[Exhibition of the Week] Kim Eunjeong Solo Exhibition & Jang Inhee 'Glittered Greetings' Exhibition and More

Eunjung Kim, In Pursuit of Spring, 2022, Oil on canvas, 193.9x130.3cm. Photo courtesy of Hakgojae

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heeyoon] ▲Kim Eunjeong Solo Exhibition 'Everyday Everyday' = Hakgojae is holding Kim Eunjeong's solo exhibition 'Everyday Everyday ( )' until December 10. This exhibition is an extension of 'The Faintest Sun' presented last year at Hakgojae Design Project Space. Kim Eunjeong works using daily weather and everyday experiences as her subject. It is an attempt to view various events in life and people's emotions through the elements of weather. The empty parentheses attached to the title 'Everyday Everyday ( )' symbolize the randomness inherent in daily life. Like constantly inaccurate weather forecasts, the unpredictable meaning of each day is expressed as an empty space. The English exhibition title 'WEATHERLAND' is borrowed from the book title by British author Alexandra Harris. The book introduces anecdotes from literature and art related to weather. The artist explains that it was fitting to use this as the title for an exhibition themed on the nature of weather.

The artist is developing a body of work that transcends genres, moving between painting, printmaking, ceramics, and visual design. Her works are characterized by warm colors and lyrical narrative structures. They are comfortable and approachable, yet distinguished by unique originality and lively brushwork.

Painter Kim Eun-jung. Photo by Hakgojae

"The sun had not yet risen. The sea was indistinguishable from the sky. (...) The horizon is gradually becoming clearer in shape. Just as sediment settles in an old wine bottle, making the glass a clear green." This passage from Virginia Woolf's book 'The Waves' was read by the artist while painting the exhibition piece 'Edge of Clouds' (2022). It describes the scene where the vague boundary between sea and sky becomes a distinct horizon as the sun rises.

The artist says, "I liken the big and small events that come with different faces each time to the act of 'painting clouds'." The clouds in the painting symbolize the randomness inherent in everyday life and metaphorically represent the diversity of individual emotions and perspectives. Since it is impossible to know when and what kind of clouds will appear or what hides behind them, they also serve as a positive element opening up unknown possibilities. The artist proposes that in a world where everyone is connected, we should flexibly embrace different beings. The exhibition runs until December 10 at Hakgojae New Building, Samcheong-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul.

The view of the LG Uplus Gallery C exhibition hall where Jang Inhee's 'Glittered Greetings' exhibition is being held.

▲Jang Inhee 'Glittered Greetings' = LG Uplus Gallery C is hosting Jang Inhee's exhibition Glittered Greetings until January 27, 2023. The artist's work begins with capturing the 'moments' that accumulate infinitely and expansively in life. These 'moments,' densely accumulated in our memories moment by moment in proportion to the passage of time, are organically and three-dimensionally reconstructed through the artist's unique perspective.

This is similar to how humans cannot perceive the hundreds of millions or trillions of cells that make up their bodies, yet life begins from a single cell. Inspired by this point, the artist designs and organizes moments of joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure as relationships within her work to create 'living time.' The works consist of organic relationships between parts and the whole, forming constant intersections of time through the artist's brushstrokes, cutting, and other mediums' chance and necessity. This three-dimensional composition of the work signifies all organically integrated time of life. The artist particularly expresses this concept of temporality through various media using intense golden hues. During the season that wraps up the year, the artist offers all visitors a moment dyed in golden color, representing the moments they want to remember from the past year and the sparkling beginning of the coming new year. The exhibition runs until January 27, 2023, at LG U+ Gallery C, Magok-dong, Gangseo-gu, Seoul.

Yoon Hee-su, Drawing as experimenting with deep sea space frequencies,
Metal, sound devices, motor, light, 650x70cm, 2022. Photo by Shinhan Gallery

▲en route: Private Trajectories Exhibition = Shinhan Gallery is holding the exhibition en route: Private Trajectories featuring artists Ko Youngchan, Yoon Heesoo, Kim Eunjeong, and Son Sumin, selected through the 'Young Artist Festa' competition. We are all on our way somewhere. Although destinations and speeds differ, we continuously take steps with our own sense of direction. At the crossroads of this journey, the four artists and the curator focused not on the start and end, departure and destination, but on the experiences and stories collected along the way. The exhibition, themed 'en route,' meaning 'on the way to,' selectively introduces the creative works of Ko Youngchan, Yoon Heesoo, Kim Eunjeong, and Son Sumin, each drawing their unique trajectories, and examines the deep and delicate traces not only through completed works but also through the archives that support and compose them.

Here, 'archives' include records forming the foundation of the works, sketches, writings, books that inspired them, and objects. Through the exhibition, we encounter stories, sounds, phenomena, and questions collected by the four artists as they pass through different places and times?from a mining area in southern France to a seaside port, rooftop studios, and networked spaces. The works, which temporarily occupy a place, do not point to any conclusion or clear destination but instead offer countless paths to newly explore and feel the everyday life that is often overlooked.

Soo-min Son, catch ball, 2-channel video, 9 minutes 48 seconds, 2022. Photo courtesy of Shinhan Gallery

Ko Youngchan, who works by re-enchanting specific places using the methodology of 'history from below'; Yoon Heesoo, who has consistently collected and explored traces of the immaterial occurring at the intersection of artificial and natural; Kim Eunjeong, who captures large and small phenomena encountered daily with appropriate distance; and Son Sumin, who illuminates invisible social networks through video installation?this exhibition shows the various relationships each artist has formed with their changing environment through direct and indirect collection methods. For the audience, it functions as an opportunity to experience new forms of relationships with the works and to draw their own trajectories. The exhibition runs until December 24 at Shinhan Gallery, Yeoksam-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul.