▲ KC-050, A Perspective on 1980's, Photography ⓒ Bon-chang Koo

Korean photography artist Bon-chang Koo holds his retrospective exhibition, 'Koo Bonchang's Voyage'.

Koo is a senior artist who represents Korea's modern photography and contemporary art culture and has played a key role in the beginning and development of Korean art photography culture. He made a big impact in the Korean photography and art world with his new format of 'Making Photo'. 

▲ LA-013, Long Afternoon, Photography ⓒ Bon-chang Koo

Beyond the traditional role of photography as an objective record, he has expressed the subjective art world by reflecting on the properties of various media such as paintings, sculptures, and prints. His experimental spirit has brought a new history to the Korean modern photography world.

The exhibition displays photographs including 'Self-Portrait(자화상, 1968)', the first photograph he took when he was in middle school and works and materials that have been difficult to come across, including his study of famous paintings in college.

▲ Good-bye Paradise, Photography ⓒ Bon-chang Koo

In addition, the artist displays 500 works and 600 materials from 43 series selected from a total of 50 works, including the Early Europe(초기 유럽, 1979-1985)' series produced since he studied abroad and the recent 'Anonymous(익명자, 1996-present) series.

In the exhibition, he will showcase a wide range of works of various materials, including works that capture urban landscapes in the form of snaps, various transformations of himself as subjects, works that depict nature abstractly, and works that contain traces of time of old objects. In particular, the 'The Untitled(무제, 1989)' series, which uses the solarization technique, shows the artist's unique surreal aesthetic among his works.

▲ DMZ, Photography ⓒ Bon-chang Koo

Through sensuous photographs and detailed descriptions of his works, Koo planned the exhibition to reveal the universal stories contained in his works and promote the true nature of his works. Through the exhibition, visitors can systematically find out the artist's growth processes, the development of his works by period, his relationship and influence with domestic personnel, the opportunity to participate in the exhibition at home and abroad, and his appearance as an exhibition planner.

The exhibition will be held at SeMa(the Seoul Museum Art Museum), located in Jung-gu, Seoul, until Mar. 10 next year.

▲ The poster of the exhibition ⓒ SeMA

Sayart / Nao Yim, yimnao@naver.com