Kang Contemporary Korean Art is pleased to announce the special exhibition “Viewing The Past Thru Modern Eyes” from March 10th through 31st, 2016.
Exhibited together, works by Contemporary artists Ran Hwang, Ik-Joong Kang, Minjung Kim and Wonsook Kim explore the iconography, philosophical and spiritual experiences emanating from Korea’s rich cultural visual traditions while utilizing both traditional and modern art making mediums.
Ran Hwang
Zen Buddhism plays a part in Hwang’s creative process. Creating hand-made paper buttons and hammering each pin approximately 25 times until it is secure are time- consuming tasks. The monotony and receptiveness of these actions require the utmost concentration and discipline, recalling the meditative state practiced by Zen masters.
The works by the artists are organized to reveal the connections between the history of various recognizable Korean art forms and the more global view reflected in the imagery and techniques of the artists on display.
Hwang has exhibited at several international institutions including the Queens Museum of Art, New York; MASS MoCA (Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art), Massachusetts; IMAS (International Museum of Art and Science), Texas; Third Floor-Hermès, Singapore; UNESCO Headquarters, Paris; The Hudson Valley Center for the Arts, New York; The Seoul Arts Center Museum; and The Jeju Museum of Art, Jeju Island. Hwang’s work is also a part of numerous private and public collections including The Brooklyn Museum, New York; The Des Moines Center for the Arts, Iowa; The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul; and The Hammond Museum, North Salem, NY King County Library in Issaquah, WA, USA.
Wonsook Kim
Wonsook Kim, born in Busan, Korea,1953 came to the US in 1972. She is renowned for her authentic vibrant narratives in paintings, drawings, and sculptures shown around the world by museums and galleries since 1978. Most notably, she had a solo show at Brooke Alenxander Gallery in Soho, New York City from 1982 to 1985. And her works were included in Black and White exhibition at MoMA, NY in 1982.
Kim’s copious, engaging, contemporary works, result from her lifetime experiences in Korea and the United States. Kim’s lyrical paintings beckon the viewer into an inner dream-realm.
Minjung Kim
Minjung Kim was born in Gwangju in the Republic of Korea in 1962. From the age of six, it was her family’s wish that she study painting under various teachers, including the famous watercolourist Yeongyun Kang, and, between the ages of thirteen and twenty-nine, Oriental calligraphy. In 1991 she decided to move to Italy and enroll at the Brera Academy in Milan where she studied the works of Western artists who, during the 20th century, studied and practiced Asian painting. Minjung currently lives and works in the South of France and the United States and has exhibited in Fondazione Palazzo Bricherasio, Torino; Museo comunale, Ascona; Museum Sbygningen, Copenhagen, Henry Moore Institut, Leed; Guanshan Yue art Museum, Shenzhen; and Macro - Museo arte contemporanea Roma.
Ik-Joong Kang
Kang was among the artists featured in the Korea pavilion that received the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Architecture Biennale. Kang has also exhibited widely, including a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art at Philip Morris, New York; a two-person show with Nam June Paik at the Whitney Museum of American Art at Champion, Connecticut; and at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, the Ludwig Museum, Cologne, Germany, and the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea.