Exhibition Information

2014 117×90cm

2016 70×70cm

2018 117×84cm

			The exhibition, “A Chance Conversation with a Stranger”, is about the artworks of 5 women artists and a discussion about them. It is obvious that there was a matriarchy, a society in which females, especially mothers were the power and the center to maintain humanity. Nonetheless, women have endured much oppression and discrimination and now they are enduring more subtle, invisible discrimination. Sexism has also existed in art where there should be no restrictions. Many women artists have been left behind without much attention in the male-oriented art world. Feminism in the art history has been classified and understood in different perspectives. Starting from Judy Chicago’s quite explicit and fierce inclination to humorous art works of Guerrilla Girls, there have been a lot of women artists who claimed strong feminism. Although art would be a story about one as well as all beyond any group of men and women, strong and weak, mainstream and non-mainstream, local and foreign, etc. Anyone can be the minority or the weak. Feminism art should be the voice of genuine concern for ourselves and the surroundings. The world that is seen through the eyes of female artists and the talk with the heartfelt and delicate aspects is the core of this exhibition.

The concept of defining artists as ‘geniuses’ such as some kind of secret power, insanity or inspiration in their creations is in fact not so old in the history of art. The demand or necessity of expressing spiritual things was also not essential expectation. Ancient artists were skilled in crafts. Many of arts at that time would be a part of business and it was natural for women such as mothers and daughters to become the members. Many paintings were drawn by women and religious paintings or manuscripts in the Medieval Period would also be made by a lot of people such as friars or nurses regardless of sex. The paintings of flowers created by female artists who had no access to nude figure drawing were evaluated to be soft, vulnerable and delicate but it was not that male artists did not paint flowers at all. Monet's colorful gardens and various flower illustrations are just one example. Besides, there was a time when the technique and contents of the flower painting itself was highly respected as the vanitas one.
A number of artworks in textile art as well as art quilting were created by females but it is not rare for those artworks to be exhibited with the caption “unknown”. It shows how natural aesthetics and artistic sense of women are, and how those great female artists are neglected in the male-oriented art world. Guerrilla Girls displayed their work, ‘THE ADVANTAGES OF BEING A WOMAN ARTIST: Working without the pressure of success’, on a huge billboard in New York and expressed sarcasm about a vain effort of female artists. They criticized the so-called “mainstream museum” for its exhibition with ‘3 white women, 1 woman of color and no men of color - out of 71 artists’ and they also pointed out that only one Tony award went to a woman for directing a play out of more than 100 Tonys. 
Times have changed, and so have many things. But, in the subtle discrimination that still exists, women artists of our time live silently expressing themselves in their own way. Examining how the biological nature of 'women' and how the subconscious feeling of pressure on the women's image, imposed by the society, is put together with the individual artists' emotions in the artwork, we should realize feminism art is not about feminism but about 'us' and the reality we face. As a woman myself, this exhibition is created to meet more artists who would share empathy for what other artists feel as an artist and ,after all, to present that feminism is not to divide men and women. It is meaningful to introduce various works of various artists who have the charm of making delicate self-expression and to share a common denominator of 'we' beyond myself and others.
The fact that was learned by meeting various female artists who work on their art on a daily basis as if consuming a meal was that their art has the advantage as the biological nature of women: the warmth and delicacy that men cannot express. Therefore, it contains the little sensibility captured more accurately and the accusations about the distorted aspects of our society.
Under the explicit title ‘Vagina’, the artist, Hye-ryung Moon, whose art shows the harmony of fine colors of her own parodies folk art with traditional patterns in erotic silhouette of a woman. The artist, Jenny Lee Robinson, wants to tell everyone that we are not 'strangers' to each other through her work of topography that expresses the anxiety about identity as an individual beyond a Korean and an American herself. ‘Gungseo’ means court handwriting and might sound old-fashioned but the artist, Hyuna Oh, fulfill her own literature with it showing the contemporary emotions and the identity of traditional art through it. Living in anxiety and fear for the world with capitalism, the artist, So-hyun Jung, depicts desire and the vanity of women that is demanded perfection in many different ways. The artists, Young-hee Han, touches an unsolved incident and the wound which became a painful history for everyone now even though the sleek lines of a ballpoint pen in her artwork appeals to one with instinctive feminism. Those artists all directly or indirectly express the emotions as a female artist along with the concerns of today’s world that people can share.

What the artists have in common is that while they deserve credit for their womanhood, they avoid dividing the boundaries between women and men, me and others, mainstream and minority, the strong and the weak, tradition and innovation, etc. Despite having a common point of 'women artists' and 'feminism', many parts of the genre and form of work are different from each other, so their artworks will bring out the sympathy of many viewers through the new, curious and comfortable feeling. In addition, Displays of things that became the background of the artwork such as photographs, idea sketches, and objects will allow one to understand more and better of each artist and make the space more interesting.

The exhibition, “A Chance Conversation with a Stranger”, is to let people know that feminist art is not about feminism but about ‘us’ and about listening to the voice of people around us. ‘Art’ should be about the issues we all come across, not the form that is far from our lives. ‘Feminism’ should be about the love of mankind, which is love after all, embracing everyone not dividing men and women.

Art Director Yoonkyung Kim