[Exhibition of the Week] Lee Heon-jeong 'Asking Beauty to the Moon-like Jar' · Bang & Lee 'Canary Distribution' etc.

Editor's NoteThis week's exhibitions introduce a variety of attractive shows from across the country that can be experienced over the course of one week.

▲ Heonjeong Lee Solo Exhibition 'Asking Beauty to the Moon-like Jar' = Park Yeo-sook Gallery, recently reopened after remodeling, is holding its first exhibition with Heonjeong Lee's solo show 'Asking Beauty to the Moon-like Jar.'

Artist Heonjeong Lee 'Hangari'
[Photo by Park Yeosuk Gallery]

The exhibition centers on the Korean aesthetic symbol of beauty, the ‘moon jar,’ showcasing over 100 white works including 16 moon jars by the artist who continuously strives to transcend conventional boundaries.

Starting from ceramics and expanding into ceramic sculpture, ceramic furniture, ceramic murals, ceramic architecture, video, and installation, the artist has explored the essence of ceramics and the fundamentals of art through various works and experiences. In this exhibition, the artist returns purely to earth and fire to question ‘beauty.’

Through the moon jar, the artist challenges the social structure symbolized by our 'memory culture,' that is, the absolute beliefs valued and created by collective memories held by communities. At the same time, the artist questions the foundation of new beauty formed through analyzing and synthesizing the enforced beauty or the beauty already defined as beautiful.

Exhibition view of Heon Jeong Lee's solo exhibition.
[Photo by Park Yeosuk Gallery]

The artist points out how nationalist countries or individuals use ‘tradition’ as a tool to firmly maintain and unite their communities, criticizing the arrogance that emphasizes only the ‘beauty’ of their own culture while explaining their cultural superiority and originality.

Describing the act of creating a ‘perfectly round moon jar’ as merely memorizing its form, the artist states, “If the jar warps while firing, I accept it as it is. Art is not about reproducing already established values but about posing new questions and granting imagination for new possibilities.”

The artist’s perspective, defining the fixed definition of beauty as ‘violence,’ breathes as a living spirit of the times within the broken and warped forms of the moon jars. The exhibition runs until December 20 at Park Yeo-sook Gallery, Sowol-ro 38-gil, Yongsan-gu, Seoul.

Exhibition view of Hanna Heo's solo exhibition.
[Photo by Doosan Gallery]

▲ Hanna Hur Solo Exhibition 'Hanna Hur: 8' = Hanna Hur, based in Los Angeles, USA, holds her solo exhibition 'Hanna Hur: 8' at Doosan Gallery in Jongno-gu, Seoul.

In this exhibition, the artist unveils a series of large-scale paintings displayed back-to-back on the gallery’s four walls, presenting the works as a single installation. This design allows the space to interact with the paintings, providing viewers with simultaneous ‘visual acts’ and ‘physical experiences.’

The works are hung without a clear order on walls where inside and outside coexist, transforming visitors into voluntary participants. The artist directs this ‘situation’ to encourage viewers to define inside and outside solely through their own movements. The paintings on the black background outside touch those hung on the unseen opposite pillars.

Conversely, the paintings inside are red. A white bar crossing the four paintings horizontally widens gradually. If the outside paintings resemble a sea in darkness, the inside paintings evoke a warm atmosphere like blood flow.

The new work 'Chord' (2024) by fellow artist Na Mira, invited by Hanna Hur, installed in the window gallery on the exterior wall of the exhibition hall. For this exhibition, Na Mira created a new installation referencing the visual effects and color motifs that are the main materials of Hanna Hur's work.
[Photo by Doosan Gallery]

The paintings share the title ‘Threshold,’ implying a state of ‘in-betweenness’ or potential for change. In a constantly shifting perceptual boundary within the exhibition space, viewers must challenge their limits of perception to fully experience the works. This process is akin to standing on the ‘threshold’ of a new physical experience.

In this phenomenological space of repeated emptiness and fulfillment, the artist continuously disturbs and opens the boundaries of perception, allowing visitors to transcend them and ultimately reach their own free mental world. The exhibition runs until December 21 at Doosan Gallery, Jongno 33-gil, Jongno-gu, Seoul.

Ban & Lee 'Canary Deployment: Proof of All Lies' Installation View. Photo by Noh Hwarang

▲ Bang & Lee Solo Exhibition 'Canary Release: Proof Against All Lies' = No Gallery presents the new media group Bang & Lee’s exhibition 'Canary Release: Proof Against All Lies.' Bang & Lee is a two-person artist group formed in 2006 by Jayoung Bang and Yoonjun Lee, working across new media, research, and design.

Named after the procedure of releasing software to select users before official launch to verify proper operation, this exhibition is planned in the form of a ‘Walking Simulator.’ The artists wanted to combine the walking simulator game genre?which focuses on the player’s ‘walking and viewing’ to explore surrounding stories?with an art exhibition. They explore the boundaries between truth and lies and depict widespread social crises and disasters through a game format.

Bang & Lee, 'Broadway Avenue' (2024)
[Photo by Noh Hwarang]

Although there is no physical device for direct gameplay, game elements appear throughout the installation, painting, and video works, making the entire exhibition space function like a game titled 'Canary Release: Proof Against All Lies.' The multidimensional works encompass flat paintings, text, sculptures, and virtual reality.

The exhibition invites viewers into an incident the duo experienced during a 2008 trip to Canada. When an American artist collaborating with them secretly stole Jayoung Bang’s computer and fled, Yoonjun Lee traveled through Winnipeg’s Marlborough Hotel, Broadway Avenue, the Great Plains, and desert areas to retrieve it, documenting the journey on canvas to complete the work.

The betrayal by a trusted fellow artist and the environmental issues witnessed firsthand in Canada, a country believed to be advanced, likely represent the void, confusion, and anger behind the lies the two felt beyond this simple estrangement. The exhibition runs until December 2 at No Gallery, Gwanhun-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul.