APRICITY
FRIEZE No.9 Cork Street : SeongJoon Hong, Hong Soun, Sunyoung Hwang, Chounhwan Lee

SEOJUNG ART is delighted to announce APRICITY, a group exhibition of paintings by intergenerational Korean artists - Seongjoon Hong, Hong Soun, Sunyoung Hwang, and Chounhwan Lee. The exhibition will run from 4 April to 20 April at No.9 Cork Street (FRIEZE), London. APRICITY offers a contemporary interpretation of naturalism as depicted through the lens of each artist who captures their surrounding environment, presenting a fresh perspective on the landscape.

The emergence of East Asian Art onto the global stage, especially Korean art, gained momentum in the mid-to-late 1980s, coinciding with the conclusion of the ideological Cold War. A notable example is the 1988 Summer Olympic in Seoul, South Korea, which transcended both political parties and facilitated cultural exchange, referenced across various disciplines. During this period, South Korean visual art often embraced naturalism, particularly inspired by Eastern landscapes. Naturalism, in this context, holds significant cultural resonance in the East, especially paintings with nature motifs, reflecting historical traditions where depictions of nature were imbued with symbolic meaning. This also represents individual nobility within a broader ideological framework.

Until just yesterday, we battled an invisible adversary, the 'pandemic', grappling with questions about nature. Transitioning from a fierce conflict that left many mental and physical scars, we now find ourselves engaged in a quieter struggle. It is undeniable that this war had an impact on every creature’s survival, evoking a sense of naturalism from a contemporary standpoint. While various discourses, such as 'Anthropocene,' 'Capitalocene,' and 'Sustainability,' have been actively discussed for some time, we have only recently begun to earnestly grasp the essence of these expanded concepts.

What is naturalism from a contemporary perspective? Clues lie in the notion that, as anthropologist Philippe Descola suggested, we often underestimate nature as a concept devoid of subjectivity. His argument stems from our tendency to objectify nature while simultaneously claiming to utilise and protect it effortlessly. In essence, from a contemporary viewpoint, nature possesses subjectivity akin to human beings, and its significance expands to coexist with both the visible and invisible elements shaping our environment. Four artists, who begin by acknowledging nature as integral to their surroundings and craft their own environments, gather and deconstruct new narratives of nature through their visual languages.

Seongjoon Hong (b.1987) meticulously gathers his surroundings, separating them into layers and transferring them onto the canvas. Hong perceives every moment surrounding him as artistic inspiration and environment. Namely, the artistic environment, shaped by visible objects and invisible atmosphere, is often expressed by progressively disassembling them in several stages to make them lighter. His practice is not just a tool for reproduction, but a visual language that reconstructs our new reality.

Sidescape, regarded as a significant series by Hong Soun (b.1959), with an extensive artistic career spanning over 40 years, originated from an empirical approach and a microhistorical attitude towards inexplicable natural phenomena or social issues. This trajectory was notably influenced by the reading of the autobiography ‘Der Teil und das Ganze’ by German physicist Werner Karl Heisenberg, a pioneer of quantum mechanics.

In today's world, where news of climate change and disasters such as pandemic crises and wars confront us daily, these landscapes evoke complex emotions and thoughts in our lives. His works, which capture our everyday on the canvas, ironically present the most realistic scenery and offer new meanings to the surroundings that envelop us.

The inspiration for Sunyoung Hwang (b.1988) is drawn from physical, sensory, emotional, and psychological experiences. Hwang enjoys finding coherence and balance between the order and disorder of her approach, resulting in organised chaos. Informed by her experiences, this newfound balance translates into a spontaneously chosen color palette, fostering the creation of intangible elements that enrich her artistic sensibility. Hwang's memory marks the canvas with various brush strokes, accumulates temporality, and unfolds the contemporary sensory landscape.

Chounhwan Lee (b. 1956) established his own artistic approach by modernly reinterpreting traditional naturalistic Oriental paintings, such as literary paintings and ink-and-wash paintings. The series Light+Grain, presented at the exhibition APRICITY, embodies the light reflected on the waves and demonstrates its complete abstraction. It does so by stacking layers of 'light', symbolizing nature's vitality, and 'grain,' retaining historicality. Nature, the most critical element in his artistic interest, is not merely expressed as it appears but becomes a lens through which Lee presents his perspective.

One of the core concepts of Korea's traditional naturalism, known as '물아일체; Mulailche,' signifies unity with one's surroundings through deeply enjoying and experiencing nature. The elements comprising nature here range from visible objects such as trees, stones, water, flowers, and creatures, to invisible elements like the ever-changing atmosphere. Drawing inspiration from their heritage and surroundings, four artists have experimented with and expressed on canvas the warm, inclusive attitude of coexisting with their environment. They infuse their work with profound interpretations. Through the various contemporary landscapes, visitors will awaken to tangible and intangible sensations as they traverse the accumulated experiences of the four artists, breathing new life into the exhibition, Apricity.

VENUE

FRIEZE No.9 Cork Street, Gallery 2

LOCATION
9 Cork St, London W1S 3LL, UK

Curated by B. Jun Chae