2010. 4. 30 MUSEUMS & GALLERIES

DEJA-VU

Pyo Gallery South, Cheongdam-dong

To May 20: This exhibition is the result of a collaboration between Kwon Doo-hyoun and Jung Jin-yong, who focus on art that shows surreal realities and unusual perspectives on common scenes.

Kwon, the pioneer of a new photography genre called “ambiphoto,” has demolished the walls that used to separate painting and photography. In one instance of his ambiphoto method, Kwon takes a photo of a moving object, thereby transforming something that is familiar to us into a completely different object with no real form. This allows viewers to draw on their own imaginations and memories to dissect the image. Each viewer will see what’s on the canvas as much as what’s in their own minds when looking at Kwon’s works.

Jung combines acrylic paint, black ink and oil paint in his works. He then covers the whole frame with thin glass beads. By adding the glass beads, Jung is able to give the illusion that the scene is almost alive and the people outside the buildings are moving. Jung’s pieces reflect the reality of the structures while also expressing his own perspective, resulting in pieces of emotion and grandeur.

Aptly named “Deja-vu,” viewers will walk away from this exhibit with the feeling of seeing something at once familiar and strange.

Apgujeong Station, line No. 3, exit 5
www.pyoart.com

BEING A QUEEN

The Museum of Photography Seoul, Bangi-dong

To June 5: Chun Kyung-woo is an artist who focuses on time exposure in his works. He tries to portray human nature with fuzzy and unclear features.

This exhibition grew out of Denmark’s 2007 “Being a Queen” project. In that project, anyone who thought that they resembled Denmark’s Queen Margrethe was transformed to look like the queen herself and placed in front of a camera.

The images were exposed according to the model’s age - if you were 60 years old, the exposure time would be 60 minutes. Until the camera’s lens was closed, the women would talk about why they thought they looked like the queen, and through this the ladies would embody not the queen, but their true selves.

Chun is a winner of the Museum of Photography award, an annual photography award in Seoul.

Mongchontoseong Station, line No. 8, exit 2
www.photomuseum.or.kr

VERSUS

Gallery Factory, Changseong-dong

From May 4 to 15: The “Versus” exhibition is the result of a collaboration between Gallery Factory and art directors Choi Seung-hoon and Park Sun-min.

The exhibition includes a video installation by choreographer Oh Min-jeong and the photographic works of Choi and Park.

The photographs are an outgrowth of the style magazine “Versus.” Unlike other traditional publications, Versus does not have a theme and every issue printed is vastly different. The publication is not be used as a method of delivering messages or text but rather becomes a creative tool for bringing the magazine’s publishers and readers together.

The most recent issue is accompanied by a CD that includes songs produced by various artists from Audioguy Records.

Gyeongbokgung Station, line No. 3, exit 4
www.factory483.org

KIM JI-WON SOLO EXHIBITION

PKM Trinity Gallery, Cheongdam-dong

From May 6 to June 4: This exhibition is organized around Kim’s representative collections, including “Mendrami,” “Taking-off” and others. It will show 21 of his paintings and 40 of his drawings, all of which have been created in the last three years.

The “Mendrami” collection shows the artist’s passion for the colorful cockscomb plant. Kim grows these flowers in his garden and his artwork is inspired by the life cycle of the flowers. His paintings invoke the spirit of the flowers and the mood of the artist in vibrant red and green hues.

In Kim’s “Taking-off” and “Aircraft Carrier” collections, which he has been working on since 2007, he makes a bolder, ideological statement about how he sees the world. He comments on mankind’s lust for war and the inevitable sadness that follows.

The drawings that accompany the main paintings are a way for the artist to give viewers a glimpse of Kim’s everyday life. He turns mundane objects into stylized creations that make us question how we look at the objects involved in our daily activities.

This exhibition offers art lovers a chance to see the unhindered spirit of Kim and the consistent depth of his works.

Kim graduated from the College of Fine Arts, Frankfurt am Main, and since then has continuously worked to refine his work. He is now a professor at the Korea National University of Arts.

Apgujeong Station, line No. 3, exit 2
www.pkmgallery.com

*Information is culled from the galleries and other online sources.