[Exhibition of the Week] Kwon Sisuk Painting Exhibition ‘Life, Connecting’ · Kim Heekyung Sculpture Exhibition and More

Kwon Si-suk 'Life, Connect' 92x51cm, Seokchae and Bunchae on Korean paper. 2022. Photo by Art Space Qualia

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heeyoon] ▲Kwon Sisuk Painting Exhibition: Connecting Life = The artist presents new works created through abstract yet realistic depictions of Jeju’s nature, such as the intense sun felt during a trip to Jeju Island and the reeds fluttering in the wind, in this exhibition. The series titled "Connecting Life" expresses the theme that life and death, moment and eternity are not two separate things but organically connected as one.

Using traditional Korean materials such as stone pigments and powdered pigments, the artist features the unique Obangsaek color scheme as a base and employs powdered pigments to depict mountains, seas, and various landscapes in the underdrawings. The artist explains that after abstractly painting various subjects, they apply stone pigments and use a scratching technique to realistically portray the journey of life toward Nirvana. The exhibition runs until the 27th at Art Space Qualia in Pyeongchang-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul.

Park Hye-su 'Monophobia - Fear of Loneliness' Poster. Photo by Art Center Time of Art

▲Park Hyesoo 'Monophobia - Fear of Loneliness' = Art Center Time of Art is hosting Park Hyesoo’s solo exhibition "Monophobia - Fear of Loneliness." Through constant attempts to communicate, the artist visualizes the collective unconscious and raises questions about universal values in our society. In this exhibition, Park Hyesoo discusses the loneliness and loss hidden behind modern love and heartbreak.

In this exhibition, the artist focuses on young women who lived in an era when making a living was far more important than loving and parting, working and feeding their families while their personal emotions were excluded. She gradually reveals the humble and pure emotions related to love hidden deep within their inner selves.

The artist recalls the female workers of the 70s and 80s at Art Center Time of Art, a space that retains traces of the workers’ dormitories in Guro Industrial Complex. She finds a strange similarity between these women who sacrificed themselves for national growth, giving up dreams, emotions, and themselves while dreaming of escape through love, and the character "Matsuko" from the film "Memories of Matsuko" (2006). The contradiction of ignoring one’s own emotions to meet love as salvation from reality overlaps in the lives of Matsuko and the female workers. The exhibition runs until November 26 at Art Center Time of Art, Geumcheon-gu, Seoul.

Poster for Heekyung Kim's Sculpture Exhibition 'Wave of Life, Variations of Its Resonance'. Photo by Opera Gallery

▲Kim Heekyung Sculpture Exhibition "Waves of Life, Variations of Resonance" = Opera Gallery is hosting the solo exhibition "Waves of Life, Variations of Resonance" by sculptor Kim Heekyung, who actively exhibits worldwide, until the 30th. This exhibition, held about four years after her 2018 exhibition in Frankfurt, Germany, features approximately 30 works from her series, expressing the vitality of nature and the transcendent world beyond through the artist’s unique abstract language. Kim Heekyung’s works, which deeply resonate with the heart, guide visitors to a fragrant moment of contemplation filled with tranquility and peace.

Kim Heekyung works with hanji, traditional Korean paper, beginning with a sculptural base and then attaching individual sheets of hanji with lines as if drawing. By layering and gluing the spaces between the hanji sheets, the work takes on a sculptural form and ultimately gains the solidity of wood, departing from the softness and fragility of paper. This long, meticulous process transforms hanji, which traditionally had strong painterly characteristics, into a pictorial sculpture that encompasses both two-dimensional and three-dimensional qualities.

The artist’s series expresses the forms of flowers and leaves, their blooming or full blossom, in extremely natural yet simple abstract shapes. She captures the vital energy and breath of nature behind the shapes of natural objects from everyday life, and through an artistic condensation process, these moments of unity with nature are born as artworks. The series visualizes the waves of life, the resonance inherent in nature that is invisible to the human eye, through the artist’s unique artistic style. When viewers add their reflections through appreciation, the artist’s work created in the sensory world expands infinitely. Through reverence for natural objects, the inherent resonance and trembling, and the contemplative attitude toward these, the two series complete a connected narrative and further depict the artist’s vast transcendent world. The exhibition runs until the 30th at Opera Gallery, Eonju-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul.