Exhibition Information

Installation view of "Shin Min Joo : 活 氣 vigor" at PKM. Courtesy of PKM Gallery.

Shin Min Joo. Uncertain Emptiness 2065
2020 Courtesy of the artist & PKM Gallery Acrylic on canvas 130 x 97 cm

Shin Min Joo. Uncertain Emptiness 20-6
2020 Courtesy of the artist & PKM Gallery Acrylic on canvas 130 x 97 cm

Shin Min Joo. Uncertain Emptiness 20-71
2020 Courtesy of the artist & PKM Gallery Acrylic on canvas 73 x 53 cm

			PKM Gallery is pleased to present vigor, a solo exhibition by Shin Min Joo who has been exploring the essence of painting through brushwork, a fundamental practice in her work. The exhibition, taking place in three years after her previous solo show Instinct of Abstraction in 2018, features Shin’s recent works of dynamic colors and vibrant energy from her Uncertain Emptiness series.

Shin Min Joo accumulates feelings, thoughts or countless images which she sensed and experienced from life within her mind and then depicts them on canvases as abstract forms. Through her repetitive use of bold brushstrokes and technique of pushing the squeegee through layers of paint, Shin instinctively overlaps ‘drawing’ and ‘wiping,’ capturing powerful and highly densified energy within the canvas surface. Furthermore, her paintings are characterized by the distinctive combination of acrylic paints and the traces of squeegee revealing different layers of colors which show her instinctive desire to break free from the contradicting feelings and head towards a different direction.

“After few initial brushstrokes, the painting starts to lead the way… it tells me when to stop. That I can stop now.” As can be noted from her quote, Shin Min Joo’s artistic practice begins with the absence of self and is followed by filling the screen according to the guidance of the painting itself. In other words, the protagonist in this process of creation is the painting itself, not the artist. The artist is whom the artwork has summoned to materialize itself, and the artwork occurs as a fundamental form of painting. With the artist as its conductor, the painting itself becomes a unique and distinctive entity filled with vitality.

The exhibition spans Shin Min Joo’s previous paintings that are dark and weighty and her recent ones that show strength and energy through their vibrant and refined colors. In all, vigor offers a comprehensive overview of Shin’s extending artistic practice and allows an opportunity to resonate with her works.

Shin Min Joo earned a BFA and MFA in Painting at Hongik University and has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions at renowned museums and galleries in Korea including Ilmin Museum of Art (Seoul, Korea), Kumho Museum of Art (Seoul, Korea), Hanwon Museum of Art (Seoul, Korea), Kwanhoon Gallery (Seoul, Korea) and Gallery Lux (Seoul, Korea).