hosted by OZANEAUX ArtSpace
at 515 West 20th Street 4E, New York NY 10011.
Korea Art Forum
curated by Heng-Gil Han
October 21 – December 10, 2016.
KOREA with KOREA is a group exhibition exploring a new Korean identity that has the potential to eliminate escalating tensions due to the country’s division. This exhibition attempts to contribute to the advancement of contemporary art while, at the same time, global peace-building, as it brings together landscape art North Korea, South Korea, China and the US.
Described for centuries as an arena of conflict and competition by most scholars of Korea, the physical land of the Korean peninsula seems to manifest a concrete instance of the abstract concept of contemporary art that advances by the logic of contradiction and competition. In addition, the country’s name, “Korea,” comes from the name of the dynasty Koryo, which literally means “high” (Ko) and “fine” (Ryo), implicitly conveying the core aesthetic values of the sublime and the beautiful. Inspired by these striking affinities of Korea to contemporary art, the exhibition questions external factors that impact the framework of contemporary art, a regime of the sublime and the beautiful that exists at the fulcrum of the precarious balance of power equation. The exhibition includes works of art that have rarely or never been seen in New York City and features the following artists:
From South Korea: Sungho Choi, Hong Seon Jang, Tae-Seok Ju, and Jayoung Yoon.
From North Korea: Chang Ho Choi, Hyunil Kim, Sunggil Oh, and Seon-Myong Ri.
From China: Yutian Qi, Xiao Wang, Gaozhong Wu, and Shen Yang.
From the US: Joel Carreiro, Anton Ginzburg, Robert Morris, and Frank Webster.
Each of these artists uniquely reinterprets the meaning of landscapes and landscape paintings, revealing the conditions – historical, cultural, and/or political – of the society in which they live and work. Each artist finds different problems within the context of a landscape and articulates these problems in the visual language of their individual voice. Although all of the artworks explore the same theme – the land – they are very different from one another. Placing them together enables viewers to begin to identify sources of tension and conflict within the international policies of the four states.
The Korea Art Forum (KAF) was founded in 2013 and is a New York based independent not-for-profit organization led by artists with the mission of bridging the world through arts. In collaboration with other institutions and organizations, KAF presents thought-provoking exhibitions, discussions, and public initiatives worldwide, exploring issues related to the Korean division while fostering dynamic relationships between art,artists and audiences. KAF embraces experimental works of art, challenges conventional notions of art, and provokes conversations about contemporary art. For more info, please visit www.kafny.org.
The exhibition and related activities are, in part, generously funded by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts as well as by public funds from Creative Engagement supported by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and The New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and administered by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.