LEE JINHAN & KIM JISEON
This catalogue is published by HADA Contemporary to accompany the exhibition:
LEE JINHAN & KIM JISEON GROUP EXHIBITION 1 AUGUST - 1 SEPTEMBER 2013 No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any mean, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without prior written permission from HADA Contemporary Ltd.
LEE JINHAN & KIM JISEON
LEE JINHAN
LEE JINHAN
Like a roaring spew of lava through the thick layers of stratum formed over the deep time, Lee Jinhan’s explosive colours and brushstrokes erupt through the sediment of western ar t history into a imaginative landscape. Reflecting her interest in the process and the dynamics of materiality on the canvas, her earlier paintings refrain from figuration and immediately transfer the brief moment of fictional landscape in her imagination. Through the undulation of the paint layers analogous to the mountainous range of similarly depicted, she creates the rhythmic upbeat encouraging the viewers to tiptoe in a gentle sway in front of the canvas. Landscape with a Spiderman 1-3 (2011) is the representative and momentous work that brings together the elements that she has been experimenting since the early stage. By harmonising in each layers contrasting elements and references from form, style, material and beyond from the context of the history of ar t and painting, her images dance to and fro in a hide and seek of action and reaction creating rare marbling of landscape of Hegelian antithesis akin to the tension between a team of two salsa dancers. The ar tist challenges to create the perspectival abstraction with classical Renaissance perspective and modernist’s flatness simultaneously. Also, she resources the title format that was often used in still-life and landscape paintings and takes the form of a triptych that has arised from early Christian ar t in comparison to the contemporary abstract imagery within. Geometric forms and materials as glitter are repeatedly used to contrast and compliment the traditional painting materials and composition. As she comments her works as ‘the painting of overflow’, they are the consolidation of physical layers of paint and allegorical reinterpretation of histor y of ar t. Lee’s paintings are the collage, the record and the cubism of the minute fragments of western ar t history that itself is keen to categorisation. As if sculpting the paint layers onto the canvas, the depth and thickness becomes the volume and the object themselves and form a familiar yet new history via strategic overflow. Her cheerful and clever adoption of references free herself and the viewers from the traditional categorisation and allows us to venture into the boundless wild. This early process based practice becomes significant infrastructure for Lee’s ar tistic development in the expansion of her subject matters into witty and playful interpretation of contemporary cultures. Landscape with a Spiderman 1-3 naturally foretells this progression as the title of this work suggests the reference to popular culture - ‘Spiderman’ from the famous comic and film - which is rarely found in her earlier paintings. Rather than presenting a statement of what painting is or should be in today time as an ar tistic medium, her paintings are personal monologue and confession of the confusion that she faces as a painter amid the long histor y of western ar t and her ambition to posit herself within. For Lee, ‘a painter should be capable of extracting and melting onto a frame the subjectivity of the intended object for depiction’. It is not negation but full embodiment of the long ar tistic tradition with the great transformative mental power of imagination sought by Wordswor th that enables her to overcome to become.
Landscape with a Spiderman 1 | oil, acr ylic and sticker on linen | 227 x 182 cm | 2011
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Landscape with a Spiderman 2 | oil, acr ylic and sticker on linen | 227 x 182 cm | 2011
Landscape with a Spiderman 3 | oil, acr ylic and sticker on linen | 227 x 182 cm | 2011 06 | 07
Beauty and Beat | oil and acr ylic on canvas | 25 x 30.5 | 2012
Untitled | oil and acr ylic on canvas | 51 X 40 cm | 2011
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Untitled | oil, acr ylic and spray paint on canvas | 30.5 x 25.5 cm | 2011
Money Dollar | oil and acr ylic on linen | 60 x 60 cm | 2011
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Untitled (Gold) | acr ylic and golden leaves on linen | 26 x 26 cm | 2012
Bed 3 | acr ylic on canvas | 30.5 x 25.5 cm | 2012
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Bricks | oil and acr ylic on wood panel | 18 x 14 cm | 2012
Pho | oil, acr ylic and spray paint on canvas | 50 X 40 cm | 2013
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KIM JISEON
KIM JISEON
Kim Jiseon’s mixtures of vivid colours of lonesomeness explore and blur the traditional boundary of eastern and western modern landscape paintings of the voidity and fullness through the earnest experimentation on colours and spaces. The main concern in her practice is to create a visual landscape of ‘wonderland’ that deeply absorbs the audience into a new perspective. Nature and landscape has been long fascination of men whether it has been to devour, to protect or to capture its essence. Many a men have gone and continuous to venture back to the nature in search of enlightenment as H. D. Thoreau once sought Walden. Enraptured by the untamed grandeur sublimity during the ar tist’s trip to Iceland in 2009, nature and landscape has been the focal point of her ar tistic pursuit as it once delighted the likes of Romantics. Similarly, she focuses on the moral and mental impor tance of nature to mankind. Nonetheless, rather than highlighting the impor tant of the ar tistic genius and the romantic originality of the ar tist like Romantics, she allows the audience to complete her pictorial utopia that shifts between the landscape of the real and unreal by active par ticipation of individuals own ‘genius’. Especially, the process of emptying out is significant in her practice that originates from the concept ‘beauty of the void,’ which symbolises one of the key aspects of Korean traditional landscape paintings. In contrast to the negative connotation embedded in the concept of the void – a space to be filled – in western culture, in Sinic culture ‘‘nothingness’ is not simply the origin of being; it co-exists with being and becomes the dynamic, functional aspect of being’1 as Lee Joon adds. This emptiness creates the abstract and multi faceted space opening up the ample oppor tunities to the viewers for contemplation and retrospection similar to the monochromatic paintings by Mark Rothko. Yet, her dreamy utopias are indistinguishable from dystopias where the sentiment of displacement and loneliness is prevalent through the unsettling subdued tonality of non-naturalistic high-keyed colours evocative of the paintings of Peter Doig, Edvard Munch and Paul Gauguin. As the concept of yin-yang from Asian philosophies, the seemingly opposite dichotomous elements originate from the same source and they are interconnected and interdependent as they give rise to each other. For Kim, it is through the acceptance and the embracement of these disorientating sentiments, one will truly arrive to the paradise that the ar tist wishes to depict as they give ways to true happiness by acknowledging real values. She builds a modern day’s paradise and leads us to the land of wonder, where there is emptiness for you to embrace. Her paintings are a type of ‘fantasy’ drawn from a figment of reality that cease to exist in actuality to become your own version of utopia through her unknown landscape. “Direct your eye sight inward, and you’ll find a thousand regions in your mind yet undiscovered. Travel them, and be exper t in home-cosmography.”2
1
J. Lee, “self- emptying’ in Buddhism; ‘[doing] nothing’ in Daoism; and ‘nothingness’ in Confucianism,’ Void in
Korean Ar t, Seoul: Leeum-Samsum Museum of Ar t, 2007, p.20 2
H. D. Thoreau, Walden; or, Life in the Woods, Dover Publication Inc, 1995, p.207
Orange Mountain | acr ylic and oil on canvas | 200 x 170 cm | 2010
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Orange Geometic Landscape | oil on canvas | 193.9 x 130.3 cm | 2013
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Green Solid Waterfall | oil on canvas | 193.9 x 130.3 cm | 2013
Lonely White-Winter | oil on canvas | 20 x 80 cm | 2012
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Orange Sunset | oil on canvas | 60 x 45 cm | 2012
Deep Blue Ocean | oil on canvas | 30 x 40 cm | 2012
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Hot Lake | oil on canvas | 60 x 60 cm | 2012
Hot Stone | oil on canvas | 60 x 60 cm | 2012
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Orange Forest | oil on canvas | 25 x 30 cm | 2012
Orange Cave | oil on canvas | 72.7 x 100 cm | 2013
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Orange Road | oil on canvas | 30 x 25 cm | 2011
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Under the Sea 3 | oil on canvas | 30 x 30 cm | 2011
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Yellow Smoke | oil on canvas | 40 x 30 cm | 2012
Pink Rocky Wall | oil on canvas | 30 x 25 cm | 2012
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Under the Sea 1 | oil on canvas | 80 x 80 cm | 2011
Red Light on the Sea | oil on canvas | 25 x 30 cm | 2012
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LEE JINHAN ( b.1982 )
EDUCATION 2012 MFA Fine Ar t at Goldsmiths, London, UK 2008 MA Fine Ar t at Central Saint Mar tins, London, UK 2006 BFA Painting at Hongik University, Seoul, Korea SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2012 I Eat I Vomit, HADA Contemporary, London, UK Postmodernism of the Beholder - Landscape of the Concept, Gallery Loop, Seoul, Korea 2009 BEYOND AND WITHIN, Gallery Muse at 269, London, UK GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2013 Lee Jinhan & Kim Jiseon, HADA Contemporary, London, UK 2012 Saatchi New Sensation,Victoria House, London, UK 2011 Embracing the Void, Hada Contemporary, London, UK 33rd Joongang Fine Ar t Competition Selected Ar tists’ Show, Seoul Ar ts Center, Seoul, Korea I AM SOLITARY - LONDON, curated by Beers. Lamber t Contemporary Ar t, Gift at 10 Vyner St.Galler y, London, UK 2010 FUTURE FUTURES FUTURE, Korean Cultural Centre UK, London, UK Core Gallery Open Submission Exhibition for Depford X, Core gallery, Dept- ford, London, UK Guasch Coranty Painting Prize Selected Ar tists’ Show, Center of Ar t Tecla Sala, Barcelona, Spain Open Painting, Royal West England Academy, Bristol, UK 4482: Korean Contemporary Ar tist in London, Barge House, OXO Tower Wharf, London, UK Project Space: PRINT NOW, London Ar t Fair, Design Centre, London —MAY 2010, BEARSPACE, London, UK 2009 Raymond Gun: Platform, Degreear t.com gallery, London, UK Gathering Storm, Bayfield Hall, Norfolk, UK 2008 Improvisation, Newdays gallery, London, UK Chorus Project,Hun gallery,NewYork,Korus House,Embassy of republic of Korea,Washington D.C., US 4482: Korean Contemporary Ar tist in London, Barge House, OXO Tower Wharf, London, UK Central Saint Mar tins MA Degree Show 08, Central Saint Mar tins College of Ar t and Design, London, UK WHITE GOODS, Stroud House gallery, Stroud, UK Central Saint Mar tins MA Interim Show 08, Barge House, OXO Tower Wharf, London, UK AWARDS 2012 Shor tlist for New Sensation, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK 2011 Finalist for Galler y Loop Young Ar tist Competition, Galler y Loop, Seoul, Korea Finalist for 33rd Joongang Fine Ar t Competition, Seoul, Korea Finalist for I AM SOLITARY, LONDON, Beers, Lamber t Contemporary Ar t, London, UK 2010 Finalist for 2010 Guasch Conranty Prize, Fundación Guasch Coranty, Barcelona, Spain PROJECT 2009 DIALOGUE BOX: BEYOND AND WITHIN, AirSpace Galler y, Stroke on Trent, UK
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KIM JISEON ( b.1986 )
Education 2012 MFA Fine Ar t at Slade School of Fine Ar t, UCL, London, UK 2010 BA Fine Ar t, Slade School of Fine Ar t, UCL, London, UK 2006 FDA at Chelsea College Ar t and Design, London, UK,
Group Exhibitions 2013 Lee Jinhan & Kim Jiseon, HADA Contemporary, London, UK 2012 Imaginary Landscape, Miel, Seoul, South Korea MFA/MA Degree Show 2012, Slade School of Fine Ar t, London, UK Modern Ar t Show, St. George’s Hall, London, UK 2011 Rainbow Project, Gabulre Gallery, Seoul, South Korea Spring, Summer and Winter, Joon-A Gallery, Seoul, South Korea The Devour, Ar t project at AAF, London, UK 2010 Imaginary Landscape, Arch 402 Gallery, London, UK KIAF10, Coex, Seoul, South Korea ASYAAF 2010 Par t-2, Sungshin women’s University, Seoul, South Korea Greenlovebrown, Paik Hea Young Gallery, Seoul, South Korea BA Degree Show 2010, Slade School of Fine Ar t, London, UK The Slade, Swiss Cottage Gallery, London, UK 2009 Project standing by…/Beyond Taboo, Dukwoon Gallery, Seoul, South Korea 2008 New York, Great Hall gallery, New York, USA 2004 Ssohdah project 2, MY ART Gallery, Seoul, South Korea 2003 Ssohdah project 1, Indeco Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
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This catalogue is published by HADA Contemporary to accompany the exhibition:
LEE JINHAN & KIM JISEON GROUP EXHIBITION 1 AUGUST - 1 SEPTEMBER 2013 No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any mean, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without prior written permission from HADA Contemporary Ltd.