Gallery Korea of the Korean Cultural Center New York (KCCNY) is pleased to present the last ‘Call for Artists 2016’ exhibition Unsettled on view at 460 Park Avenue, 6th floor from November 16th to December 16th, 2016. An opening reception will be held on Wednesday, November 16th from 6pm to 8pm.
Juried by professionals in the New York art scene and selected by the Korean Cultural Center New York for the official 'Call for Artists 2016' exhibition, Unsettled brings together eleven creative artists: Eun Kyoung An, Ji Sun Beak, Yunhee Huh, Ginny Huo, Jee Hyun Hwang, Lynn S. Kim, Won Kim, Pablo Lecroisey Lara, Jesús Jiménez Lopéz, Joo Yeon Judy Yang and claRa apaRicio Yoldi with their captive contemporary pieces across various platforms including painting, drawing, collage-making, photography, installation, and video works.
Unsettled reveals multilateral aspects of unstable and precarious states in the artists’ lives. The works in the exhibition examine the process of introspection of the unstable state in various ways, reflecting on insecure social systems and expressing these changeable, even volatile situations in their own ways. Together, the artists are allowing the audience to get a glimpse of how the seemingly negative concept of ‘unsettlement’ can be elevated and beautified through art.
Eun Kyung An, The Journey to The Recovery, 2015, 13.7”x17.7”, Korean paper painting. Courtesy of the artist
Eun Kyoung An dreams of breaking away from the routine of daily life.The repeating patterns in her paintings represent the stabilized but repressed social structure while the vivid colors show the joy of traveling. What we can learn from this is self-discovery, which comes from new experiences that are unknown and indirect.
Ji Sun Beak, Voice Fishing, 2013, dimension variable, Hydrocal,fishing rod, fishing lines. Courtesy of the artist
To Ji Sun Beak, the world seems to be constructed by ironic and absurd rules. Her interest is to observe the reaction of the people to contradictory social systems and cultural stereotypes. To do so, Beak subverts this precarious world in an intentionally created vulnerable state to invite the audience to discover the hidden humor in her installation works.
Yunhee Huh, Stove, 2012, 5 min 40 sec, video. Courtesy of the artist
Yunhee Huh’s interest in eternity has led her to study on its counterpart; momentariness, and thus leading to the notion of presentness. The uses charcoal and the action of drawing rather than the drawing itself best describes this idea because of the erasable nature of the material, and the temporality in the act of drawing. In her video of these performances, “the art aims at life and the life of art.”
Ginny Huo, 20 Fan Deaths #3, 2010, 4”x6”, photography. Courtesy of the artist
Ginny Huo who is Korean-American, understands the Korean culture through her mother’s cautionary superstitious stories such as the fear of asphyxiation resulting from sleeping with an electric fan in an enclosed space. Huo believes that this awkward and vulnerable moment when the audience encounters with the photography creates connections between the viewer and the story.
Jee Hyun Hwang, 2016, Boarderliner, 42”x31”, Watercolor and pencil on paper. Courtesy of the artist
Using images of human bodies, Jee Hyun Hwang contemplates the psychological and physical distance between people through creating ambiguous narrative and drama. Hwang’s background as an US immigrant from Korea gave her a chance to explore misunderstandings and gap between individuals and their affiliated societies.
Lynn Kim, NU-LIFE, 2015, 4’30”, video. Courtesy of the artist
Lynn Kim’s short animated film is experimental in its way of expression, but also works as a documentary since it follows a day in the life of her parents and their dry cleaners. Kim’s understanding of the dry cleaners as a site of physical and spiritual renewal led Kim to portrait it as a strange and curious place of new beginnings, both in concept and philosophy.
Won Kim, Enclosed: Living Small; Ai (Japan), 2015, 11” x 14”, Archival Pigment. Courtesy of the artist
Won Kim finds the small and narrow guest rooms known as “capsule hotels” in Japan rather womb-like and comforting, rather than a space of confinement. Kim’s depiction of the residents in those cubicles in Tokyo shows how these people make use of such tiny spaces. The photography tells something about the occupant’s personality and their ability to function in such a strange, enclosed environment.
Pablo Lara Lecroisey, The four “E” Riddle, 2009, 160x110cm, Fine Art “Gliclée,” in canvas Hahnemühle Monet canvas. Courtesy of the artist
Pablo Lecroisey Lara uses photography as a medium to communicate creativity and aesthetic experience in its broadest sense, but moves away from the academicism that distances viewers with abstruse theories. Only through this realness that we feel in each moment (and not in artificial philosophies) can we know our true selves. From this idea, his photographs capture a series of sensation that is simpler, filled with emotion and intuitive gestures.
Jesus J Lopez, Mathematical Anagram, 2015, dimension variable, Video, calculator, printed calculator paper roll. Courtesy of the artist
Jesus Jimenez Lopez’s body of work “Mathematical Anagram” echoes his experience as a hostage for nine days in Mexico. Used as a visual poetry, the numbers in the works not only symbolize meditations, mantra repetitions, and prayers with the hope of freedom from his kidnappers, but are a vestige of frustration, desperation, and anxiety of the situation.
Joo Yeon Judy Yang, The City of gods and goddess, 2015, 14.5”x29”, Collage made with various foreign currencies. Courtesy of the artist
Joo Yeon Judy Yang’s work arises from the visual traditions wrought from her East Asian lineage and her experience in Western countries. Her works evoke coded landscapes and meticulously layered architectural renderings, taking influences from religious myth and social catastrophes to talk about the political consequences of media manipulation.
claRa apaRicio Yoldi, Laisse Tomber Les Filles, 2013, 01’37”, Video. Courtesy of the artist
claRa apaRicio Yoldi’s work talks about new ways of communication between people in an era of cutting edge technologies. She questions traditional narratives with the juxtaposition of images and copy-paste collages. Images in the video are in conflict, looped and repeated, but in synchrony with music. In a way, Yoldi’s videos are more likely to be ‘heard’ like music and visually abstract.
Organized by
Gallery Korea, Korean Cultural Center New York
The exhibition of Call for Artists 2016 will be on display from November 16th to December 16th, 2016 from Monday – Friday, 9AM – 5PM.