The
Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea presents the eighteenth edition of
the Young Korean Artists exhibition,
introducing original and innovative works by Korea’s most promising young
artists. The exhibition will be held from December 16, 2014 through March 29,
2015 at Gallery 2 of the Gwacheon Branch. First held under the title The Korean Young Artists Biennale in 1981
at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art at Deoksugung Palace, Young Korean Artists has been presented
under the current title biennially since 1990, making it the museum’s longest
running exhibition series. In 2013, due to the popularity of the exhibition and
the desire to present more young artists, the museum made the exhibition an annual
event. For the past thirty-three years, the Young
Korean Artists exhibition series has been introducing and nurturing
promising young artists who demonstrate pioneering spirit and vast potential.
As such, the exhibition simultaneously reflects the current flow of
contemporary Korean art and offers a compelling glimpse of future paths and
issues.
Young Korean Artists 2014 features about
forty works by eight young Korean artists working in various fields, including
painting, traditional Korean painting, installation, video, and performance.
The artists were selected based on recommendations from the entire curatorial
staff that were considered over several meetings of the selection committee.
All eight of the young artists deal with actual events, social problems, or the
absurdities of contemporary life, but they tend to avoid overt criticism,
instead preferring a more oblique approach that sometimes resembles a dark
fairy tale, seamlessly blending the real and the imaginary.
Kim Ha Young (b. 1983) focuses on how
people have been affected by rapid advancements in science and technology.
Using vivid colors and simple graphics, Kim illustrates the vacancy of
contemporary people who have surrendered their personality to dwell in an
artificial landscape.
Kim Dohee (b. 1979) records and
reveals the traces of individual lives in order to criticize the chronic
forgetfulness of our swiftly changing society. Bed-wetting, which
resembles a cumulus cloud, was made by soaking traditional Korean paper with
children’s urine, the embodiment of children’s expelling of their nightmares
and anxieties. The stench and stains of the urine reminds viewers of their own
experiences that have been concealed and unexplained by reality.
Noh Sangho (b. 1986) creates a
fiction from stories and images collected from everyday life, and then ventures
out with his Märchen Carriage, a creatively remodeled handcart, to spread
his fiction in a non-linear way. His story expands into other forms of media,
such as drawing, painting, and performance.
To
create her works, Jo Song (b. 1983)
first writes short stories and titles based on motifs from her daily life, and then uses her imagination to construct a
fiction from those incipient ideas. The resulting ink images are rather bleak
and eerie, dramatically depicting the dark elements of human nature—greed,
desire, jealousy, and arrogance—that dwell within every member of society.
However, the paintings’ aura of gloom is somewhat diffused by the twisted and
whimsical imagination of the artist.
Yoon Hyangro (b. 1986) focuses on mass
media as a reflection of the lives and attitudes of contemporary people. Yun
combines excerpts from mass-media images, creating new meanings from the gaps
caused by the displacement.
Building
from her own personal
experience, Oh Min (b. 1975)
identifies repetitive patterns and rituals of daily life, with particular focus
on the delicate balance created from such customs.
In
the central hall, Kwon Yongju (b. 1977)
fabricated an artificial Waterfall_Structure
of Survival from a haphazard assortment of cheap or discarded construction
materials. Waterfall_Structure of
Survival is a visual reconstruction of the traces and byproducts left by
individuals seeking their existence in a collective society.
Kim
Woong-yong (b. 1982) mixes and edits elements of film—sounds, images, time—to
create a cinematic collage. The resulting works are strange and uncanny, yet
familiar, suggesting the possibility of a “double reality.
The
featured artists of Young Korean Artists
2014 visualize their everyday landscape in a seemingly inhibited but highly
polished manner, rather than seeking to resolve or directly represent social
problems. The presented works embody the rich imagination of the young artists
and invite endless interpretations, thereby opening a forum for examining and
discussing today's most cogent artistic discourses. In sum, the exhibition
celebrates the spirit of youth reflected in today’s art and contemplates the
potential of tomorrow’s art.
Each
artist was provided ample space within the gallery, and the spaces are
organically connected in consideration of the flow of visitors. Video
interviews conducted at the studios of participating artists will be played at
the entrance, helping enhance the viewers’ understanding of the attitudes and
works of those artists.
