[Gallery Walk] 'Fragments of Fantasy' Completed Through Harmony and Contrast

Seonhwa-rang, Kang Yujin Solo Exhibition 'Fragments of Fantasy: A New Perspective on Landscape'

"Gardens and paintings are very similar. Both the artist and the gardener design and plan their work with a certain direction within a given space. Even after the work begins, various coincidences and necessities intertwine and interact, gradually completing the space or the canvas. Their long-term attention and dedication are essential conditions."

- From the Artist's Note

pool with fire, enamel and acrylic on canvas, 91.4x121.9 cm, 2024.
Photo by Seon Gallery

Seon Gallery is hosting a solo exhibition by artist Kang Yujin titled 'Fragments of Fantasy: A New Perspective on Landscape' until September 14. This exhibition centers on new works inspired by the visual experiences and inspirations Kang gained last year while participating in the Oak Spring Garden residency program located in Virginia, USA.

The artist juxtaposes and fuses the surrounding landscapes and spaces that left a strong impression, the structures of those spaces, and everyday materials that came to mind, all within a single canvas. Through this process, Kang possesses memories and experiences in her own way within the frame and expresses new inspirations beyond them as unique landscapes. The birth of these new landscapes can also be linked to the artist's lifestyle.

Having studied in the UK and regularly relocated with her family after marriage, Kang's life involved repeated cycles of unfamiliarity and acceptance whenever exposed to new environments. Perhaps because of this, she responded closely to the situations she was placed in and poured her experiences into her work. This not only helped her adapt to unfamiliar environments but also became a new driving force for her artistic practice.

Previously focusing on artificial urban spaces such as airports and swimming pools, the artist has recently shifted to using natural elements as the main subjects in her work following changes in her residence. Although she currently settled near Washington D.C., her previous home in Utah featured distinct natural landscapes such as wind, water, canyons formed over long periods, fault zones created by tectonic shifts, and snowy scenes of Salt Lake City, providing ample canvases in themselves.

Maelstrom in nature, enamel and acrylic on canvas, 97 x 145.5cm, 2024.
Photo by Seon Gallery

The inspiration at that time is evident in works like the Crepe Cake Canyon, Mountain with Crepe Cake, and Mountain with Meat series, which depict the vast nature encountered along the way. By bringing everyday objects with unique terrain similarities into the frame and merging them, the artist shakes the ordinariness of the subjects and transforms them into another space. This oscillation between 'landscape and still life' and 'reality and unreality' evokes visual immersion and intrigue.

The nature, gardens, and sculptures encountered during last year's Oak Spring Garden residency program became new sources of inspiration and material for the artist. Oak Spring Garden was established by Rachel Lambert Mellon, a horticulturist, garden designer, philanthropist, and collector, and operates programs supporting artists, anthropologists, botanists, ecologists, and environmentalists. Here, the artist explored the harmony between nature and the artificial, reflecting it in her work. While a garden is made of nature, it is also, in a way, an artificial space cultivated by humans.

Additionally, the artist drew great inspiration from sculptures by Richard Serra, Jeff Koons, and others encountered during field tours at the Glenstone Museum and Saint Bride Farm during the residency. In her work, she combines these contrasting qualities, situations, and opposing elements to reconstruct them as a single landscape.

An indispensable element when describing the artist's work is the primary medium, enamel paint. Enamel is very effective in emphasizing the properties of pigments, and through the dripping technique (a painting method where pigment is dropped or poured onto the canvas without using a brush), the enamel paint naturally blends, creating accidental effects. These effects limit the depiction of concrete forms and actively highlight abstract elements.

sunrise, enamel and acrylic on canvas, 40.6x50.8cm, 2024.
Photo by Seon Gallery

The glossy effect of the smoothly applied enamel surface prevents viewers from clearly seeing the shapes of the depicted images and reflects their gaze outside the canvas. The artist encourages the viewer's gaze to repeatedly enter and exit the canvas, making the flow of vision fluid. By utilizing the fluid characteristics and accidental effects of enamel, she achieves a harmony between abstraction and representation, offering viewers diverse visual experiences.

The artist's canvases, which combine and reconstruct heterogeneous and contrasting materials to create new landscapes, blend abstract and representational elements, two-dimensional and three-dimensional spaces, curves and straight lines, details and wholes, warmth and coolness, discomfort and comfort, chance and intention, reality and unreality. These opposing pairs do not clash but intersect, overlap, and juxtapose harmoniously like a single landscape. As the exhibition title 'Fragments of Fantasy' suggests, the artist presents multiple layers to the audience within this third landscape where various elements coexist on the canvas.