[Exhibition of the Week] 70th Anniversary of the Armistice Commemoration Im Gunhong Exhibition · Chae On Solo Exhibition 'FULL BLOOM' and More

▲70th Anniversary of the Armistice Exhibition: Painter Im Gunhong = Yehwarang presents the 'Painter Im Gunhong' exhibition to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the armistice. Over 120 paintings from the 1930s to 1950s left by Im Gunhong are on display.

Im Gunhong and family. [Photo by Yehwarang]

Painter Im Gunhong (1912?1979) was a North Korean defector artist who has been forgotten in South Korea. He held exhibitions in Seoul, Beijing, Tianjin, and Xinjing (the capital of Manchukuo, now Changchun) during the 1930s and 1940s. During the height of the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937?1945), he lived in Wuhan as a Korean painter, living almost like a 'time traveler.'

Born into a fairly wealthy family in Seoul, his family fortune declined sharply during his teenage years, making him the head of the household at a young age. After graduating from elementary school, he gave up formal education and worked as a dental technician at a dental clinic run by his maternal relatives, living a life far removed from art. It was thanks to Kim Jongtae and Yoon Heesoon, whom he met at Jugyo Public Elementary School, that he became an artist. Meeting a star painter born from the Joseon Art Exhibition and a respected artist and critic, Im Gunhong did not give up his dream of becoming a painter even after graduating from elementary school. While working for a living, he squeezed time to learn oil painting and attended night school.

In 1936, while working as a dental technician, he married nurse Hong Woosoon (1915?1982) after five years of courtship. Before their marriage, Hong Woosoon was already a bold 'new woman' who appeared as a semi-nude model in Im Gunhong’s works. His 1937 work 'Statue of a Girl,' which was selected for the Joseon Art Exhibition, also featured his wife as the model.

Im Gunhong, Statue of a Girl. [Photo by Yehwarang]

Afterward, Im Gunhong sought ways to earn money while pursuing art and started a design-related business. As his business prospered, he dreamed of expanding into China and settled in war-torn Wuhan. Although he earned money, the reality he encountered in Wuhan during the height of the Second Sino-Japanese War was horrific. He left paintings depicting naked women with chest wounds and the tragic scenes of leprosy patients wandering the streets. Around the time Korea was liberated and the Chinese Civil War intensified, Im Gunhong returned to Seoul. After returning in 1946, he established advertising, design, and printing companies.

However, an unexpected incident held him back. In early 1948, he was arrested for using photos of Choi Seunghee in producing a New Year's calendar for the Ministry of Transportation. The world-renowned dancer Choi Seunghee had already defected to the North in July 1946 with her husband An Mak, a leftist. Although he only used a popular model to produce the calendar, this political issue led to several months of imprisonment. The stigma of being labeled a leftist forced him to go North. Thus, the forgotten artist has been recalled and returned before the audience through this exhibition. The exhibition runs until September 26 at Yehwarang, 12-gil Apgujeong-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul.

Doosan Curator Workshop Special Exhibition 《#2》(July 26 - August 30, 2023), Doosan Gallery, Exhibition View
Photo by Doosan Gallery

▲Doosan Curator Workshop Exhibition '#2' = Doosan Gallery is hosting the '#2' exhibition, part of the Doosan Curator Workshop, a program for nurturing emerging curators, until August 30. This exhibition is a joint curation by the 12th participants of the Doosan Curator Workshop: Image, Lee Mina, and Lee Minju.

This exhibition begins with reading together within the time and space depicted by a play, capturing the dramatic moments triggered by the event of the exhibition. The play by Bae Haeryul, which points to real events while imagining fictional spaces, serves as the shared seed and intellectual support for constructing this exhibition. Kwak Sojin, Rie Nakajima, Lee Kyungmin, and Jung Cheolgyu respond to the open structure of this text, using a single scene as a clue to retrieve fragments of time they each focus on. Their works continuously transform the exhibition space by passing through different time zones at their own pace and language.

A play presupposes being spoken and performed through others in a collaborative creation process. It is a narrative form that produces organic images crossing various times and spaces at a single point. '#2' borrows the grammar of drama to question how an exhibition, existing as a visible place, drives the act of looking. The exhibition invites viewers to face a series of images originating from the text and to recall the unread text. It also experiments with how the body of the exhibition space, performing the act of 'looking,' moves with the body of the artwork and entangles each other as another scene.

Can an exhibition become an 'event'? Imagining and realizing an event from a single scene, the four participants’ images either reproduce the event contained in the text or generate another event. '#2' fragments the narrative of a specific event in the play through extracted scenes, encouraging viewers to move away from a completed story. Through this, it questions how we assign narratives to images and what kind of events can occur in the special time and space called 'exhibition.' The exhibition runs until August 30 at Doosan Gallery, 33-gil Jongno, Jongno-gu, Seoul.

Spirit 202 Oil on canvas 227.3x181.8cm
[Photo by Pyo Gallery]

▲Chaeon Solo Exhibition 'FULL BLOOM' = Pyo Gallery is hosting Chaeon's solo exhibition 'FULL BLOOM' from August 3 to 30. Chaeon was recognized for her talent by winning the Grand Prize at the 1st Seoul Arts Foundation Portfolio Fair held in 2015.

The artist seeks the possibilities of painting and then tries to conceal them again. Her works provide rich experiences while overturning discussions about the essence of painting. She strives not to transfer her thoughts fully onto the canvas, painting pictures that can be experienced through intuitive senses. Without revealing her goals upfront, she aims to depict spontaneous and accidental moments, free from conventional knowledge or clich?s.

At some point, 'flowers' began to appear as a major motif in the artist’s world. Starting with 'Green Landscape' and 'Whisper of Water,' she has continuously painted nature, later focusing more specifically on natural objects. Finally, it became 'full bloom' flowers filling an infinite space on the canvas, with no end in sight.

Green Flowers 2021-2023 Oil on canvas 80.3x116.8cm
[Photo by Pyo Gallery]

The flowers appearing in the artist’s works embody a longing for something unattainable, emotions of hope and futility. The flowers represent everyone surrounding the artist and have transformed from the characteristics of real plants into paint on the canvas. This can be seen as the result of her contemplation on making impermanent things eternal.

This contemplation on eternity continues in works featuring figures. They symbolize beings trying to transcend their existing materiality and approach eternity. They express human essential finitude and the resulting psychological anguish, acceptance and despair, overcoming and sublimation. They also reflect thoughts on human identity, including the artist herself.

The artist’s works, aiming not to show what is visible but what is invisible, allow for various interpretations depending on intention, convention, and the audience’s perception and emotions. The exhibition runs until August 30 at Pyo Gallery, Jahamun-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul.