Frieze New York 2023 - Yoo Geun-Taek

Solo Presentation of Yoo Geun-Taek

GALLERY HYUNDAI

Stand B07

Frieze New York 2023

The Shed

May 17 – 21, 2023

For inquiries and further information, please contact the gallery at mail@galleryhyundai.com

Solo Presentation of Yoo Geun-Taek

Gallery Hyundai is pleased to introduce at Frieze New York 2023 a solo presentation of works by Yoo Geun-Taek, a virtuoso artist who has been bridging the East Asian tradition of ink and color painting on hanji (Korean traditional paper) with contemporary aesthetics over the last three decades, expanding this storied genre into subjects of nature, the environment, everyday life, and society to craft a singular experimental art practice. Gallery Hyundai’s booth B07 unveils around 20 works selected from Yoo’s representative series including Fountain, Some Landscape, and Growing Room, which encompass Yoo’s artistic world that pushes the boundaries from the East and the West, to individual and the collective, to ultimately evoke the place of life and existence in the universe.

Boldly departing from traditional East Asian painting, Yoo Geun-Taek (b. 1965) has shaped a practice that places not only a thematic but also a methodological spin on the genre’s conventions, striving to fuse the medium’s materiality with the surface of painting in ways that escape the strict separation between canvas and paint in Western oil painting. The artist layers multiple layers of hanji (mulberry paper), then adds water, marks made by his own body, and physical force to deconstruct and pulverize the paper, upon which he paints while it is still wet. Through Yoo’s active intervention into surface and materiality—in both the deconstruction and amalgamation of materials—paper, ink, and pigment are rendered inseparable, and his picture plane is reborn spatiotemporally.

In his paintings, Yoo Geun-Taek closely observes reality and daily life to create a temporality made up of fluid scenes of the everyday rather than fixed, immutable images. His works stand in stark contrast to the ideological or spiritual contemplations that typically underpin traditional ink painting—at times, they examine specific themes of the prosaic, and in other instances, they reveal aspects of reality through metaphors.

Samcheong-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul, 03062, Korea +82 2 2287 3500 www.galleryhyundai.com

Fountain, one of the artist’s most iconic series, characterizes human existence as inescapable and futile yet transient, much like the water of a fountain that inevitably falls as soon as it has risen to its peak. Yet, the forceful surge of water takes on a confident and tenacious attitude rather than one that is defeated and docile. On the other hand, Some Landscape (2022) depicts in detail the moment of a newspaper burning in flames, signaling a world of chaotic geopolitics and the global pandemic that metaphorizes our own reality of the past several years through the fictional newspaper, through which Yoo poses lyrical questions on the time and extinguishment of being.

Likewise, Yoo foregrounds the circularity of time and existence in Beginning of the World (2009), where heterogeneous objects from tables and chairs to beds and houses form a giant swirling shape as if swept up by an insurmountable force, divorcing each object from its original context and placing it in a completely alien world. As we move indoors, Growing Room (2008, 2009) similarly features an impossible panoramic space in which flowers, trees, and day-to-day objects are suspended in the air. The artist transforms the implausibility of this cosmic space into a pictorial space full of dynamic energy that draws the viewer’s eye. These two series testify to an insurmountable force of circular movement underlying a space and time that appears chaotic and paradoxical, at the same time, they evidence that macroscopic force as it influences objects on the micro-level. And we can easily position both dimensions, in extension, to questions on human existence.

Moving Life (2018) is an uncanny scene featuring objects that are stacked and tied as if in preparation for a move. As the space these objects previously inhabited is in a process of shifting, the objects exist in a jumble that interrupts their original use and form, creating a sense of motion as if they are about to meander within the canvas space. As such, the work reveals the unfamiliar context of moving in a manner that estranges everyday life into an almost theatrical scene. Likewise, Some Library (2016) depicts an intense density of stacked books that line a completely enclosed space devoid of background or order. The work achieves a degree of indeterminacy and incoherency that seems to abolish perspective itself.

In these works, Yoo Geun-Taek builds dense temporal layers from uniquely poetic narratives of the world we inhabit and the worlds within us. In the process, he uncovers expressions of poignant insight and delivers universal stories of humanity that mirror life and death as they exist within moments both serene and dynamic.

Yoo Geun-Taek received his B.F.A. and M.F.A. from Hongik University, Seoul, and he has taught Oriental Painting at Sungshin Women’s University since 2003. The artist has held solo exhibitions at numerous galleries and institutions, including the Savina Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul (2004); OCI Museum of Art, Seoul (2014); Sungkok Art Museum, Seoul (2017); Tama Art University Museum, Tokyo (2016), and Daegu Art Museum, Korea (2022), among others. He has also participated in group exhibitions at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA) (2019); Daejeon Museum of Art, Korea (2017, 2019); and Parkview Museum, Singapore (2019). His works are in the permanent collections of Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul; MMCA, Korea; Seoul Museum of Art; Gyeonggi Museum of Art, Korea; and Busan Museum of Art, Korea. The artist will present an upcoming solo exhibition at Gallery Hyundai in October 2023. He is also represented by Newchild Gallery in Antwerp, Belgium.

Fountain, 2022

Black ink, white powder and tempera on Korean paper

114.2 × 79.5 in / 290 × 202 cm

No. 107578

Yoo Geun-Taek

Fountain, 2022

Black ink, white powder and tempera on Korean paper

114.2 × 79.5 in / 290 × 202 cm

No. 107580

Yoo Geun-Taek

Fountain, 2023

Black ink, white powder and tempera on Korean paper

81.1 × 56.9 in / 206 × 144.5 cm

No. 107920

Yoo Geun-Taek

Fountain, 2023

Black ink, white powder and tempera on Korean paper

81.1 × 71.5 in / 206 × 181.5 cm

No. 107918

Yoo Geun-Taek

Fountain, 2022

Black ink, white powder and tempera on Korean paper

80.7 × 56.9 in / 205 × 144.5 cm

No. 107922

Yoo Geun-Taek

Fountain, 2022

Black ink, white powder and tempera on Korean paper

79.9 × 57.5 in / 203 × 146 cm

No. 107923

Yoo Geun-Taek

Fountain, 2023

Black ink, white powder and tempera on Korean paper

65 × 57.7 in / 165 × 146.5 cm

No. 107924

Yoo Geun-Taek

Fountain, 2023

Black ink, white powder and tempera on Korean paper

56.7 × 38.2 in / 144 × 97 cm

No. 107925

Yoo Geun-Taek

Fountain, 2023

Black ink, white powder and tempera on Korean paper

56.7 × 38.2 in / 144 × 97 cm

No. 107926

Yoo Geun-Taek

Fountain, 2021

Black ink, white powder and tempera on Korean paper

57.7 × 39.2 in / 146.5 × 99.5 cm

No. 107927

Yoo Geun-Taek

Fountain, 2021

Black ink, white powder and tempera on Korean paper

58.1 × 39.2 in / 147.5 × 99.5 cm

No. 107928

Yoo Geun-Taek

Fountain, 2023

Black ink, white powder and tempera on Korean paper

56.9 × 40.4 in / 144.5 × 102.5 cm

No. 107929

Yoo Geun-Taek

Yoo Geun-Taek

Reflection, 2022

Black ink, white powder and tempera on Korean paper 58.5 × 36.2 in / 148.5 × 92 cm

No. 107930

Yoo Geun-Taek

Some Landscape, 2022

Black ink, white powder and tempera on Korean paper

71.7 × 80.7 in / 182 × 205 cm

No. 107932

Some Room, 2012

Black ink, white powder and tempera on Korean paper

57.5 × 50 in / 146 × 127 cm

No. 107983

Yoo Geun-Taek

Beginning of the World, 2009

Black ink, white powder and tempera on Korean paper

78.7 × 83.5 in / 200 × 212 cm

No. 107984

Yoo Geun-Taek

Growing Room, 2008

Black ink, white powder and tempera on Korean paper

53.1 × 53.1 in / 135 × 135 cm

No. 105559

Yoo Geun-Taek

Growing Room, 2009

Black ink, white powder and tempera on Korean paper

53.1 × 53.1 in / 135 × 135 cm

No. 105558

Yoo Geun-Taek

Growing Room, 2012

Black ink, white powder and tempera on Korean paper

54.7 × 54.3 in / 139 × 138 cm

No. 107982

Yoo Geun-Taek

Some Library, 2016

Black ink, white powder and tempera on Korean paper 82.3

No. 107985

Yoo Geun-Taek

Yoo Geun-Taek

Moving Life, 2018

Black ink, white powder and tempera on Korean paper 80.5 × 86.4 in / 204.5 × 219.5 cm

No. 107987

YOO GEUN-TAEK

b. 1965, Asan, Korea

Lives and works in Seoul, Korea

EDUCATION

1997 MFA, Oriental Painting, Hongik University, Seoul, Korea

1988 BFA, Oriental Painting, Hongik University, Seoul, Korea

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2023 Solo exhibition at Gallery Hyundai, Seoul (forthcoming)

2022 Growing Room, Newchild Gallery, Antwerp

Yoo Geun-Taek: Dialogue, Daegu Art Museum, Daegu, Korea

2021 Layered Time, Savina Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul

The Walkers, Nook Gallery, Seoul

2017 A Walk Through Time, Sungkok Art Museum, Seoul

Promenade, Gallery Hyundai, Seoul

2016 Yoo Geun-Taek, Gallery 21+Yo, Tokyo

The Whole Gravity of Painting, Summoned, Tama Art University Museum, Tokyo

Breath of Life, The Korea Society, New York

Life on the Corner, Shinsegae Gallery, Busan, Korea

2015 Everlasting Tomorrow, Force Gallery, Beijing

A Passage – The Scenery Outside the Window, Bongsan Cultural Center, Daegu, Korea

2014 Everlasting Tomorrow, OCI Museum of Art, Seoul

2013 Wind·Landscape – Drawings by Yoo Geun-Taek, Gallery Hyundai Dugahun, Seoul

2012 The One Day, Gallery Hyundai, Seoul

2010 Yoo Geun-Taek, Gallery Bundo, Daegu, Korea

Depiction of the Universe, Artside Gallery, Beijing

2009 Depiction of the Universe, Savina Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul

Yoo Geun-Taek, LA Artcore Gallery, Los Angeles

2008 Yoo Geun-Taek, Gallery 21+Yo, Tokyo

2007 Skin of Life – Drawings on the Diagonal Lines that Sustain Me, Dongsanbang Gallery, Seoul

2005 Yoo Geun-Taek, Millennium Gallery, BeijingYoo Geun-Taek, Gallery 21+Yo, Tokyo

2004 Between Scenes and Events, A Deviation Beyond the Routine, Savina Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul

2003 A Scene, Artforum Newgate, Seoul

Velocity of Landscape, Kwanhoon Gallery, Seoul

2002 Figure – The Internal Reason: Drawing for Grandmother, Gallery Doll, Seoul

Yoo Geun-Taek, Dongsanbang Gallery, Seoul

East Wind, Kwanhoon Gallery, Seoul

2001 Yoo Geun-Taek, Gallery 21+Yo, Tokyo

2000 Yoo Geun-Taek, The 19th Suk Nam Arts Award Exhibition, Moran Gallery, Seoul

1999 Yoo Geun-Taek, Wonseo Gallery, Seoul

1997 Yoo Geun-Taek: Recent Works, Kumho Museum of Art, Seoul

1996 The Power of Everyday Life, Reform an Experience, Kwanhoon Gallery, Seoul

1994 Yoo Geun-Taek, Kumho Gallery, Seoul

1991 Yoo Geun-Taek, Kwanhoon Gallery, Seoul

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2021 Day & Night Part II, Gallery Hyundai, Seoul (Online)

2020 How to Create a Landscape, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA), Cheongju, Korea

Serendipity, Savina Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul

2019 Disturbing Narrative, The Parkview Museum Singapore, Singapore

Acquisition 2017-2018, MMCA, Gwacheon, Korea

2017 The Painting Show, Goyang Aram Nuri Arts Center, Goyang, Korea

The Red Brick House, OCI Museum of Art, Seoul

2016 Ways of Seeing Nature, nook gallery, Seoul

Being in Nature, Museum SAN, Wonju, Korea

Eating Tools, Nam-Seoul Living Arts Museum, Seoul

Between People and People, Jeju Museum of Art, Jeju, Korea

2015 The Flame of Seoul, 63 Art Museum, Seoul

Same Difference, Space BM, Seoul

Expressions and Gestures, Seoul Olympic Museum of Art, Seoul

STOP, and SEE, MMCA, Gwacheon, Korea

Walking in the Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter, Seoul Museum, Seoul

Beyond the Borders, Culture Station Seoul 284, Seoul

Artist’s Portfolio II, Savina Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul

2014 Garden, MMCA, Seoul

A Form of Thinking – Rediscovery of Drawing, Museum SAN, Wonju, Korea

The Moment, We Awe: Korean Contemporary Art, Sanshang Contemporary Art Museum, Hangzhou

The East Bridge: In the Absence of Avant-Garde Reading, 798 Art Factory, Beijing

2013 We, Now Here: Today’s Korean Painting Self-reflection and Self-awareness, Gallery Santorini Seoul, Seoul

Awful landscape, Force Gallery, Beijing

Neo-Mōrōism, Tokyo Gallery + BTAP, Beijing

Real Landscape, True Reflection, OCI Museum of Art, Seoul

House & Home: Finding Myself, Jeju Museum of Art, Jeju, Korea

Korean Art: An Age of Grand Navigation, Busan Museum of Art, Busan, Korea

2012 Manner and Landscape – The Vitality of Art, Daegu Art Factory, Daegu, Korea

KOREA TOMORROW 2012, Hangaram Art Museum, Seoul

Flower in the Moment, OCI Museum of Art, Seoul

Discovery of Landscape, Shinsegae Gallery, Seoul

GROWTH, Force Gallery, Beijing

Manner in Korean Paintings, HITE Collection, Seoul

2011 The Harmony – The More, The Better, Gallery Maum, New York

Nature, Life, Human, Daegu Art Museum, Daegu, Korea

Seoul, City Exploration, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul

Self Camera: Repositioning Modern-Self, Sungsan Art Hall, Changwon, Korea

2010 21 & Their Times, Kumho Museum of Art, Seoul

Korean Avant-Garde Drawing: 1970-2000, Seoul Olympic Museum of Art, Seoul

Gangjin Celadon Art Project 2010_Meeting Celadon at Gangjin, Gangjin Celadon

Museum, Gangjin, Korea

Free Style: A Dialogue between Art and Design, Hongik Museum of Art, Seoul 30th Anniversary of the Young Korean Artists, MMCA, Gwacheon, Korea

2009 Flare: A Brand New Start in Art, MMCA, Seoul

Korea on the Rocks, Art Seasons Gallery, Zurich

Cross Animate, Coreana Museum of Art, Seoul

2008 Beyond Definition, Interalia Gallery, Seoul

Form, Idea, Essence and Rhythm: Contemporary East Asian Ink Painting, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei

Art in Busan 2008: Welcome to Busan, Busan Museum of Art, Busan, Korea

One Fine Spring Day, Gwangju Museum of Art, Gwangju, Korea

Interviewing Paintings, Seoul Olympic Museum of Art, Seoul

2007 Beyond Art Festival, Daejeon Museum of Art, Daejeon, Korea

The Way of Seeing Art, Savina Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul

Asia Modern Art Project – City_net Asia 2007, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul

The 3rd Chengdu Biennale, Chengdu Contemporary Art Museum, Chengdu

Hommage 100: Korean Contemporary Art 1970-2007, Korea Art Center, Seoul

Korean Paintings 1953-2007, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul

2006 Drawn to Drawing, Seoul Olympic Museum of Art, Seoul

Korea and China Ink Paintings Exchange Exhibition, Uijae Museum of Korean Art, Gwangju, Korea

2005 Feng Shui, Sungshin University Museum, Seoul

Echo of Daily Life, Park Soo Keun Museum, Seoul

Landscape Full of Nature, Chungmu Arts Center Gallery, Seoul

Ink Paintings of Korea and China, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul

New Trends in Traditional Paintings, Gyeonggi Museum of Art, Ansan, Korea

2004 Modernism Art in Korea, Kumho Museum of Art, Seoul

Resonance: Aesthetics of Korea, Hakgojae Gallery, Seoul

Artists on Journey, Seoul National University Museum, Seoul

Atelier Report, Savina Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul

2003 Real-scape Revisited, MMCA, Gwacheon, Korea

Discovery of Seoul Life – See the Dead Zone of Life, Ssamzie Space, Alternative Space

Loop, Seoul

People Who Walk on Water, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul

The House, Ga Gallery, Seoul

Oriental Painting Paradiso, POSCO Art Museum, Seoul

Invigorating Name - Mother, Munhwa Ilbo Gallery, Seoul

Face, Expression, Daejeon Museum of Art, Daejeon, Korea

Environmental Art – Water, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul

2002 The Dog, Savina Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul

Here, Is, Insa Art space, Seoul

2001 The Scent and Shape of Ink: Contemporary Ink Painting of China, Japan and Korea, MMCA, Gwacheon, Korea

People I’ve Met, Keumsan Gallery, Seoul

2001 Odyssey, Sungsan Art Hall, Changwon, Korea

2000 Young Korean Artists 2000 – Toward the New Millennium, MMCA, Gwacheon, Korea

1999 Beyond Landscape, Art Sonje Museum, Gyeongju, Korea

The Status and Prospect of Korean Art, Daejeon Museum of Art, Daejeon, Korea

1998 Rediscovery of Drawing, Whanki Museum, Seoul

1997 Status of Five Contemporary Korean Painters, Plus Gallery, Seoul

The Leading Artists of 21st Century Korean Art, Sun Gallery, Seoul

1996 The Development of Korean Modernism – Modern’s Conquest, Kumho Museum of Art, Seoul

Ink Painting after the Ink Painting Movement, Whanki Museum, Seoul

Korean Contemporary Art, Finding the Current State of Painting, Sungkok Art Museum, Seoul

Today’s Korean Painting – Context and Development, Dukwon Gallery, Seoul

1995 Representative Works by Leading Artists of 2000s Korean Art, Munhwa Ilbo Gallery, Seoul

The Way of Self-existence II, Kumho Gallery, Seoul

1994 Suggestion for Tomorrow – The New Generation’s Perspective, Hangaram Art Museum, Seoul

1993 Our Art, New Generation’s Method, Gallery Seoho, Seoul

1992 Today’s Life – Today’s Art, Kumho Gallery, Seoul

‘92 Seoul Contemporary Korean Painting Exhibition, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul

1990 Seeking Human, Samjeong Gallery, Seoul

SELECTED AWARDS

2021 The 22nd Lee In-sung Art Prize, Daegu Art Museum, Daegu, Korea

2017 The 1st Gwangju Hwaru Artist Award, Gwangju Bank, Asia Culture Center, Gwangju, Korea

2009 The 9th Ha Chong-Hyun Art Prize, Ha Chong-Hyun Art Prize Committee, Seoul, Korea

2003 Today’s Young Artist Award, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Sejong, Korea

2000 The 19th Suk Nam Arts Award, Suk Nam Arts and Cultural Foundation, Seoul, Korea

SELECTED COLLECTIONS

Busan Museum of Art, Busan, Korea

Chengdu Contemporary Art Museum, Chengdu, China

Daejeon Museum of Art, Daejeon, Korea

Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art, Ansan, Korea

Hana Bank, Seoul, Korea

Jeju Museum of Art, Jeju, Korea

Jeon Deung Sa, Incheon, Korea

Kumho Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea

Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea

Moran Museum of Art, Namyangju, Korea

National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea

OCI Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea

Savina Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea

Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea

Seoul Olympic Museum of Art, Korea

Sungkok Art Museum, Seoul, Korea

Sungshin University Museum, Seoul, Korea

White Rabbit Collection, Sydney, Australia

Xian Diplomat, Xian, China