Cha Jong Rye: Layers of Time

June 8 – July 20, 2024

Heather Gaudio Fine Art is pleased to present Cha Jong Rye: Layers of Time, the Korean artist’s first solo exhibition at the gallery. This exhibition was made possible with the generous collaboration of Long-Sharp Gallery, Cha Jong Rye’s exclusive representative in the United States.

Jong Rye is known for skillfully working with different types of wood and other composites to create evocative, freestanding and relief sculpture. Through a precise, laborintensive approach, she transforms the inherently rigid material into beautifully fluid and undulating objects that deceivingly appear to consist of more malleable properties.

Front Cover: Expose Exposed 211006, 2021

Cha Jong Rye in her studio

Artwork detail: Kathleen Jacobs, WESON

Cha Jong Rye, 2024

©

With great attention to detail, the acclaimed artist begins with an additive approach, painstakingly layering and gluing multiple pieces of wood together before carving, sanding, shaping, and crafting them into sculptures. Jong Rye’s deep understanding and connection to the material allows her to cajole the wood grains into compelling structures that echo geological timescale formations, accumulated sediments, eroded landscapes, and other natural phenomena. Her artistic investigations are sourced from patterns in nature, seen and unseen, Buddhist practices of patience and meditation, notions of infinity, eternity, and creation.

Right: Expose Exposed 190618, 2019 detail

There is a post-minimal repetition to her organic and inorganic forms, a rhythm where light becomes a significant aspect when experiencing her work. This symbiotic relationship between the curved surfaces, shadows and highlighted areas cannot be understated.

A wall-mounted sculpture offers a touch of whimsy with its knobby elements akin to sprouting spores that suggest perpetual change and are compositionally arranged against a gridded system.

Right: Expose Exposed 091102, 2009 detail

Also on view is a sublime table-top sculpture from the artist’s cone series. This work started out as coarsely glued stacks of wood which were then laboriously sanded down and transformed into what resembles a slow, weather eroded landscape or silted riverbed standing on coned legs with fluted sides. For the artist, the cone is a new life-form that springs from the land, “it is the first form to break through the flat surface, and at the same time, the last form that arrives at the sky.” The exhibition also features stunning contoured wall-mounted sculptures that are seemingly aerial views of mountain ridges, sand patterns, folded or crumpled linens.

Right: Expose Exposed 151010, 2015 detail

Expose Exposed 210912, 2021

Engineered wood

28 3/8 x 54 1/8 x 9 1/2 inches

Expose Exposed 211006, 2021

Engineered wood

47 1/4 x 53 1/8 x 12 5/8 inches

Expose Exposed 210722, 2021

Engineered wood

23 5/8 x 66 1/8 x 9 7/8 inches

Expose Exposed 190125, 2019

Engineered wood

23 5/8 x 56 1/4 x 8 1/4 inches

Expose Exposed 190508, 2019

birch plywood

63 x 29 1/2 x 8 1/4 inches

White

Expose Exposed 190618, 2019

35 3/8 x 38 1/4 x 8 5/8 inches

White birch plywood

Expose Exposed 091102, 2009

29 x 29 inches

Yellow cedar

Expose Exposed 151010, 2015

34 1/4 x 25 5/8 x 13 7/8 inches

White Birch Plywood

CHA JONG RYE (b. 1968)

Born in Daejeon, Korea, Jong Rye earned her MFA in sculpture from Ewha Women’s University in Seoul in 1996. Her work has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including at the Nampo Museum of Art in Goheung; the Sungkok Art Museum in Seoul; the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson; the Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield; the In and Out Museum in Seoul; the Naro Museum, among others. Her works are in notable collections including the Sungkok Art Museum, Seoul and the Nampo Art Museum in Goheung. The artist currently lives and works outside of Seoul, South Korea.

EDUCATION

B.F.A., Sculpture, Ewha Women’s University, Seoul, South Korea (1992)

M.F.A., Sculpture, Ewha Women’s University, Seoul, South Korea (1996)

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

SOLO

2024 Layers of Time, Heather Gaudio Fine Art, Greenwich, CT

2015 The 13th Solo Exhibition, R. Mutt Gallery, Seoul, South Korea

The 12th Solo Exhibition, Red Sea Gallery, Singapore

2014 The 11th Solo Exhibition, Bundo Gallery, Daegu, South Korea

The 10th Solo Exhibition, Yooart space Gallery, Seoul, South Korea

2013 The 9th Solo Exhibition, R. Mutt Gallery, Seoul, South Korea

2012 The 8th Solo Exhibition, Nampo Museum of Art, Goheung, South Korea

The 7th Solo Exhibition, Bill Lowe Gallery, Atlanta, GA

2011 The 6th Solo Exhibition, Ever Harvest Gallery, Taiwan

The 5th Solo Exhibition, Sungkok Art Museum, Seoul, South Korea

2008 The 4th Solo Exhibition, Vermont Studio Center (Redmill Gallery), Johnson, VT

2007 The 3rd Solo Exhibition, Gallery Goanhun, Seoul, South Korea

2004 The 2nd Solo Exhibition, Gallery Artside, Seoul, South Korea

1999 The 1st Solo Exhibition, Gallery Dyukwon, Seoul, South Korea

GROUP

2016 Es19782016, Ieyoung Contemporary Art Museum

2015 Magamnews Installation Exhibition, Gangwondo, South Korea

Neowa Sculpture Exhibition, Meme Gallery, Seoul, South Korea

The Accumulation of Time, The Ridge 354 ART SPACE

Immortal Present: Art and East Asia, Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, MA

IN and OUT, Seoho Art Museum, Gyeonggi Namyangju, South Korea

Hand, Naro Space Center Space Science Museum, Goheung, South Korea

2014

Expose exposed: Meditation in wood, Galerie d’Orsay, Boston, MA

Ewha Sculpture Association Exhibition, Keunghigung Museum

Space Empathy, Cheonan Art Center Museum of Art, Cheonan, South Korea

Magamnews Installation, Jeju

Neowa Sculpture Exhibition, Nampo Art Museum, Goheung, South Korea

2013 Time Exhibition, R. Mutt Gallery, Seoul, South Korea

Magamnews Installation Exhibition, Jaunmam sunchun

Neowa Sculpture Exhibition, Gowachun Gallery

2012 Magamnews Installation Exhibition, Anyaung-Alvaro siza hall

A Magic Moment, Basel Art Center

Water, HADA Gallery, UK

2011 Unlimited, Unlimited(Kawi Fung Hin Gallery,Hong Kong

Power of Women, Jeju Museum of Art)

Neowa Sculpture Exhibition(, KEPCO Art Center, Seoul, South Korea

The Senses-Interactive Perception, HADA Gallery, UK

Art Road 77, Lee & Park Gallery

2010

Neowa Sculpture Exhibition, KEPCO Art Center

Art Beacon in Lotte Hotel, Hotel Lotte

Neowa Sculpture Exhibition, Moon Gallery, Hong Kong

Magamnews Installation Exhibition, Paju

FACT, R. Mutt Gallery, UK

Arts and Crafts Collaboration, Icheon World Ceramic Center

2009 Korean Aesthetics, Albemarle Gallery, UK

Aesthetic of material, Gallery 4W

Neowa Sculpture Exhibition, Gallery Ewah, Seoul, South Korea

7 Things I want to know about Art, Icheon Art Hall

2008 Endingnews Installation Exhibition, Station of Yeoncheon

Neowa Sculpture Exhibition, Gallery Ewah, Seoul, South Korea

2006 Endingnews Installation Exhibition, Urim timber-mill, Seoul, South Korea

2005 Songun Great Function, Museum of Seoul Art Center, Seoul, South Korea

Neowa Sculpture Exhibition, Gallery Dos, Seoul, South Korea

‘Hello’ Exhibition, Gallery Chang

‘Seeing with the heart’ Exhibition, Gallery Jungdong Kyunghyang

2004 Endingnews Installation Exhibition, Selak Resort

Neowa Sculpture Exhibition, Gallery PICI, Seoul, South Korea

'The temptation of space’ Exhibition, Gallery Hyundai Department store

2003 Endingnews Installation Exhibition, Muui Island

Korean Women’s Fine Art Association Exhibition, Gongpyeong Art Center, Seoul, South Korea

Ewha Sculpture Association Exhibition, Gallery Goanhun, Seoul, South Korea

Yangpyeong Artist’ Association Exhibition, Yangpyeong Art Center

2002 Deulmok Association Exhibition, Gallery Agio

Endingnews Installation Exhibition, Ansung

1992-2001 20th Group Exhibition