[Exhibition of the Week] Andre Brazilier 'l New Works' · Eunhee Lee Solo Exhibition 'Limits of Fatigue' etc.

▲ Andr? Brasilier Solo Exhibition 'Andr? Brasilier l New Works' = Opera Gallery will hold a solo exhibition titled 'Andr? Brasilier l New Works' from the 15th of this month to April 12th. Andr? Brasilier, a 94-year-old active painter, is regarded as the last figure to carry on the spirit of the golden age masters of French art.

Andr? Brasilier Cavalcade in the Waves, 2022 Oil on canvas 130x162 cm
[Photo by Opera Gallery]

This special exhibition, held about four years after his solo show at Opera Gallery Seoul in 2019, will be the first to unveil the artist’s new works created over the past year, inviting visitors once again into the unique world of beauty that has continued for over 80 years.

Andr? Brasilier was born into an artistic family in Chaumont, France, studied at the ?cole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and began to attract significant attention in the European art scene at the young age of 23. The three most important elements in Brasilier’s visual world are ‘horses, his wife and muse Chantal, and music.’ His works, which appear simple yet possess delicate composition, are characterized by a beautiful balance of intangible and tangible entities expressed in warm colors. Rather than realistic depiction, he portrays the essence of subjects with ‘the minimum,’ and these surreal landscapes evoke awe and tranquility in viewers, reminiscent of the deep, unknown spaces within the human psyche.

Through his choice of subjects and restrained artistic expression, the artist conveys that painting speaks about the world and life as a language of beauty. He especially believes that through his unique beauty, he delivers the shining moments and vivid meanings of life. Therefore, Brasilier’s paintings tell stories about ‘life,’ including the astonishing changes in nature and seasons he discovers, the beauty and wonder of animals and existence. For him, painting is a vivid testimony of life, and the act of painting itself is an effort to share living emotions.

Brasilier emphasizes that an artist must be a magician who makes people see and feel. He says that it is the artist’s duty to “help people understand life and beauty,” and he always paints to make the invisible visible. His desire to capture and record the beautiful moments that fill life makes his paintings ‘living pictures’ with special significance in themselves. The exhibition runs until April 12th at Opera Gallery, Eonju-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul.

Dabsmaila 'Future Lives'. [Photo by Space Fountain]

▲ DABSMYLA Solo Exhibition 'Future Lives' = The Australian artist duo DABSMYLA’s first solo exhibition in Korea opens at Space Fountain from the 16th of this month. Dabs and Myla create a fantastical world featuring nature and various characters based on their shared experiences. The vividly colored blooming flowers and trees spread like a tropical jungle, leading us to an ideal world beyond reality. Especially, the smooth and flatly rendered landscapes and the use of gradient techniques to show three-dimensional space are key elements that maximize immersive and surreal experiences. This exhibition shares a message of hope and coexistence through a virtual world where mysterious characters live amid a reality filled with disease, violence, and extreme conflicts.

The landscapes and characters appearing in the works, the composition that moves between two-dimensional and three-dimensional forms, and the way the viewpoint is generated are elements that make the artists’ works special. The Japanese contemporary art master Takashi Murakami, fascinated early on by this compositional style, recognizes them as successors of the Superflat aesthetic and provides full support through exhibitions in Tokyo. The artists create a virtual world inhabited by various characters that replace human figures and unfold stories of life. The world depicted on the canvas crosses between virtual and real, becoming a fantastical space where life continues beyond the two-dimensional plane. Various characters and objects hidden like a treasure hunt within the lush flowers and trees stop the viewers’ gaze.

Personified characters holding flowers and walking through the forest, watching over each other, serve as important mediators showing the joys and sorrows of life. DABSMYLA shows another world beyond reality through diverse characters. They are virtual friends and family representing life, breaking down the boundaries between life and art and creating a special space where new fables emerge. This exhibition especially features forms such as mushrooms, strawberries, and raccoons. Characters dominating the canvas with intense colors and cute appearances act as mediators representing various inner human emotions, allowing viewers to look into the hidden sides of life. As the title 'Future Lives' suggests, the artists’ hope is to convey an optimistic vision for reality and the future. The exhibition runs until May 14th at Space Fountain, Gangdong-daero, Gangdong-gu, Seoul.

Fatigue Limits_2023_#2_ Single-channel video, color, sound, 19 minutes 42 seconds [Photo by Doosan Gallery]

▲ Eunhee Lee Solo Exhibition 'Limits of Fatigue' = Doosan Gallery is hosting Eunhee Lee’s solo exhibition 'Limits of Fatigue' until April 5th. Eunhee Lee explores contemporary technological environments, the relationship between machines and humans, and the social landscapes formed by these relationships. The subjects she has dealt with are linked to technological development, but rather than consuming or indulging in them as novelties or curiosities, she presents them as concrete media that recognize the political and economic systems of society and reflect on the forms of life shaped by them.

In this exhibition, the artist presents scenes of ‘reliability testing’ and ‘blasting,’ industrial fields that use engineering to measure and understand the maximum limits that objects/things can withstand under external forces. ‘Reliability testing/engineering’ is an engineering industry that categorizes and simulates external stimuli a product may experience to calculate its lifespan or failure rate. It subjects products to environmental stresses such as extreme high or low temperatures, continuous vibration or current, or repeated shocks to test how long they can endure without breaking or becoming defective. Through this process, the average lifespan of the product is determined, and accordingly, an appropriate quality assurance period considering corporate profits is set.

Meanwhile, ‘blasting’ is a process of destroying materials using explosives, a highly technical method used in constructing social infrastructure such as roads and tunnels by blasting an appropriate amount of rock. The most important aspect here is that stress of suitable strength, considering safety, efficiency, and economy, must be measured and applied to meet the blasting purpose. This exhibition presents the state and moment where damage due to stress is precariously maintained just before destruction, reminding us of the yield points and resistance forces that materials, individuals, and society face at every moment. The exhibition runs until April 5th at Doosan Gallery, Yeonji-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul.