[Exhibitions of the Week] Moon Hyungtae Solo Exhibition 'Perfect Picture' · Kwon Hyunjin Solo Exhibition 'Visual Illusion' and More

Editor's NoteThis week's exhibitions introduce a variety of diverse and captivating shows from across the country that you can experience over the course of one week.

▲ Moon Hyungtae Solo Exhibition 'Perfect Picture' = Gana Art presents Moon Hyungtae's solo exhibition 'Perfect Picture,' which explores the essence of life by infusing warm emotions and fairy-tale-like humor into everyday and ordinary subjects. Moon Hyungtae focuses on the various 'relationships' humans form throughout life and uniquely expresses the accumulated experiences and thoughts along life's trajectory on canvas. This exhibition, held two years after his 2022 solo show 'CHOCKABLOCK,' unveils over 50 new works by the artist.

[Exhibitions of the Week] Moon Hyungtae Solo Exhibition 'Perfect Picture' · Kwon Hyunjin Solo Exhibition 'Visual Illusion' and More

‘Chinese Fried Rice’(2024) ⓒMoon Hyeongtae [Photo by Ghana Art Center]

'Relationship' has been a long-standing theme for the artist. He explores the essence of life by depicting people connected to 'me,' such as himself, family, lovers, and friends. By viewing everyday things from an unconventional perspective, the artist cleverly unravels the dual emotions arising from relationships and the duality of life. His works are characterized by fragmented depictions of figures that seem to express inner emotions, vibrant yet weighty colors, and rough lines. The densely composed canvases show overlapping or superimposed figures, narrowing or ultimately erasing the distances between them.

Instead, the focus is placed on each figure's situation, revealing what constitutes the individual. For the artist, the foundation of his work lies in his perspective on everyday life, capturing intimate moments and reconstructing them into solid narratives on canvas. Stories embedded in Moon Hyungtae's works, which contain everyday subjects and experiences, exude affection for life and imply an imaginative narrative reminiscent of fairy tales. Moon Hyungtae states, "If I were to connect my work to fairy tales, I would like to use the characters 動 (move) and ? (picture). Any adjective that describes a picture that moves the heart would please me."

ⓒMoon Hyeongtae [Photo by Ghana Art Center]

His works subtly blend opposing emotions such as love and hate, joy and sorrow, happiness and misfortune. The recent work 'Merry-go-Round' (2024) depicts people enjoying their time on a carousel, but the spinning carousel, continuously going up and down, symbolizes the endless ups and downs of our lives. 'Diamond' (2024) portrays a happy couple who have become a family alongside a sparkling diamond. However, most sparkling things are very sharp and can cause wounds. This reflects the dual nature of relationships with close ones like family or lovers, who bring happiness but can also cause pain depending on circumstances.

The new work 'Chinese Fried Rice' (2024), unveiled in this exhibition, reflects the artist's personal experience. After debuting as a full-time artist but struggling financially, Moon Hyungtae ordered fried rice from a Chinese restaurant that was the only place offering delivery. Since rice, black bean sauce, and jjambbong broth could be eaten separately, cooking rice alone allowed him to divide one meal into three parts, solving three meals a day. Even after eating fried rice for several years, it remains his favorite dish. Although his environment and financial situation have improved, his daily life as an artist, hardships, and labor hours have not changed. For him, fried rice symbolizes consistency or hope as a medium that recalls those times.

‘Self Portrait’ ⓒMoon Hyeongtae [Photo by Gana Art Center]

The exhibition title 'Perfect Picture' is taken from a frequently used title in the artist's works. 'Perfect Picture' does not mean a perfectly drawn painting. Just as small and large pieces of life come together to form a bigger whole, various elements in the artwork are essential, hence the name 'Perfect Picture.' The artist's work, which sharply captures the essence and contradictions of life, is not just 'one piece' but a 'single story' that connects one work to another. The exhibition runs until October 9 at Gana Art Center, Pyeongchang 30-gil, Jongno-gu, Seoul.

VISUAL POETRY CUBE SERIES, Mixed Media, 2024. [Photo by Pyo Gallery]

▲ Kwon Hyunjin Solo Exhibition 'Visual Illusion' = Pyo Gallery hosts Kwon Hyunjin's solo exhibition 'Visual Illusion,' showcasing new innovations about invisible worlds. The artist emphasizes that 21st-century art should not merely repeat past paradigms but explore new dimensions of image possibilities. In his recent works, he departs from traditional abstraction to visually reveal invisible worlds, offering audiences new visual experiences.

The new series 'Visual Poetry Pixel Series' presented in this exhibition is a highly developed continuation of his previous explorations, utilizing intense hues and square hard-edge surfaces to create repetitive structures that evoke a sense of movement and visual illusion. Inspired by Byzantine mosaics and Gothic stained glass, this series arranges highly saturated pixel fragments to produce optical illusions, ultimately aiming to provide viewers with novel experiences and meditative immersion.

Visual Poetry Series, Mixed Media on Canvas, 91X91cm(each), 2023. [Photo by Pyo Gallery]

Another recent work, 'Visual Poetry Cube Series,' three-dimensionally reconstructs the pixels from the 'Visual Poetry Pixel Series.' Each piece is designed as a 3D cube, allowing viewers to explore the cube from various angles and enjoy diverse visual experiences. Breaking down the boundaries between painting and poetry and maximizing poetic expression, the new works employ vivid colors with variable paint surface effects and stains to amplify abstract images with a droplet-like visual sensation, simultaneously creating poetic illusions and mystical fantasies.

Through the arrangement and movement of diverse colors, the artist realizes works that evoke dreamlike feelings and poetic illusions. Beyond visual senses, these works stimulate viewers' emotions and imagination through synesthetic experiences. The exhibition runs until October 26 at Pyo Gallery, Jahamun-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul.

Pilgrim, gouache on hanji paper, 116.7x91cm, 2024.
Photo by Arte K.

▲ Lim Seunghyun Solo Exhibition 'Pilgrim' = Arte K presents Lim Seunghyun's solo exhibition 'Pilgrim,' showcasing 30 new works. The artist, in last year's solo exhibition 'My Private Garden' (2023), likened our lives to a garden, highlighting beings who cultivate their own spaces within it.

With a loving observer's gaze, the artist now shifts his focus beyond the garden to the infinitely extending road. Like setting the narrator's perspective in a novel to structure storytelling, in this exhibition, the artist becomes both observer and protagonist to share a more sincere story with the audience.

The exhibition title 'Pilgrim' means a traveler on a pilgrimage. The artist confesses that in accepting and living finite life, he finds the pilgrim's journey on the path each person is given. On a road with an unknown end, continuing forward nonetheless is the meaning of life's journey he seeks to depict.

Cultivated Life, Gouache on Hanji, 162x130.3cm, 2024.
Photo by Arte K

Even knowing it's far, hard, painful, and that we cannot return, we leave countless footprints and set out on the road.

- From Lim Seunghyun's Artist Note

Calling himself a 'clumsy farmer,' the artist sees painting as no different from cultivating a field and making trees bear fruit. He finds greater joy not in large, splendid fruits but in the daily care?exposing trees to sunlight and watering them. The daily diligence in nurturing and the precious beings living within become the brightest stories in his paintings.

Throughout the exhibition space, visitors encounter hesitant steps on the path the artist has traveled, as well as renewed strides setting off again. The exhibition offers a resonant experience with the artist's heart toward painting by following the variously shaped footprints left on the path he has walked. The exhibition runs until October 6 at Arte K, Eonju-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul.

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[Exhibitions of the Week] Moon Hyungtae Solo Exhibition 'Perfect Picture' · Kwon Hyunjin Solo Exhibition 'Visual Illusion' and More

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