Some Gorgeous Dream: Simon Ko

Simon Ko unravels his thoughts on love and relationships through his fairytale-like characters. Inspired by personal experiences, he captures moments of emotional effusion that arise when relationships first begin. These feelings have significantly influenced Ko and represent his journey of self-realization. Ko’s characters reflect a wide range of feelings experienced in human relationships such as trust, hope and despair. Although it is difficult to fully understand the emotions of others in a relationship, Ko hopes that his works will help viewers gain insight into this complex process.

Ko combines images that are original with his unique expression of texture. He values seeing and feeling the art with one’s own eyes. Although many people now engage with art in digital formats, Ko insists on appreciating his work in person. This is due to his emphasis on texture in order to evoke a sense of vitality when a viewer sees the painting in real life. For Ko, this textural expression is a metaphor for the “turbulence” inherent in the narrative. The image stays in two-dimensional space while the surface is materialized three-dimensionally. The painting’s turbulent and inconsistent texture speaks to the turbulence of a relationship, a core theme throughout Ko’s works. In this exhibition, the artist will present three-dimensional figurative works for the first time. It is an opportunity to question how the idea of turbulence in regard to relationships can be intertwined with a three-dimensional medium.

One keyword for this exhibition is the word “dream.” Its title, Some Gorgeous Dream, was inspired by the expression “...it's like some gorgeous dream.” For Ko, a dream can be mysterious and incoherent, like a montage in a fantastical film. Dreams may not have overarching narratives. In a dream, each scene is unique and may contain its own separate timeline. However, they are all connected in that they are based on the artist’s experience. Ko reflects these attributes of dreams in his works to build his own romantic and ethereal fantasy world.