The 'Beauty of Essence' Completed by Scraping and Repainting with Earth

Until the 23rd at Pyeongchang-dong, Seoul, Gana Art Center

Chaesungpil 'Dream of the Earth'. Photo by Gana Art Center

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heeyoon] Artist Chae Seongpil, who focuses on earth that embodies the fundamental elements of all things, combining the Western four elements and the Eastern five phases, explores the essence through earth and records that journey on canvas with vivid colors. The captivating hues owe much to the artist’s effort of making natural pigments directly from wood and earth. The artist’s pursuit of essence rather than imitation unfolds a primal natural space fully before the audience.

Gana Art is hosting the solo exhibition of “The Earth Artist” Chae Seongpil, titled “Boundary, From the Earth,” until the 23rd at Gana Art Center in Pyeongchang-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul. Over 60 new works by the artist, who has recorded the essence of nature through earth in series such as “Anonymous Land,” “Portrait of Water,” and “Earth and Moon,” will meet the audience.

Artist Chaesungpil explaining about the artwork. Photo by Heeyoon Kim

To capture nature on the canvas, the artist minimized his intervention and pursued the accidental effects created by natural elements flowing with water on the canvas. His work, which guides materials to flow by gravity to approach the primordial nature and its essence, is an attempt to transcend the boundaries between East and West and a condensation of the fundamental elements of all things and the process of nature’s formation.

Finely ground pearls form the base of the canvas, over which clear water filtered through mud flows. Before the earth dries on the canvas, ink is sprinkled, blending the materials to naturally create flowing water paths. The artist, who confesses to striving to capture his idea of ultimate beauty within the elevated painting surface and its pictorial space, records the nostalgia for his hometown Jindo, where he spent his childhood, and his mother in earth, turning the foundation of life and the history of the land into an aesthetic language.

Chaesungpil 'Portrait of Water'. Photo by Ghana Art Center

Which region’s earth does “The Earth Artist” prefer most and enjoy using in his works? After a brief pause, the artist says he prefers the earth from the place where he is working. He recalls the old saying that the nature of earth changes just by crossing a stream, and he touches and feels earth from various regions, reading the messages within. The artist says, “I do not see earth as a single material but as the ground that contains the site of civilization, culture, and history of the region, and I use it in my work according to its characteristics.”

Active in France, the artist adds that he especially likes the earth from his hometown Jindo, Haenam, and Gochang, and sometimes procures it himself for his work. Regarding the earth from the southern provinces, he explains, “When working with earth from my hometown, it expresses transparency and a warm feeling.” Through earth imbued with primal power, the artist offers the audience a time for reflection on essence amid the rapidly changing flow of modern society.

Chae Seongpil graduated from the Department of Oriental Painting at Seoul National University in 1998, earned a master’s degree from the same university’s graduate school in 2003, then moved to France, where he is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in plastic arts at Paris 1 University.