of adding 3D elements to a 2D painting or photograph somewhat childish, I was not impressed. I started to really appreciate them when I finally realised that the excess fabric actually came from the canvas.
The artist Shin Meekyoung took a different path compared to Lee Jaehyo’s, and she made something fairly ordinary using an unfamiliar material: soap. Even though I did not know this fundamental detail, I was still really fascinated by this part of the exhibition. I really liked the way the vases were displayed and the contrast of the smooth shiny surface of the vases, with the roughness of the wooden crates.
The last part of the exhibition that I saw included Cho Duck Hyun’s photorealistic paintings of historical characters. At first I thought he glued a piece of fabric to the paintings to make them “alive”. As I found the technique of adding 3D elements to a 2D painting or photograph somewhat childish, I was not impressed. I started to really appreciate them when I finally realised that the excess fabric actually came from the canvas.
Below are more pictures from the exhibition.
Lee Kwangho’s photorealistic paintings. I really like the way he achieved the fuzzy effect on the canvas.
Lee Giwoo’s dotted paintings.
Lee Kwangho’s photorealistic paintings. I really like the way he achieved the fuzzy effect on the canvas.
Lee Giwoo’s dotted paintings.
I found Hong Sung Chul’s wire portraits very inventive, I liked the way the picture seems to move as you walk past it.
Each room was very different but there was a very thin wire, made out of meticulosity, precision, simplicity, pattern-repetition and innovation, that connected all of them. Visiting the exhibition was very inspiring, and one of the most beautiful I have seen in the past two years. It is always interesting to see how artists from the same country approach different medias in different ways.
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