Exhibition Information

			Summer Breeze​

2GIL29 GALLERY will present “Summer Breeze” exhibition, which not only gives aesthetic pleasure but also daily rest to modern people who experience Corona Blue by selecting works that resemble a summer full of blue vitality in celebration of the verdant season from July 24 to August 10. Participating artists are Youngho Kwon, Sunhyung Kim, MY Q, Youngkyun Lim, Jaeeun Jeon, Sunho Choi, Qwaya, Yujin Huh, Jeehui Hong <in Korean Alphabetical order>. In particular, in this exhibition, you can enjoy major exhibition works of 2GIL29 GALLERY, which has been exploring Korean contemporary art in an all-round genre by looking at contemporary art from a synchronic view point. In addition, the current status of Korean contemporary art, which has grown to a major global art market in half a century, can be seen.
 
<Cosmos> and <Everest> by Sunho Choi, the master of ‘Korean ink landscape painting’ who has been exploring the purity and sentiment of Joseon's color all his life by melting Korean beauty into Western forms. Sunhyung Kim's <Garden Blue>, which is evaluated as incorporating the spirit of oriental painting into Western modern art, incorporated into a formative experiment with maximized light and shade expression. The first-generation photographer of the Korean Art Group and the only Asian artist to be selected before the Kodak Museum's ‘History of Photography’ in 20, Youngkyun Lim was portrayed as, “Art photography is the intention of the mind to approach reality beyond the illusion and he is one of the Korean leaders in such an attempt," by the legendary video artist Nam June Paik. Been a pioneer of Korean contemporary art, the first generation of artists’ works will be exhibited. You can also meet new ornament works and paintings by Jaeeun Jeon, who is familiar as a sewing painter. Moreover, <Unexpected> series by Youngho Kwon, who won the most prestigious ‘Fashion Journalist Award’ in the Korean fashion industry, and has worked in various visual media over the past two decades as a 'top photographer’ in Korea. Nanan, who will be holding the individual exhibition next springMy Q, who has been working as a singer-songwriter and all-round entertainer for the past 20 years, has been greatly loved for the light rhythm and dreamy colors of the visual melodies spread out as if weaving rhythm on the canvas. He is a rising artist intensively chosen by the MZ generation. You can also enjoy the works of Yujin Huh, an artist who is faithful to the fundamentals of painting and occupies an important point in the contemporary art world, and Jeehui Hong, who does not hesitate to tell her own story with her exploration of various physical properties and excellent senses. In addition, a unique world of unfinished free-spirited works, and the works of Qwaya, one of the most popular up-and-coming artists in the Korean art world, are combined to show the diversity of Korean contemporary art.

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In particular, the artists introduced in this exhibition are meaningful because they have been immersed in their own art world rather than pursuing art historical currents that dominated each era, exploring and pioneering their own unique aesthetics, and simply trying to overthrow the accumulated archives. Through this exhibition, which covers the work of major Korean contemporary artists, which cannot be named genre or folklore, we hope that it will be an opportunity to check the diversity and depth of contemporary art and think about the role and meaning of art to contemporaries through attractive topics. It also seems that COVID-19 has established itself as our daily life in 2021, but different unpredictable situations of hard and boring individuals still remain around us. I hope you forget about the time of the Pandemics for a while through "Summer Breeze", an exhibition that is like a field breeze brushing the tip of your nose during the summer.

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Artist Introduction (in Korean Alphabetical Order)

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Youngho Kwon(B.1968) graduated from Chung-Ang University, won the most prestigious ‘Fashion Journalist Award’ in the Korean fashion industry, and has worked in various visual media over the past two decades as a 'top photographer’ in Korea. He, who still has unique originality over the long period of his work, said, "Photography is not about taking pictures of subjects, but capturing inner movements through subjects," continuing to develop his own art world. Through his special relationship, ‘The moment of stay, the relationship gaze with me begins, and from then on, it becomes a frame in me,’ the excessive scenery reverses the obvious and gives us a shining moment. His photographs, which he wants to be remembered as a happy photographer, still offer beauty that fills familiarity with pleasant rawness.

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Sunhyung Kim(B.1963) was born in Seoul and graduated from Hongik University and the graduate school of Oriental Painting. The first individual exhibition began in 1988 and held 51 individual exhibitions at home and abroad, and participated in a number of group exhibitions. He is currently a professor of art education at Kyungin National University. His work “highlights the traditional beauty felt in Oriental ink-and-wash paintings and the encounter of Western contemporary art. He conducts a formative experiment to develop the spirit of ink painting through the framework of ink painting to maximize the changes made by the light and shade of ink painting and water.” (Professor Youngtaek Park of Kyunggi University) Therefore, his work fills the screen with the deep beauty of blue painting white porcelain. In particular, his work is intended to express the vitality and energy of nature as an organism in a blue and free style, which is not a concrete forest, but a conceptual embodiment of the existence that is represented by a forest. He did not draw it by looking at the forest, but by drawing an image of the forest that came to his mind. It is like a garden of writers' inner reasons, and the vitality and blue energy of nature are deeply harmonized.

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Nanan (B.1979) She was at the center of Young Culture in the early 21st century when Korean pop culture was born. Afterwards, she expanded her range of activities to show her talent in public media. She collaborated on big commercial projects with KBS, MTV, Shinsegae, Samsung, and Adidas and actively worked as an art director in Hong Kong, New York and London. It is because her works show her identity, the boundary between pure art and popular culture, melts deeply throughout the work and shows a new direction in itself. Her work closely communicates with the audience and is transformed at the interface, receiving public affection and leads to various brand collaborations. The key to understanding Nanan's artistic world is sharing, communication and communion. The series, which contains a warm anthropological gaze, has implications for the eternity of keeping the moments of gratitude and celebration approaching each individual's life in a flower that does not wither. As such, the art she sees exists as an active message to the viewer as a communication and is like a living being that gains new vitality in each life. Nanan hopes to restore the viewer's life and provide positive redirection through work. She continues to deliver therapeutic, delightful and comforting messages in the Pandemic era.

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MY Q (b.1981) My Q was born in Seoul, Korea. He is a multi-disciplinary artist, capable of songwriting, composing, arranging, mixing, cinematography, producing, and stage designing. The artist has done over 300 tours and live performances, released 8 albums, 4 EP albums and 54 single albums (184 songs) from 1997. He has been communicating with the public through music, and now he entered a new path of art creation with the exhibition at 2GIL29 GALLERY in 2021. As a musician who has been working on creating artistic inspiration for more than 20 years, he said, "Music and art fall into the same category of art", and truly devoted himself to painting that allowed him to face his inner side. He intensely built up his art world  through facing himself for more than 13 hours a day, and is indeed solid and attractive. He never went through a formal art course and his various attempts are so diversely colorful that it feels meaningless to place a limit. The artist builds up diverse texture by painting and splashing colors with palette knives, brushes, paper, and hands. He created the rhythm by pointing out note by note as a musician, now he spreads visual melodies on the canvas with unique patterns and symbols within the painting. His paintings with raw brush marks are closest to pure creation that suggests numbers of struggles and success he encountered as an artist. It is interesting that the artist’s paintings seem to throw questions to the viewers and the viewers take a journey in their lives to come up with the answers to the questions.

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Youngkyun Lim(b.1955), born in Daegu, after he studied Chung-Ang University's Department of Photography and the New York International Photography Center (I.C.P), he graduated from New York University's Graduate School of Arts. Starting with the Minister of Culture and Public Affairs Award in 1973, won the Top 10 Photographers Award and the State Department Fulbright Research Fund with the Smithsonian Association's Mary Forest. As a reporter for the New York branch, he published articles and photographs in domestic and foreign newspapers, the New York Times, and served as a professor of photography at New York University, and as a professor of photography at Chung-Ang University. His works are owned by the world's leading museums, including the Museum of Modern Art, the International Photography Center, the George Eastman Kodak Museum, the City Museum of Münster and Oldenburg in Germany, the National Museum of Modern Art in Gwacheon, and more. He also held dozens of individual and group exhibitions at representative museums and fairs, including the Smithsonian Museum (2013), Sema (2010), the British Museum (2007), the Cologne Art Fair (2005) and the MMCA (2002). Called the first generation photographer of the Korean Artist Group, the legendary video artist Nam June Paik said, “Art photography is the intention of the mind to approach reality beyond the illusion. He is one of the Korean leaders in such an attempt," adding that Lim’s work has oriental sentiments and orderly elegance. His gaze, which looks deeply into the ever-changing existence, is to observe the truth and sight of the moment in infinity, and to capture the spirit beyond its appearance. In 2019, before the ‘History of Photography’ held at the Kodak Museum, he was once again selected as one of the 30 major works of photographers in the 20th century.

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Jaeun Jeon (b.1972) She actively showed her work domestically and internationally through exhibitions in China, Japan, Germany, as well as leading exhibition spaces in Korea, including the Museum of Art and the Gwangju Biennale. She is still continuing her activity in various visual media through working on commercial work with Korea’s top fashion magazine, company, etc. She has also attended the 2017 and 2018 Craft Trend Fair, Shanghai Art Fair, Munich Germany International Handcraft Fair, various textile craft book publishing, magazine projects, and craft-related commercial work. Instead of canvas and brushes, which are familiar to painting majors, Jaeeun Jeon tells her story through needles and threads. Unlike canvas works that existed as finished objects, this gave fluidity to the work and widened the spectrum of individual interpretations. She works on fabric accessories and plans. Even after moving to semi-dimensional object work, she explores the beauty of the sculpture in the same way as the planar work. Considers the division and proportion of faces, creates minimal units in the form of modules, and proceeds through combination and deformation. Simultaneously, works on planes and stereoscopic objects, considering them "moving ornaments derived from fixed-wall objects''. She said "My sewing works are about building time and accumulating memories" and defined that it is a process of shaping through continuous and repetitive work of revealing and concealing the accumulated inner experience in her memory. In particular, she re-edits a space called a house containing personal memories and experiences, giving it a new spatiality, and showing the artist's imagination and inner reason.

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Sunho Choi (b.1957) was born in Cheongju, majored in Oriental painting at Seoul National University and Graduate School. He studied contemporary painting at the New York University’s Graduate School, which was the center of contemporary art in the 1980s, and gets a topic of conversation about Korean contemporary art that combines Eastern and Western aesthetics. Since then, he has studied Oriental philosophy at Sungkyunkwan University, studied SADI (Sadi Art Design Institute), and worked as a professor at the Korean Traditional Culture School, continuing his career as a scholar. The series of <Everest>, which began in the early 2000s after climbing Everest, is a Korean abstract painting that contains the essence of the oriental spirit completed with the pureness and affection of Joseon's colors on the Korean paper. Since then, he has continued his work as a master of timeless times, capturing the beauty of Korean tradition in Western form. His works are owned by the world's leading galleries, including New York 80 Washington Square East Gallery, Kumho Museum in Seoul, MMCA, Gallery Hyundai, Fukuoka Gallery M.A.P and more.

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Qwaya (b.1991) Born in Seoul. Qwaya (B.1991) studied Fashion design at Sangmyung University. Artist did not receive a formal academic education in painting but he is considered one of the most notable emerging artists in the Korean art scene, showing a unique world of work with unpolished free-spirited brushstrokes. In particular, the exhibition <Ordinary People> at 2GIL29 GALLERY received a great response from critics and the public. The artist focuses on ‘ordinary and every life that seems to be worthless because it is common and repetitive.’ He shows work that stimulates the viewer’s thoughts through characters with dreamy expressions and a driving force to trace back the lost time. Hence, his works are reminiscent of a phrase of Paul Klee about the spirit of art. Letting viewers get to the world of contemplation where it endlessly proliferates and it is recreated, and it also opens the perceptual world. And that turns an ordinary scene of daily life into an individual field of creation. That is a power that artist Qwaya has, and it might be the right direction that contemporary art should be heading towards. He continues his work bringing us to hope while holding up the time in the depth of night, while we might have lost valuable things

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Yujin Huh (b.1978) Majored western painting at Hongik University and graduate school. She worked based in Seoul, fostering younger students by lecturing at university and art school. More than 20 years, with oil painting that reminds of hyperrealism, her realistic portrayal technique solidified herself as a painter in Korean art world. With a bottle, the material of everyday life, she experienced light projection and colorful variation created by transparent property of matter and by delicately putting it on the canvas, she has shown a distinct aesthetic that no one can imitate. In the pandemic era, people focus more on their own time and get to face their unconscious inner desire. Contrasting with the longing for unfilled beauty and the illusion that soon disappears, she focuses on inherent reality rather than the appearance. Her future is truly noteworthy considering that she has formed a major point in Korean contemporary art through constant attempts in materials within the legitimacy of Korean painting while showing the peak of technical perfection in painting.

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Jeehui Hong (b.1986) Born in Seoul. The glass bottle, the artist’s main object for the past few years, is easily affected by the external environment but never loses its natural shine and transparency even if it is shattered. The material property of glass, which does not lose its core despite a fragile exterior, is the essence of the femininity that she sees. She is not afraid of the process of discovering new meanings in empty glass bottles. Rather than pursuing genre completeness, it is an expression of the will to capture the inner psychic landscape, and an effort to approach the essence of the story through active removal. The story she shows is not a disconnected record, but a window of communication that connects the artist and the viewer by acting as a reminding mechanism for the artist’s cherishable moments. As the audience resonates with the artist’s mind, one discovers their own story. In the exhibition <Le Visible Et L’Invisible> at 2GIL29 GALLERY, she showed works that go a step further from the femininity that she previously explored and find faithful answers to her inner question. The times that she constantly agonized over, as a human being on the journey of life, are the process of confirming her existence and the records of responding and communicating with the world and striving to leave her things behind. She says that art is the process of making everyday things into work. An unspoken communication and another form of language that shares thoughts and emotions rose in daily life. Hong continues her work based in Seoul.

(source=2gil29 gallery)