[Exhibitions of the Week] Ijaun Solo Exhibition 'thin section' · Kim Suyeon Solo Exhibition 'Catcher' and More

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

▲ Zaun Solo Exhibition 'thin section' = Gallery LVS is hosting Zaun's first solo exhibition in Korea in eight years, titled 'thin section.' The artist Zaun explains the exhibition title 'thin section' with a footnote: 'thin section, a thin slice: a thin piece about 0.03mm thick cut so that light can pass through rocks or minerals for microscopic observation.'

Ijaun (Zaun), thin section 804, 97.79 cm x 35.94 cm, 2024 [Photo by Gallery LVS]

Just as a geologist prepares the smallest piece, a thin section, to begin in-depth research on a subject, the exhibition title signifies the artist's working method that starts by observing the smallest fragment of a single landscape perceived within the layers of life accumulated over time.

Regarding the grid, which forms the foundation of the artist's world, Zaun describes it as 'something from the 20th century, continuing into the next generation.' The grid is a massive map of the major cities where the artist lives and works, such as New York and London, and conceptually integrates the immovable spaces and the buildings constructed and demolished over centuries.

The 'thin section' series is composed of various materials. Copper plates carved into blocks of different shapes are printed with multiple watercolor hues. On graph paper, mulberry paper backed with silk is carefully collaged by overlapping block shapes. Blocks of different colors intersect and overlap on the mulberry paper. The blocks, aligned precisely according to the graph paper, are meticulously placed but then disperse as if finding their own place within the collage. Some blocks create empty spaces through cutouts.

Ijaun (Zaun), thin section 802, 97.79 cm x 35.94 cm, 2024 [Photo by Gallery LVS]

The blocks he draws are collaged in small visible sizes but evoke the illusion of viewing a massive architectural structure under a microscope. Like a meticulously crafted blueprint designed by the creator to closely observe and analyze each tiny material as small as a cell, the work expresses the gap in perception between what is visible yet invisible and what is known. Furthermore, the act of stamping and assembling small pieces explores time dominated by space and space dominated by time, demonstrating the infinity of 'useless' art.

Zaun studied visual design at Seoul National University but pursued pure art, which he longed for, by enrolling in the philosophy department at Alfred University in New York, graduating with honors. Currently residing in New York, he actively exhibits in New York, London, and Seoul. He gained attention when his interview was uniquely featured in an article as part of a performance exhibition at the 2022 Whitney Biennale.

NYC makers and printmakers (Eight Lego Blocks and Two Holes), 2023. A series of small works by artist Lee Ja-woon, sold exclusively at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.
[Photo by Gallery LVS]

Nayland Blake's performance 'Got an Art Problem?' took place on the third floor of the Whitney Museum, attracting attention as it was conducted in front of artists, museum staff, and visitors.

The artist said he was deeply impressed by installation works such as those by Louise Bourgeois during a school trip to the Venice Biennale, which he visited by chance, saying, 'I couldn't believe that such a life was possible.' He expressed deep empathy for the works that art masters expressed uniquely and honestly. After studying visual design, which was necessary for commercial marketing, instead of pure art that did not receive much support in Korea, he returned to and devoted himself to art philosophy that perceives and reflects.

Similar but each different in shape, overlapping blocks and blocks with empty spaces between them, and threads crossing the blocks stitched one by one reach the edge of the paper, not the blocks. The endless work that oscillates between rigidity and flexibility shows the artist's passion and will toward art. The exhibition runs until the 31st at Gallery LVS, 27 Dosan-daero 27-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul.

????????_??? Nighttime Sun_2024_mixed media_ [Photo by Chapter Two]

▲ Kim Suyeon Solo Exhibition 'Catcher' = Exhibition complex space Chapter Two presents Kim Suyeon's solo exhibition 'Catcher.' The artist, who has presented the 'Weather Series' that translates time symbolized by weather into material, captures the temperature and humidity of the four seasons on canvas in this exhibition.

For over ten years, the artist has created three-dimensional works from texts excerpted from plant encyclopedias, encyclopedias, and erotic paintings, realized in the form of still life. Since then, including the weather series, she has worked on subjects that existed but disappeared, or that are invisible but exist. The artist consistently focuses on experiments emphasizing 'how' to paint rather than 'what' to paint.

From November last year to October this year, about one year, the artist recorded the four seasons with invisible weather elements, using acrylic medium, which acts as a paint additive, alone to create traces unintentionally according to temperature and humidity. From late autumn, when indoor and outdoor temperature and humidity differ sharply, especially during cold waves and summer heatwaves, dramatic cracks appeared on the surface of the material, creating marks resembling wounds.

????????_??? Daytime Moon_2024_mixed media_[Photo by Chapter Two]

The artist explained that she took photos of the sky's color that impressed her that day with her phone camera, cut out the most pleasing image, mixed the sky's color with the medium, and worked on an 8-ho canvas by pouring 340-380ml of medium. She also recorded and saved the indoor and outdoor temperature and humidity at that time along with the acrylic paint color names and amounts mixed into the medium.

The recorded works showed no identical traces or shapes on any day. Although it seemed like the same day repeated, date and time are artificial concepts that numb us to daily differences, and each day holds a different history.

The artist said, "Looking at the accumulated failed background paintings, I realized that the traces defined as failures themselves possess beauty in an unintentional way," adding, "Although these are failed paintings before drawing, I focused on these images that only weather elements (temperature, humidity), which cannot be intentionally expressed, can create, and recorded them as a series."

This exhibition reminds viewers, accustomed to the artificial concepts of date and time and considering each day as ordinary, that yesterday and today are different days, while also conveying the message that the different traces each day mean we ourselves are changing daily. The exhibition runs until November 23 at Chapter Two, 27 Donggyo-ro 27-gil, Mapo-gu, Seoul.

Jinyoung_Sai 01, acrylic on canvas, 193.9×259.1cm, 2024. [Photo by Arte K]

▲ Jinyoung Solo Exhibition 'Between' = Arte K, a subsidiary of art auction company K Auction, presents Jinyoung's solo exhibition 'Between.' This first collaboration with the artist unveils 23 new works and 13 older works. During the exhibition, visitors can also find merchandise featuring dolls shaped like the parrot humans from the artist's works.

The artist's work is divided into series. With the addition of personal experiences, these series gradually completed. Starting in 2011, the artist began depicting people with parrot heads clustered in various forms. In 2014, he introduced the pumpkin series, likening the joy of his child's birth to 'a pumpkin rolling in on a vine.' In 2020, based on daily life in a park where he often spent time with his growing child, he began the park series in earnest. As the saying goes, when meeting a person, their past, present, and future come together; similarly, each of Jinyoung's works contains traces of the past, the flowing present, and the approaching future. This time then meets the lives of viewers, creating another unique story.

My little story, acrylic on canvas, 60.6×60.6cm, 2024. [Photo by ArteK]

Capturing what flows in all 'Between,' the artist transferred this onto the canvas. The exhibition's representative works, the eponymous 'Between' series, consist of three large paintings sized 200-ho. Continuing from the 'Finding Utopia' series first shown in last year's solo exhibition, including works paying homage to Claude Monet's 'Water Lilies' series, the parrot humans living repetitive days by imitating each other on an island assumed to be a park?the only resting space in the city?step beyond the original island through an arched bridge installed over a pond. Standing before these three connected large works, viewers realize they encounter the parrot humans crossing the canvas and the screen again.

However, the longing of these figures to move from their world to another's is not first expressed in this series. In past series, parrot humans always dreamed of connection inside and outside the given frame by flying balloons of hope and kites, suggesting the artist's constructed world and stories anticipate infinite expansion.

An Arte K representative said, "Through Jinyoung's solo exhibition 'Between,' we hope viewers can observe and feel the diverse colors and daily life," adding, "We hope they listen to the melodies of tremors and echoes hidden between our footsteps." The exhibition runs until November 6 at Arte K, Eonju-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul.