Exhibition Information

Olga Esther There's a Toad on My Head
2023 oil on canvas 40x30cm
(Source = Tang Contemporary)

Yoon Hyun Same Place, Different Time
2023 acrylic on canvas 200.6x160 cm
(Source = Tang Contemporary)

Jangkoal Love Nest
2023 acrylic on mulberry paper mounted on woodpanel 145.5x112 cm
(Source = Tang Contemporary)

Jonas Burget Judith's Youth
2023 oil on canvas 198x204cm
(Source = Tang Contemporary)

			Tang Contemporary Art Seoul presents Unpack Reveal Unleash, a new exhibition with 7 different artists – Anouk Lamm Anouk, Diren Lee, Guillermo Lorca, Jangkoal, Jonas Burgert, Olga Esther, and YoonHyup – from October 20 to December 25, 2023. 
While facing artworks in the exhibition hall, which are created by different artists with different life experiences and insights, you could listen to the stories hidden inside and could feel the presence of contemporary artists. You will finally find yourself looking at the world with a different point of view, along with the artists’ point of views.
 
Chapter 1. Confronting Prejudice | Anouk Lamm Anouk, Olga Esther 
 
Anouk Lamm Anouk and Olga Esther focus on prejudice and social gaze. They both talk about how social standards and judgements brought from social gaze could form collective unconsciousness and stay along with them. They also pose a question: How could we all live together and create a symbiosis relationship in this judgmental society full of prejudice? 
A protagonist in Olga Esther’s artworks is a princess who longs for freedom from the eyes of others and the norms of the world. In the two artworks introduced in the exhibition, a frog and a toad can be found. These creatures, which represent the expectation of an attractive prince, serve as allegories to emphasize how these romantic myths are deeply rooted in the symbolic structure of women. 
In addition, Anouk Lamm Anouk expands the subject to the discourse of symbiosis through animals such as sheep and horses, going further from stories of self-awareness, social gaze, and prejudice expressed in human bodies and abstract images.  
 
Chapter 2. How to Accept, Reinterpret, and Record the World | Jangkoal, YoonHyup
 
Can you be sure that the memory you have now is a precise and accurate reflection of the reality at that time? Most memories are idealized and exist as more powerful images and emotions. Memories of pain are idealized as well, and sometimes they are even diluted over time. Creating complex senses and nostalgia through the restoration of memories stimulated various emotions. Sometimes the procedure of restoring memories heals oneself, and sometimes it offers positive and pleasant energy for one to move forward. 
 
Through the artworks, which feature a woman and a cat together, Jangkoal takes positive memories from her personal life to create a peaceful space where the fascinating protagonist exists and shares this space with the audience. Furthermore, YoonHyup captures the color of air, the flow of energy, and the pieces of emotion of each country and city with his own color and rhythm. As soon as the breath of the audience and YoonHyup matches while looking at the space reinterpreted by him, memories revive as present emotions, and the energy of those emotions in memories flows again.
 
Chapter 3. The Unconscious World | Jonas Burgert, Guillermo Lorca, Diren Lee
 
Will the unconscious world let us be freer? As you explore the world created by artists, you will feel as if you are entering their unconscious world or your unconscious world. How would the real world look like when seen from the unconscious world? Let’s follow the eyes of artists who look at reality by embodying the unconscious world.
 
It is not easy to guess the age nor gender of the protagonist in a theater-like artworks of Jonas Burgert. Looking at the protagonist who seems like an existing figure, you could feel various emotions. When facing diverse and complicated emotions– such as a fear of the unexpected, a challenging and enterprising mind to the unknown, sadness that couldn’t be hidden–, you will feel as if you are in the unconscious world of Burgert, full of consideration of life.
On the other hand, Guillermo Lorca reinterprets traditional painting styles, for instance the Baroque, in a modern manner. Lorca explores fundamental emotions of humans, and juxtapose realistic elements with surreal elements in his paintings. This narrative makes balance and creates multifaceted meaning to embody his fantasy and let the audience to feel the expansion of time and space. His beautiful yet grotesque artworks are like fairytales. He illustrates he can communicate across countries and languages through these fairytale-like images.
The shining eyes of the protagonist in Diren Lee’s work make her unconscious world a more interesting place. Lee leads the audience to various worlds with each and every artwork, and this time she is leading us to the world of fire, water, and wind. While finding each of the elements inside the artworks, you will be able to meet the protagonists who seize the center of the world created by Lee. These protagonists of the artworks are the important medium that connects oneself of the unconscious world and of the real world. 
 
Through art, sometimes we face huge discourse, and sometimes we get to heal our inner self. It is wonderful to be able to join the epic that confronts contemporary problems within the flow of contemporary art. However, even if it is not something so grand, it would be meaningful enough if we could look at the places where the artists are looking at, share their point of views, thoughts, minds, and feel the changes in the surrounding air for a while and breathe in a different manner.

(Source = Tang Contemporary)