CHOONG SUP LIM;
Luna, and Her Thousand Reflections
SEOUL KOREA (12 December, 2012)
The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea is holding an exhibition of works of art created over the past fifty years by the artist Choong Sup Lim (born in 1941, works in New York) under the title of “Luna and Her Thousand Reflections” at its Gwacheon Main Building from 12 December, 2012 to 24 February, 2013. A total of 70 artworks will be shown including the artist’s major works (by period), undisclosed works, and a new large installation artwork created exclusively for this exhibition, as well as media complex works of art including “Thousand Reflections”.
The exhibition is being held as part of a series of “retrospective exhibitions of artworks by veteran artists” aimed at establishing the history of Korean contemporary art and encouraging reflection on the art worlds of the featured artists. It displays the creative world of Choong Sup Lim, and spans the mid-1960s to the present day. It will provide a great opportunity for visitors to appreciate art by Korean artists who live and work overseas, and who together form a significant branch of Korean contemporary art.
Choong Sup Lim is well known as an artist who never stopped creating, even within a highly exclusive overseas art arena. He moved to New York in the early 1970s, and in the 40 years since then has led an active artistic life in the USA. His artworks are now on display in Korea for the first time.
In the context of ‘installation art in the history of Korean contemporary art, his footsteps in the art arena will serve as a starting point for Korean visitors to understand the connectivity between New York and Korean contemporary art. Since moving to the US, he has participated in the Independent Study Program of the Whitney Museum of American Art, and his work has been selected for the modern art contest hosted by the Queens Museum of Art. He is recognized as a major artist by the New York art community for his dedicated pursuit of new art.
His artworks reflect elements of both the New York and Korean art arenas as he crosses the boundary between both worlds. His art world, which began with Korean installation art, has great significance in the history of Korean art as it coincides with the starting point of installation art in western modern art. Choong Sup Lim's aesthetic world paradoxically attests that there is some similarity between the Korean tradition and western modern art.
His installation art provides an important context in constructing and evaluating the initial period of Korean installation art. His installation artworks attracted a lot of attention from art critics when they were exhibited during the 1980s in Korea. In recent years, installation art and media artworks have enjoyed a strong comeback in the contemporary art world, so looking at the artworks of pioneer installation artists has great meaning in understanding and discussing contemporary art.
In this context, this exhibition will show the artist’s overall experimentation with various media and his use of various formative methods such as planes, drawings, installations, objects, and videos, in chronological order and by subject. In particular, his newly produced large-scale installation and video-combined art, titled Wol In Chun Ji, will create a new space as it is installed in a long, large exclusive space. Visitors will be able to sense a new environment and situation by experiencing the space of Wol In Chun Ji, which obscures the boundary between the inner and outer worlds.
The archives on the formative process of Choong Sup Lim's art world will help visitors understand the artist’s art world. Major art catalogues, articles about the artist listed in magazines and newspapers, drawings, official documents, and reviews about the artist, as well as videos of interviews with the artist, will also be on display. Visitors will be allowed to take pictures (without a flash) of all the artworks at the exhibition.
