Welcome to Art Spot Seoul!

Have you ever wondered what is going on in the contemporary art world in Seoul, but realized that information is hard to get since you don’t speak Korean? Art Spot Seoul is the page for you, with reviews, presentations of emerging artists, debates, interviews and all sorts of writing relating to the art scene in the dynamic capital of Korea.
As one of the mega-cities in the world, and the capital of a country with a turbulent and growing economy, Seoul has a lot to offer in regards of contemporary art. You not only have an art market that has been peaking for a while, but also many non-commercial art spaces around in the city. You will find information on the ongoing exhibitions and reviews on those that are up ore have passed. If you are curious about an artist who has been exhibiting here, we might have the information you need.
Or we might not… Art Spot Seoul is a project made with graduate and post-graduate students from Ewha Womans University. It is part of a course in writing art critique and criticism in English. When doing this, we could as well make the information accessible for a wider audience on the net. So we have to see how long this page will last.
Art Spot Seoul is organized in monthly archives and categories. There will also be tags, making it possible to search artists’ names and topics. Just click the latest month, and you will have the most recent writing there. Or you want to read the essays or reviews first? Then click the category you want.
This page is for you, and we hope you appreciate it!

Kwak, Nam Sin: “Viewing”

Sungkok Art Museum
11 January – 23 March 2008
For centuries artists have studied shadows as an important aspect of painting. Furthermore, in modern art shadows are connoted with emotions such as instability, nihilism and so on. KWAK Nam Sin is no different to those artists. Originally a print-maker, KWAK Nam Sin has attempted to combine both print-making and painting elements in his work. Over the recent years, he has focused solely in developing the effect of shadows as a reflection on the artist himself. In this exhibition a wide range of works using various different materials are displayed on two floors. The works consist of a combination of paintings and installations.
The shadows of people are expressed on metal sheets welded together and also on spandex canvas. On some the canvas is wrinkled to add motion and three dimensional qualities. Furthermore, there are works composed with found objects such as a flower or a beer bottle cap. The same themes of human shadows are expressed in sculpture installation, hinting the outline of the shadows using cutout metals, almost like wire sculpture. The images are taken from everyday life, magazines and they are self-studies for portraits. Some have a statement and some are pure depictions.
The images are sprayed on to the different surfaces using stencil cutouts. These are placed in front of the canvas rather than flat on the canvas to blur the edges for a hazy effect.
In general the works are quite humorous and the subject matters tend to have some serious conception. But if the museum docent had not given me a tour, then I would not have been able to catch some of the points that were pointed out as they are not visible to the eye. Much of the images are graphic with far too many experimentations of the same kind. Furthermore, the details on some works seemed unnecessary, less serious and in some ways corny. In some of the works, parts were drawn with shading and realistic depictions. This distracts the entire composition.
The works seemed still at an experimental stage without being able to go beyond a certain boundary. The shadow is a subject that has many possibilities. It could be expressed in a more interesting and exciting method. The depictions in this exhibition were too much clichéd and not very original.
CHO Hyeyoung

Ian Davenport

Hakgojae Gallery
29 February – 21 March

We often believe that an artistic movement expires when it was outstripped by new ones. But Ian Davenport’s paintings awaken us to realize that some movements do not die out, but continue to evolve. The calculated compositions and the almost anonymous surface appearance clearly show that Davenport is attached to Minimalism. However, the high-glossy synthetic hues and the gestural elements, such as the occasional drips, brush marks, pouring, and the tension created by all this, distinguish his work from the previous Minimalist paintings. Perhaps he seeks to find the interface between Minimalism and Abstract Expressionism. Or perhaps the immaculate finish achieved by using bright household paints tells that he is seeking to find his place somewhere between Pop Art and Minimalism. Either way, he is obviously contributing to the linear development of abstract paintings.
Although Davenport, as a member of yBa’s, widely exhibited his work in the prominent museums and galleries in Europe, his exhibition at the Hakgojae gallery, marks his first solo show in the Asian art scene. The exhibition presents 17 paintings, which consist of three different groups according to the patterns – arches, circles, and vertical stripes. One of the notable features to this exhibition is to see the marriage of Western painting and traditional Korean architecture. His work beautifully suits with the hanok (traditional Korean style building) of Hakgojae. But one small yet vital flaw of the display would be the amateurish labeling – it hinders the exhibition from being exceptional.

YOO Seungeun

Ian Davenport

                               

Hakgojae Gallery
29 February – 21 March 2008

It’s spring! Entering the exhibition space, and being confronted by all these panels in pastel tones pastel, you find yourself surrounded by bright tones and hues. Light and smooth color fields are displayed along the white walls to brighten up our eyes and minds. In the central gallery room, you will notice there is long, lean arch and lines forming round shapes. Reminding of the colorfield abstract painting of the 60’s or 70’s, these are the works of British painter Ian Davenport.
Ian Davenport is considered as one of the YBA:s (Young British Artists) and graduated from Goldsmiths college. After being nominated for the Turner Prize in 1991, he’s been awarded many prizes and been showing at countless museums and galleries. So what makes his works so special, or different from what already has passed and dominated the world of painting, like Minimalism or the colorfield abstract painting?
The glossy finish of his works could make us assume that the artist uses very special and costly materials, but the works are in fact made with the same enamel household paint used for painting woodworks in our homes. The extremely elegant lines on the panels look like he was mastering some wonderful and adorable technique, but this is done by injectors (or sometimes just poured on the panels) and dried with fans. Minimalism and abstract art movements ended with cutting off their ties with daily life, but Ivan Davenport starts his art works with mundane materials and finishes them with daily utilitarian methods.
For some his work might seem too pretty and commercial, too easy to sell and buy. But considering the art world of today, where shocking and dreadful images are overflowing, Ian Davenport’s works can be a way to have a rest and feel relaxed from just seeing art works as they used to be.
PARK Eun-jin

Ian Davenport

Hakgojae Gallery
29 February – 21 March 2008
Once he was suspected of being a drug addict, just because of the enormous amount of syringes he used in his works. Ian Davenport, one of the YBA:s, used the syringes for his series of paintings called ‘Poured Lines’. From a distance his works seem to consist of geometrical forms, and yet on a closer look they display the free motion of paint.
In contrast to painters like the Korean monochrome conceptualist Ufan Lee, Davenport is less interested in creating deep meanings. He is more interested in the traces of everyday life. His color scheme, for instance, is inspired by the American cartoon “the Simpsons.”
His other series, “the Circle Paintings” have found useful inspiration from making pancakes. He poured the enamel paint on top of a board and allowed it to spread out, and then turned the board controlling the flow of the excess paint so it was distributed in circles. Timing is as crucial in his work as it is in cooking. Using primitive methods, he creates sophisticated paintings. Not controlling the material of the painting, he simply lets the materials make things themselves.
The trace of paint running down the sides of his paintings reveal a difference between his approach and traditional painting. He claims that his paintings are bringing in something new to an old and ongoing story, but I have my doubts. Davenport certainly has struggled with his formalistic paintings. But still, we have already seen this kind of painting, from Abstract Expressionism and on, especially the Color-field or Hard-Edge painting. One of the differences is that Davenport uses industrial materials for his works and the Abstract Expressionists used more traditional materials in theirs. Also, his concepts are far simpler. No matter how much they are different and what material exploration he is making, it is too much to say that the represent something entirely new in the art of the 21st century.
Still seeking a chance of factor, the free motion collides with systematical geometry in his works. There is this accuracy in controlling the flow of time and material that still makes me interested in his work. It conveys the tension between the free painterly approach and a counterbalancing geometry.
SHIN Young-ji

Kijong Zin: ‘On Air’

Arario Gallery
14 February – 13 March 2008

A lot of controversy exists over whether the news media provides people with credible information or not. Many people believe that TV programs are beneficial in that they always convey accurate and reliable information. Some people, meanwhile, casts doubt on the fact that the media is trustworthy, including the artist Kijong Zin. His exhibition, On Air tries to find the answer and show his conviction regarding this controversy.
Above all, his technique is perfect enough to make people believe that the manipulated TV programs he creates are real. The eight single programs on aired by Zin seem to be ‘the reality’. When audiences enter the gallery, they can watch familiar TV programs, CNN, Discoversy, History Channel etc, without the need for any doubts. However, if they enter the space behind the monitors, they will soon realize that the programs are manipulated by Zin. At the same time, they can also consider how information is distorted by the directors’ intentions.
His questions originate from simple curiosity, his childhood wonder wether “people of black-and-white TV are really black-and-white in reality?”. This allows him to try to find and to prove his own answers.
Most importantly, Zin conveys a strong message to his audience. These days, people are flooded with a variety of information and news. With the diversity of its distribuyion through different media channels, people are often unable to tell what one is true and what is false. In this way, people have no choice but to regard the information they receive as true.

Kijong Zin’s exhibition On Air reveals the fact that many TV programs are untrustworthy. One of the videos shown, CNN (2007), gives a colorful and dramatic description of the 9.11 terror events. The “reality” perceived through a TV monitor seems to ‘real’ but in fact, it is just made of tiny miniatures. The work proves that TV programs are more likely to depict incidents as more colorful and sensationalized information order to catch more people’s attention. Discovery (2007) also shows the legendary first moon landing, which has caused some controversy in the world. He demonstrates the possibility of it all being false information, showing his Discovery Channel which looks like reality but is totally manipulated. In this way, Zin tries to not only prove lots of mass media is an unreliable source of information, but also lead audience to think about the thin line between reality and fiction. In our digital age, On Air is quite noteworthy in that it warns people not to believe blindly in every information that is aired.
SEO Youjin

Gimhongsok: ‘In Through the Out Door’

Kukje Gallery
17 April – 19 May 2008

The term ‘Virus’ normally means a sub-microscopic infectious agent that can cause disease, and also in computer technology, a virus is a program introducing itself into a system, altering or destroying the information stored in the system. As following original meanings, ‘virus’ technically indicates a living (or non-living) germ, but at the same time, it also can account metaphorically for someone who is messing up or making tangle in certain situation. And after seeing Gimhongsok’s exhibiton at Kukje Gallery, I had an idea that this artist can be described in this short one word ‘Virus’.
A virus is unable to grow or reproduce outside a host cell. As viruses do, Gimhongsok’s art works are not stemming from original ideas, but manipulating already existing ones. For instance, in the gallery, you can encounter a rabbit costumed mannequin with a standing sign for illegal immigrants, which is inspired by ideas from Santiago Sierra. Two flat plastic boards talking about word definition of ‘friend’ also reminds us Joseph Kosuth’s renowned work ‘One and Three Chairs’, and standing sculpture shape of handicapped person and description of this art piece brings us to one hall of the Louvre with the antique schulpture ‘Dying Slave’.
In terms of themes, Gimhongsok presents works that critically deal with communication dilemmas and sub-social irregularities in our world. These two elements, communication and social issues, are first of all difficult to describe in a short definition, secondly not by themselves visual, and finally they rely on people acting as intermediaries, which means that rather having a fixed center, the works are milling around an assumed center, creating meaning via others. This smart artist is standing ‘in between’ art and society and working just like virus to destroy preconceived notions, fight against force of habit, and transforming his ideas to sophisticated art works
As like his one of sculptures ‘LOVE’- in this work, he squeezed certain part of Robert Indiana’s LOVE sculpture taking off ‘O’ part to use as a chair- artist is dealing with words, art, communication, society and moes on from there to design (Gimhongsok actually made a window display for Louis Vuitton in Korea in 2007). We need to keep an eye on Gimhongsok, because just as suffering from flu virus, which ultimately makes us stronger than before, his artistic movement like virus will give us a far better understanding of the world.

PARK Eun-jin

Kijong Zin: ’On Air’

Arario Gallery
14 February – 13 March 2008
It is said, that Leonardo’s Mona Lisa in the Louvre has 6 sets of copies. Those copies are displayed one after another to protect the real Mona Lisa from exposure to changes in temperature and humidity. Nobody knows when the real Mona Lisa is displayed, except the person in charge and the director. As part of the audience, we don’t know whether we saw the real Mona Lisa or not. However, it remains real as long as we believe it is the real painting.
The works of Kijong Zin are good examples of how reality is manipulated by fabrication, copies of copies, or what has been called ’simulacra’ by postmodern philosophers.
The impression of the eight monitors in the ‘Transmission Department’ in the first room of Arario Gallery is like being confronted with the visuals of MTV’s music videos or a simulation game. It is like watching a horrifying terror scene or tragic war, but still it is like watching only game clips. In fact, those clear pictures on the TV screens are transmitted from the ‘Production Department’ in the next room in real time. Among the objects seen on one of the scrrens I see plastic bags from an outlet mall in NYC.
At a first glance, I thought the installations of ’On Air’ were real. When recognizing everything as imitations of reality, fake expressions of what I am already familiar with through media. I loose the sense of reality for a moment, feeling a kind of vertigo. The ’reality’ created by Kijong Zin’ crosses over to the actual life I live in.
’Reality’ might be something that we just believe in. It might be fragmented pieces of virtual images. Still, I have my doubts. Does reality stop existing once these ’truths’ are revealed? In all these games with virtual and secondary realities, I still hold on to a belief in that Reality. Something we must see and realize directly.

The opposition of ’Reality’ and ’Fabrication’ has been a main theme in art, and in the discussions on art, for a long time. The scepticism about reality has become commonplace for people living in the 21st century. We know that the images we receive of ’Reality’ are not more than fictionalized versions of reality. Kijong Zin’s ’On Air’ is a remarkable exhibition, with its playful way of disrupting our sense of reality. However, what I am waiting for, is an exhibition that takes us further than just the sense owonder.

OH Minkyung

Ian Davenport

Hakgojae Gallery
29 February — 21 March 2008
http://www.hakgojae.com

Already in the introduction to Ian Davenport exhibition, Hakgojae Gallery places him in a specific context: “He studied at Goldsmiths’ College of Art in London, graduating in 1988. In that year, he participated in Freeze curated by Damien Hirst, the exhibition which brought together many of the so-called Young British Artists.” Being one of the yBa’s is always a way to attract attention.
In contemporary art, the new is preferred to the familiar. Thus the YBA:s have been noted for their shock tactics. Who would Ian Davenport be today, without his YBA background? The works of Ian Davenport relate to Minimal Art of the 1960s through his preference for geometric forms, equality of parts, repetition, neutral surfaces, and industrial materials. The paintings’ reduction to surface and materials excludes any illusionism. Of course, these works of Ian Davenport are not entirely consistent with Minimalism. First, Minimal artists claimed the use of monochrome. But Ian Davenport regards to the contrary color variation and harmony as important. The luminosity of his colors makes me calm. These works have decorative beauty rarely seen in Minimalism.
Also, Minimal artists shunned self-expression, while Ian Davenport allows himself to be more physically involved in his paintings. By controlling the movements of the canvas, he can make the paint form an arch, but he also works with effects from the varying degree of viscosity in the household paint he is using in almost all his works. These kinds of experiments with materials – with totally different results – were also made by other artists like the Korean Lee Ufan already in the 1960s and 70s.
Then, what is it in his works that in fact can be compared to Minimal art? Maybe it is his focus on materials. Ian Davenport focuses on the method or process of his work rather than a message. But Ian Davenport’s technical experiments are not enough to keep me interested in his works. If he wasn’t a yBa, he would be an artist like any other.
LEE Yena

Crawling Landscape: ‘Bullet the Blue Sky’

Brain Factory
6 March -23 March 2008

Most of the artists in Korea are indifferent to social and political issues. They mainly approach their own personal subjects. They work alone in their little studio, and get exalted over exhibiting in a white gallery space to fulfill the needs of a very small group of audience. However, some artists have their own view on society and try to try reach out to an audience outside of the galleries, and using ordinary public places for their art. They enjoy communicating with people and sharing their concerns about society and citizens.
‘Crawling Landscape’ currently exhibiting at Brain Factory, began as a collaborative in 2007, and is an organic group of artists that has different members from time to time. The exhibition consists of three parts. In their previous project ‘Prepared husband’ the three artists Kang Dong-Hyoung, Shin Ha-Jung and Lee Je. were working from a text about Vietnamese wives in Korea and giving it a visual expression.
Their concern in ‘Bullet in the Sky’ is the negative effects of overdevelopment and the almighty market. They have been making background research on the internet, in newspapers and books, and assembling the results as visualized images and a ‘reconstruction’ of the specific situations. Each of the three parts of the exhibition was directed by a single artist, while they drew the pictures together.
The first scenery is about a shared housing property. This small housing outfit built from cardboard on the lower part of the piece looks like the inner reflections of the injuries on society; they are illegally built shacks. The upper part of the piece is a replica of what people do for enjoyment, depicting the Chonggyechon stream, a newly developed and reconstructed pedestrian walk in central Seoul.
The second scenery is about the culture of business corporations in Korean. The piece uses the logos of global conglomerates. It is a well-known fact that the big companies and their human resources have contributed for the recent economic development in Korea. But while developing a generous attitude to these privileged companies, Korea has cultured a habitual forgiveness of their various illegal actions – currently being exposed to justice, while we all are waiting for the next economical crisis. This instability is reflected in the unstable construction of the middle section of this scenery.
The third scenery is addressing the secrets of our ordinary lives. It is questioning us how much we actually respect the diversities of others; their appearances, choices of fashion, languages, skin colors, religions, personal standards, life properties, political rhetorics, sexual characteristics, what football teams we chose to support, all these varieties of differences.

But as a whole, these sceneries are in fact crawling a bit too low. They start from good intentions but in a timid manner using fragile materials, and their collaborative work is lacking a clear coordination and the fragile structure does not seem to overcome the barriers of the serious issues at hand. The group is gradually improving, compared to the previous work that lacked exhibition experience and that were limited to flat images. But there is still apparent room for improvement. Can’t they be more aggressive, or approach their social issues with more sensitive images? Can they actually communicate more about the issue at stake? This exhibition seems more like a taxidermic study of the society. It makes me even more concerned about why artists still talk so silently about the main concerns of our society.
OH Yoonjung