Artnews

Spring exhibitions welcome Oriental paintings

In time for spring, a number of established artists who specialize in Oriental or Korean beauty are presenting their works across Seoul.

Sa Suk-won, who has wittily and cleverly tweaked animals such as tigers, mules, chickens and owls for two decades, has brought Mount Geumgang this time. The bold strokes of vibrating colors remain the same, splashed and mashed fresh from the tubes right onto the canvas, while dazzling the eyes and the mind.

▲ Sa Suk-won's "Bright Moon! You Come and Go by Yourself!" (2007)

As the exhibit's title, Manhwabangchang (a state of every plant and flower coming into full bloom in the warmth of spring) suggests, the mountain, valleys, flowers and streams come alive on the canvases by Sa, one of the most sought-after artists in the local art market.

"Manhwabangchang" runs from today through April 22 at Gana Art Gallery in Pyeongchang- dong. For more information, visit www.ganaart.com Chon Byung-hyun has experimented with conveying Korean sentiment, crisscrossing Western and Eastern themes, styles and materials.

This is to be expected since he majored in Western painting in Paris. His recent works, using mulberry paper soaked with mud and pasted onto the canvas, portray his ideas of white porcelain and white blossoms.

One of the works was sold for $144,000 at a recent Sotheby's Asian contemporary art auction in New York. "Blossom" runs through April 10 at Insa Art Center, located near Anguk Station, Subway Line No. 3. For more information, visit www.ganaart.com

Paris-based Lee Bae is similar to Chon in the sense that he combines Western styles to delve into oriental spirituality. His minimal, black-and-white paintings, using charcoal black on canvas covered with white acrylic paint, bring calligraphy to one's mind. He explains his works with "encounters" and focuses on the consistency of all his works, seeking a totality of signs.

"Lee Bae" runs through April 10 at Hakgojae Gallery, located near Anguk Station, Subway Line No. 3. For more information, visit www.hakgojae.com

In the 1970s Chung Chang-sup pasted mulberry paper onto the canvas and painted with Chinese ink, in a transition from the movement of Informel (expressive abstract art that appealed to senses) and minimalism to Eastern sensibility. Since the 1980s, he moved onto tak fibers, a material unique to Korea, and created equally unique works of "paintings not painted." His series of "Meditation" works are spared of the artist's will to construct, and Chung seeks to realize the harmony of Oriental spirituality and materials instead, by letting his works happen.

"Chung Chang-sup" runs through April 28 at Pyo Gallery Seoul in Itaewon-dong, near hotel Grand Hyatt Seoul. For more information, visit www.pyoart.com

Septuagenarian Ryoo Byung-yup's paintings also meditate yet use nature and scenes from the countryside, such as meandering ridges in the rice fields, old pine trees in the village and the people. Repeatedly he paints them, softly yet vividly, and the subjects and colors are reminiscent of folk paintings.

"Ryoo Byung-yup-Big Paintings" will run April 4 to 22 at Gallery Hyundai, located near Anguk Station, Subway Line No. 3. For more information, visit www.galleryhyundai.com

[Previous page]