[Exhibition of the Week] Andrea Perero Solo Exhibition · Hwang Yeongseong Invitational Exhibition 'Space Family Story' etc.

Editor's NoteThis week's exhibitions introduce a variety of diverse and attractive exhibitions that can be experienced nationwide over the course of one week.

▲Andrea Ferrero Solo Exhibition 'All My Life I've Been Afraid of Power' = Gallery Shilla Seoul presents Korea's first 'edible architectural sculpture' exhibition. This is through the solo exhibition 'All My Life I've Been Afraid of Power' by Mexican artist Andrea Ferrero.

Andrea Ferrero, All My Life I've Been Afraid of Power, white chocolate, dimension variable, 2023
[Photo by Gallery Shinra Seoul]

In the solo exhibition of the same name presented at New York's Swivel Gallery in 2023, the artist showcased an immersive installation exploring the dynamics of colonial domination through 'edible architectural sculptures.' At first glance, the pillars and architectural sculptures appear to be solid pink marble, but they are made of white chocolate, metaphorically representing the deeply rooted symbols of power dating back to ancient Greek and Roman times.

By actively encouraging the audience to destroy, consume, and digest the sculptures, the artist prompts a comprehensive metabolism of the deep-seated legacy of colonialism. Since the 15th century, scenes of operas themed around food and banquets generally symbolized the display of political power and resources in European courts. Later, in modern bourgeois society, these evolved into lavish banquets showcasing exotic new foods and rare items from newly dominated colonies.

Andrea Ferrero, All My Life I've Been Afraid of Power, white chocolate, dimension variable, 2023
[Photo by Gallery Shinra Seoul]

Ferrero's works reflect how excessive extravagance in architecture and dining rituals functions as a sign of political control and a strategic play of power. The artist orchestrates a reenactment of history by confronting the persistent signs of colonial ideology found in Latin America with temporary and sweet 'luxuries' and 'feasts.' Residing in Mexico City, Ferrero critically examines the iconography of power and its relationships, recently focusing intensively on food as spectacle, dining rituals as stages of power, and their connections with architectural and ritual aesthetics.

By creating 'edible works' that focus on the processes of eating, digesting, metabolizing, and excreting, the artist challenges the colonial legacy through humor and fiction. A representative from Gallery Shilla explained, "We hope this exhibition will wash away the 'art fatigue' felt due to the expansion of the Korean art market and help rediscover the 'contemporary spirit: the challenge of novelty' that we had momentarily forgotten due to the market." The exhibition runs from the 30th to December 27th at Gallery Shilla Seoul, Samcheong-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul.

For the Sake of a Single Fruit, 2023, Acrylic on canvas, 162.2 × 388 cm
Photo by Gallery Chosun

▲Choi Gayoung Solo Exhibition 'Furutsu' = Gallery Chosun holds a solo exhibition 'Furutsu' by artist Choi Gayoung. In this exhibition, the artist uses the survival methods of tropical plants as a mirror to discuss the relationship between reality and ideals.

The exhibition title ‘Furutsu’ is derived from the Japanese pronunciation フル?ツ of the English word Fruits and is inspired by processed products like canned fruit 'fruit cocktail' and mixed fruit jelly 'fruit mix,' where 'furutsu' is used as a name for processed goods imitating the flavor of fruit. In this exhibition, ‘furutsu’ is used as an expression encompassing beings who live by imitating fantasy images of specific times, spaces, or objects that reality longs for instead of actual fruit.

The artist presents portraits of tropical plants used as decorations for staged illusions or objects located on the periphery of such illusions, aiming to reproduce exotic sentiments created by fruit or processed products with tropical romantic flavors commonly seen around us. The tropical plants in the works are painted in high saturation to emphasize their unique exotic atmosphere and sweet flavor, but biting into the vividly red fruit that appears very sweet leads to a strange imagination that instead of sticky pulp sweetness, only the hollow scent of synthetic flavoring remains on the tongue.

Blue Hawaii, 2023, Acrylic on canvas, 80.5 × 117cm
[Photo courtesy of Gallery Chosun]

While working in a studio in Incheon, the artist said that by painting orchids and learning their character and temperament, and by painting portraits of tropical fruits and plants wrapped in high-saturation skins, they began to observe their survival methods. The artist’s gaze, which once skimmed over their splendid appearances, shifted from tropical plants consumed as images producing exotic illusions in reality to their existence in reality. Previously, the artist presented in a solo exhibition a mechanism of desire in reality that makes people believe in the existence of times or objects they have never experienced, based on autobiographical experiences about the social phenomenon of choosing indirect experiences that are easier and faster than actual ones, through paintings and installations.

This exhibition ‘Furutsu’ aims to be an experience where the audience looks together at the reality of living while dreaming of unreality, using portraits of tropical plants’ survival strategies as a mirror under the category of survival methods. After this exhibition ends, a related exhibition titled ‘Furutsu Jelly’ will be held on December 23rd at the exhibition space Osiseon in Seongsu-dong. The exhibition runs from the 28th to December 19th at Gallery Chosun, Bukchon-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul.

Hwang Youngseong, Large Family, 1986, Oil on canvas, 194.9x259.1cm [Photo courtesy of Jeonnam Provincial Museum of Art]

▲Hwang Youngsung Invitational Exhibition 'The Story of the Cosmic Family' = Jeonnam Provincial Museum of Art presents the invitational exhibition 'The Story of the Cosmic Family' by Hwang Youngsung. The theme of Hwang Youngsung’s painting world is ‘family,’ a subject he has consistently focused on throughout over 60 years of his artistic career. The artist has dealt with family through multifaceted perspectives and formal variations that connect the world and the canvas, based on a fundamental longing in his heart. The scope expands from humble rural family homes to the myriad lives of great nature, and finally to a life community embracing all things in the universe as a ‘cosmic family.’

Artistic freedom and the will for self-expansion deeply permeate the artist’s entire body of work. Influenced by bold expressionist acts and artistic deviations encountered during his studies in informal abstraction, combined with a sensibility rooted in the Namdo region’s emotional connection with nature and inspiration, and later, through his own painting exploration, he gradually awakened to a broad world and a consciousness of coexistence among all beings. Rooted yet unbound, these creative freedoms have shaped his unique painting world.

In the 1960s, the artist produced landscape paintings in the style of Honam Impressionism, emotionally interpreting natural materials, and portraits that captured the flow of light and color on canvas. He mainly created works prioritizing the painting’s atmosphere over realistic depiction of subjects. However, in the 1970s, he shifted to a completely different painting world dominated by gray-scale flat paintings with local themes. Alongside the scent of native life, he often explored the structural aesthetics of rural thatched houses using monochrome earthen wall textures. This gradually expanded from thatched houses to villages, and in the 1980s, shifted to a viewpoint overlooking wide fields, incorporating green-toned natural landscapes, animals, plants, and human life stages into a single canvas.

Hwang Youngseong, Family Story, 2007, Silicone on canvas, 90.9x72.7cm
[Photo by Jeonnam Provincial Museum of Art]

From the 1990s, the artist broadened his perspective to the outside world. Through travels to unfamiliar exotic places in Europe, South America, North America, and Africa, and explorations of ancient civilizations such as the Inca and Maya, he discovered different aspects of the world and cultural differences and commonalities, concretizing a worldview of symbiosis among all things. Based on this, in the 2000s, nature and all things in the world unfolded as individual iconographies forming a symbiotic universe. During this period, he continued bold experiments with various materials and techniques, including mosaic-style monochrome canvases, paper drawings, metal plate embossing, silicone band compositions, mirror ball arrangements, and Styrofoam sculptures, expanding the concept into the ‘cosmic family.’

The artist’s lifelong career is a sculptural sublimation process expressing a wish for a free and peaceful communal world. It unfolds not only a fundamental longing for spiritual roots but also an independent painting world with extensibility through continuous formal variations. This exhibition, reflecting on over 60 years of his career up to his recent works, is an opportunity to fully appreciate the worldview of symbiosis and the grand trajectory of a lifetime’s work. The exhibition runs until February 18th next year at Jeonnam Provincial Museum of Art, Gwangyang-si, Jeollanam-do.