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Maria Kim sayart2022@gmail.com 

Hakgojae, a leading gallery in Korea, unpacked at Art Basel Hong Kong 2023. Hakgojae presents various artworks from the master of media art to young artists. Additionally, Hakgojae participates in the Kabinett sector for the first time with Young-Ju Joung’s artworks. Her landscape series presents over the 10-meter wall. The landscapes of moon village remind nostalgic memories of middle-aged viewers who are born in the 1960s and 70s. 

 

▲ 정영주 JOUNG Young-Ju, 산동네920 High Hills Village 920, 2023, 캔버스에 종이, 아크릴릭 Paper and acrylic on canvas, 145.5x112.1cm, Photo by Maria Kim

"Art Basel Hong Kong is a place where one can look at the current and future of contemporary art. Participating artists are Nam June Paik (1932-2006), Seungtaik Jang (1959-), Shuye Wang (1963-), Young-hun Kim (1964-), Hyunsik Kim (1965-), J. Park (1966-), Young-Ju Joung (1970-), Jae Yong Kim (1973-), and Gwangsoo Park (1984-)." Hakgojae said. 

▲ 백남준, PAIK Nam June, 인터넷 드웰러 Internet Dweller- mpbdcg.ten.sspv, 1994, 혼합매체, Courtesy of Hakgojae Gallery

Below is information on the participating artists provided by Hakgojae.
Nam June Paik, a pioneer of media art, was recognized on the international stage for dissolving Korea's unique emotions in his work based on his extraordinary creativity. The Internet Dweller: mpbdcg.ten.sspv (1994) which will be exhibited in the booth, was created for the "Electronic Super Highway" exhibition in the United States, a toured exhibition from 1994 to 1998. The artwork, which is interpreted as a resident of the Internet, symbolizes the existence of imaginary living in the Internet world. Paik celebrates the emergence of the Internet and examines the most important technological inventions of the media through this artwork.

▲ 장승택 JANG Seungtaik, 겹회화 100-82 Layered Painting 100-82, 2022, 캔버스에 아크릴릭 Acrylic on canvas, 160x130cm, Courtesy of Hakgojae Gallery

Seungtaik Jang, who is known for his layered painting, is a representative artist of the late Dansaekwha movement. He is an alchemist who controls every material and turns them in numerous colors and lights. There are countless colors hidden in the main color on top of the canvas. He controls the colors repeating the process of painting, washing, and repainting numerous times. This process shows a screen of emptying and filling at the same time. A condensed power created by filling the art world with monochrome.

Shuye Wang, a Chinese artist who is currently based in Japan and China, proposed a new theory of painting to feel nature as itself. The theory is an indiscriminate viewing of objects. Indiscriminate viewing is such like the religious view of the world by God. His work, which is covered with numerous brush strokes, creates profound and calm scenery at the same time. The viewers get liberated from the restraints they struggle with, and guided into the natural space and time.

▲ 김영헌 KIM Young-hun, p22045 일렉트로닉 노스텔지어 p22045 Electronic Nostalgia, 2022, 린넨에 유채 Oil on linen, 97x130cm.jpg, courtesy of Hakgojea

Young-hun Kim expresses the boundary and compound between the analogue and digital world through painting. Kim paints numerous lines that remind of wind, waves and pixelized noise. The sections where the lines that are reminiscent of the waves or wavelengths are lumped together harmonize exquisitely with the entire painting. He constructed the Korean traditional painting style with the technique of painting with a brush made of leather, and the Western painting style by using oil paints on linen at the same time. His works are known as abstract paintings containing the harmony of East and West.

 

▲ 김현식 KIM Hyunsik, Beyond The Color(LM), 2023, 에폭시 레진에 아크릴릭, 나무 프레임 Acrylic on epoxy resin, wooden frame, 80x40x7cm.jpg, courtesy of Hakgojea

Hyunsik Kim paints ‘in between space’ which is the space in the middle of seen and unseen. His works are characterized by using modern and Korean-style colors. Also, it is physically intensive, repeating the process of pouring epoxy resin, hardening it, scratching with a knife then applying paint countless times. Combining the aesthetic and philosophy of Asia with epoxy resin; the modern industry material, Kim builds a meditative scenery. Numerous vertical lines give an endless sense of depth.

J. Park aims to resolve the dichotomy between ‘noise’ and ‘signal’ by exploring the digital world. It is an attempt to expand the way of thinking dividing center and surroundings, and majority and minority in the digital world. He confers particular value to the noise in the digital world. Extract the shape of the noise which is considered unnecessary in the real world, pixelized it, and re-construct on onto the canvas. Park reinterprets how the unnecessary in a rational world became an essential being in the art world.

Young-Ju Joung paints the Moon Village in Busan where she lived during her childhood. Joung embodies the landscape with the ‘papier colle’ technique which piles a thick layer of Korean paper on the canvas. Streetlights long hanging in the painting make viewers feel the warmth and ‘Jeong’. To her, the Moon Village was a meditative place for people who were tired of life to relax and a precious home to move forward at the same time. She reflects the warmth and comfort through her hometown painting series.

 

▲ 김재용 KIM Jae Yong, 도넛 페인팅 시리즈 Donut Painting Series, 2023, 도자, 우레탄 페인트, 아크릴릭, 레진, 크리스털, 190x232x13cm.jpg,Photo by Maria KimJae Yong Kim is known for his colorful doughnut ceramics. Kim features a sculpture that is familiar to everyone and a story that is easy to understand. He tries to break down the stereotype that ‘art is difficult’ and get closer to the public. He was born with red-green blindness. It actually has helped him to make sculptures with various colors rather than limiting them. The fear of color naturally disappears, and able to make beautiful works in his own way. Kim’s doughnut series contains the meaning to overcome difficulties with a positive and pleasant mind and having hope rather than being caught up in worries.

Gwangsoo Park focuses on the theme of ‘disappearance.’ In his works, the humanlike shapes permeated into leaves and branches. Humans became a part of nature and the boundary between these two becomes ambiguous, which also means his artwork has no borderline between life and death. Vanishing; the death is not an end to Park. It is an inspiration for new life and creation. He visually expresses a circulation of vanishing and re-appearance.