Kumho Museum of Art opens exhibit on up-and-coming artists

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Kumho Museum of Art opens exhibit on up-and-coming artists

Published: 14 Mar. 2022, 15:30 Updated: 14 Mar. 2022, 17:17

"99 pieces of Bugok Hawaii - from J in 1984" (2022) by Choi Ka-young [KUMHO MUSEUM OF ART]

The Kumho Museum of Art, founded by Kumho Asiana Group, has revealed its selected up-and-coming artists for this year.

Titled “2022 Kumho Young Artist,” the annual contest selects artists that are under 35 years old with the purpose of discovering and promoting them and their artistic talents. This year marks the 19th edition.

The number of artists each year varies. This year a total of six artists were chosen.

The first part of “2022 Kumho Young Artist” showcases the paintings of three artists: 33-year-old Park Da-som, 33-year-old Choi Ka-young and 35-year-old Hoh Woo-jung.

Park, Choi and Hoh are all painters, but each artist deals with miscellaneous subjects as seen in each of their solo exhibitions, which take up separate floors of the museum.

"Hair-Dryer" (2021) by Park Da-som [SHIN MIN-HEE]

Park’s “The Art of Matter” exhibition started from the artist’s interest in bodies, but not just human bodies; bodies of materials, animals and insects as well. For example, fires are depicted in Park’s paintings to symbolize the “body of heat.” The bodies have been dismembered and sometimes parts have been interchanged with other bodies.

Park’s paintings are about surrendering to the inevitable changes our bodies go through in life and suggest that accepting this notion will truly free us.

“I wanted to be my most candid self while working on these pieces,” Park said at a press event held Thursday. “I made use of organic images, like using paper that was wrinkled or torn.”

A closer view of two pieces in "99 pieces of Bugok Hawaii - from J in 1984" (2022) by Choi [SHIN MIN-HEE]

Choi is an artist who focuses on sketching places and times that she has never experienced, based on her own imagination from documents or images that she has referenced.

Choi’s “Survival in Fantasy” exhibition started with an old postcard that the artist bought online. It was sent from Bugok Hawaii, a now-closed resort and theme park in South Gyeongsang, to Britain whose sender was signed as “Jacky” in 1984.

She then recreated the view of Bugok Hawaii into 99 small pieces, which she explained as a way of “making separate narratives in more partial, precise detail.”

Hoh Woo-jung's ″Curve″ series (2022) - the paintings tend to ″connect″ with each other through the curves [KUMHO MUSEUM OF ART]

Hoh seeks to explore the relationship between the infiniteness of patterns and the finiteness of the canvas in “Beyond the Line.” His “Curve” series (2022), consisting of 30 pieces that all scream the color blue, each have different curved lines. From afar, one will notice that the paintings were carefully arranged to show how the curves in each painting connect with each other, penetrating through the blank spaces of the walls in-between.

“Each painting is independent when seen separately, but with the [aligned] order of the paintings, as a whole, they show solidarity because they need each other to show that the curves connect,” Hoh said.

The first part of “2022 Kumho Young Artist” continues until April 24. The second part, which will present the works of the other selected artists, Mooniperry, Lee Da-hee and Cho Hae-na, is set to open on May 6 and run through June 19. The Kumho Museum of Art is open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tickets are 4,000 won ($3.20) for adults. Visit the museum’s website at www.kumhomuseum.com.

BY SHIN MIN-HEE [[email protected]]