Emptiness and Fullness: Ungpil Byen, Jungwon Phee

SEOJUNG ART is pleased to present Emptiness and Fullness, featuring the works of artists Byen Ungpil and Phee Jungwon, as the first exhibition for Seojung Art Busan in 2022. In this exhibition, a portrait artist Byen Ungpil and an abstract artist Phee Jungwon present works that are created with each artist’s own unique techniques but that are also absent of any direct clues of any obvious messages from the artists. The two artists try their best not to leave their own imprints on their artworks, so as to leave it completely up to the viewer to determine the meaning in each work.

Artist Byen is known for his painted portraits of men using minimal line work to express their shapes and features, while Phee is known for using ink and black gesso to portray cracks and curves. Although each artist shows distinct shapes for the characters or abstract figures in their paintings, they both refrain from directly revealing the messages of their artworks as much as possible.

In his works, Byen Ungpil tries to maximize the visual formative beauty of the figures he portrays by using only simple colors and shapes, while trying to provide the viewer with clues about the figure’s emotions or the overall theme of the painting. In fact, Byen names his figures “somebody” or “some person”—as demonstrated by the title of his work SOMEONE—so that there is even more room for the viewer to freely interpret each work depending on their perspective. Since Byen’s artworks typically do not contain many clues about the figures portrayed or the background story of the piece, the artist’s intentions or reasons for creating each piece are left up to the viewer’s interpretation. Artist Phee Jungwon, on the other hand, uses his works as a type of “personal diary” that is expressed in the form of abstract combinations of various materials, layered on a black space. Since Phee’s canvases are filled with thick matière, the true story behind each work remains carefully hidden. By using this style, Phee intends to give the viewer a complete abstract experience, free from anything that could possibly hinder the viewer from appreciating the abstract work. Phee is continuing to expand his Untitled series, the title of which is the most explicit clue that viewers will get from Phee on appreciating his works.

Life is like a stack of papers that is created as a result of making various choices and elements, accumulated atop one another from different directions, rather than being set in a definite order. In a similar manner, it is hoped that the appreciation of the artworks felt by each viewer adds another layer to each canvas that is filled with the artist’s life and experiences, creating a much richer experience for all.