Exhibition Information

Untitled - 角
2018 (이미지 출처 = 갤러리현대) Acrylic, plastic grid, mulberry paper on canvas f: 38.7 x 32.3 x 4 cm

Untitled
2017 (이미지 출처 = 갤러리현대) Acrylic, plastic grid, resin, U.V.L.S. gel, mulberry paper on canvas f: 41.3 x 34.5 x 6 cm

Untitled - 流
2016-2020 (이미지 출처 = 갤러리현대) Acrylic, wax, U.V.L.S. gel, mulberry paper on canvas f: 44 x 38.2 x 7.2 cm

Untitled
2015 (이미지 출처 = 갤러리현대) Acrylic, plastic grid, U.V.L.S. gel, paper towel on canvas f: 37.7 x 30 x 4 cm

			“I cannot eloquently theorize about the influence of East Asian calligraphy on the West and the relationships between them by applying aesthetic formal theory. As an artist, I only endeavor to engage in visual rumination. I believe that the formality of Chinese characters has a tendency towards semi-abstraction, and perhaps this had an influence on the development of abstract expression and the like in Western art.” 
- Choong Sup Lim 

Gallery Hyundai is pleased to present Choong Sup Lim’s solo exhibition Drawing, In Between from August 11 through 27 at Gallery Hyundai Dugahun. Featuring approximately 20 new works, this show marks Choong Sup Lim’s second solo exhibition organized by Gallery Hyundai following Monochromatic Thinking in 2017.

The phrase “In Between” in the title encapsulates the essence of Choong Sup Lim’s art practice. It is a combination of “between” as the space or distance between two places or objects and “in” that links these two entities. Having relocated from Seoul to New York in 1973 in search of a new creative language, Lim found the concept of “in between” to be a creative driving force and visual motif throughout his career in New York. He occupies a role as a facilitator between binaries including Korea (East) and the US (West); nature (rural) and civilization (urban); past and present; emptiness and fullness; flatness and three-dimensionality; and abstraction and figuration, and he emphasizes that his work is the outcome of formal gestures that supply visual humor within this process of mediation.

Drawing, In Between comprises pieces selected from approximately 120 works at the artist’s New York studio created over a considerable period between 2015 and a pandemic-stricken 2020; they are the results of the artist’s visualization of the concept of “in between.” Throughout his art practice, Choong Sup Lim has carefully studied various facets of the relationship between the formal language of Western contemporary art and Eastern calligraphy, and this has spurred the artist’s formal experimentation that examines the relationship between these two areas. In this series of drawings, he visually reflects on the influences of Eastern calligraphic methodology on the creative processes of American abstract artists and creates his own works that claim a unique space in between the two. The artist explains that “the formality of Chinese characters has a tendency towards semi-abstraction, and perhaps this had an influence on the development of abstract expression and the like in Western art.” As if to support these claims, his drawings tend to highlight linguistic imagery. Conspicuous in his works are forms recalling the simultaneously reserved and unrestrained brushstrokes of calligraphy that resemble Korean consonants and vowels like ㅇ, ㅣ, ㄴ, ㅅ, and ㅂ, the Chinese characters 綠, 角, and 居, or semi-abstract forms that echo linguistic sounds or significations. On these drawings, which are primarily titled as “Untitled,” Lim further imbues his own poetic sensibility and humorous word games by adding subtitles using pure Korean words or colloquialisms. As such, the forms on the canvas tickle the audience’s imagination in their visual resemblance to the objects that the works’ titles signify.  

The concept of “in between” is further repeated and varied in the artist’s choice of materials. Working without a delineation between medium or methodology in works that span from painting and installation to video and sculpture, Choong Sup Lim collages or assembles multiple everyday objects to produce seemingly foreign and biomorphic structures. He traverses this space of “in between” by juxtaposing or overlaying various materials that embody different qualities and usages, from traditional painting materials such as oil paint, acrylic, pencil, and canvas to the Eastern painting materials of ink and Korean mulberry paper, in addition to found objects like paper towels, plastic nets, carpet, woodworking nails, and industrial materials like linseed oil (primarily used for carpentry) and wax. All of these materials transparently seep—almost sink—into the canvas in harmony while simultaneously building a relief-like surface highlighted by its texture and three-dimensionality. Stated otherwise, the artist has achieved the distinct appearance of a fossil that has eroded over time and the essence of memory by permeating his canvas with fragments of everyday objects that “house traces of the modern people’s subconscious.” Honoring minimal monochromes in what is often considered a Korean palette, the drawings quietly guide us towards the artist’s memories of and nostalgia for his hometown. 

*Gallery Hyundai Dugahun opens every Tuesday through Saturday, from 12 pm to 5 pm.

(source = Gallery Hyundai)