[Exhibition of the Week] Ghana Art 40th Anniversary Exhibition · 'Ui·Pyo·Ye, Crafts for Wearing and Decorating' Special Exhibition and More

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heeyoon] ▲ Kim Minsu and Moon Kyuhwa Two-Person Exhibition 'Heart of the Eyes' = Gallery SP is hosting a two-person exhibition 'Heart of the Eyes' featuring artists Kim Minsu and Moon Kyuhwa until March 18.

Munkyu Hwa_파 꽃 Green onion flower_2021_Acrylic on linen_145.5x112.1cm. [Photo by Gallery ESP]

Both artists share the commonality of painting what they have personally seen and experienced. The subjects their gaze turns to are the environments that make up their daily lives, various objects, animals and plants, or scenes within them. The artists do not overlook the things they see every day but continuously observe them, and only when they encounter a state or moment they wish to depict does that slice of everyday life appear on their canvas.

The artists' drawing begins with noticing small changes in daily life on a large scale. Moon Kyuhwa’s exhibited works 'Green Onion Flower' (2021) and 'Garden' (2021) started from the artist encountering green onions growing in a neighbor’s garden pot. Passing by the path where the pot is visible every day, the artist discovered that the appearance of the green onions changed from time to time. One day, several stalks were cut, revealing the cross-section, and in the season, flowers bloomed at the stalk tips. The artist never misses these subtle changes shown by something always there and brings them into her paintings.

Minsu Kim, Spring Night (Taean), 2022, Acrylic, oil on canvas, 97x130.3cm
[Photo by Gallery ESP]

Most of Kim Minsu’s exhibited works, such as the 'Seokmodo Series' (2022) and 'Spring Night (Taean)' (2022), are paintings created while looking at places where the artist’s peaceful life flows: nearby walking trails, villages where close relatives live, and coastal areas where the artist stayed for a while to ventilate. Grass and branches growing by the roadside, birds walking along streams, the sea, rice paddies, and fields. The everyday places that always remain take on new faces every day depending on temperature, wind strength, cloud cover, rain weight, or the artist’s emotions and moods that day, and the artist sees, hears, smells, and paints them. Viewers can feel the artists’ comfort, intimacy, and stability toward familiar subjects that guard their days, while also discovering the artists’ keen sensitivity to noticing subtle newness in their paintings. The exhibition runs until March 18 at Gallery SP, Hoenamu-ro, Yongsan-gu, Seoul.

'Clothing, Appearance, Art: Crafts for Wearing and Adorning' Planned Exhibition View. [Photo by Seoul Craft Museum]

▲ '衣·表·藝, Craft for Wearing and Adorning' Special Exhibition = The Seoul Museum of Craft Art is holding a special exhibition titled '衣·表·藝, Craft for Wearing and Adorning' featuring 35 works and archives by Korea’s first-generation fashion designers Choi Kyungja, Nora No, and Andre Kim until April 2.

The exhibition was planned to provide an opportunity to showcase Andre Kim’s and Choi Kyungja’s works from the collection transferred from the Seoul Museum of History to the Seoul Museum of Craft Art and to explore the craft elements embedded in fashion. The exhibition is organized into four parts, curated by curator Lee Seunghae. The four parts are: Part 1: Wear, Part 2: Reveal, Part 3: Express, and Part 4: Archive Lab. A distinctive feature is the 'Art Wall' space arranged between Parts 3 and 4, creating a fashion showroom atmosphere.

Part 1: Wear introduces clothing as a means of protecting the body, revealing one’s status and position, and further adorning oneself beautifully and expressing individuality through video content, linked to human desire stages. Part 2: Reveal introduces the social role of clothing in revealing status and position, exhibiting modern formal wear from the Korean Empire period, Western-style formal wear, and wedding attire worn at various events. Part 3: Express explains how various 'handcraft techniques' inspired and were reflected in the works of Korea’s first-generation fashion designers Choi Kyungja, Nora No, and Andre Kim. The Archive Lab presents archival materials of each of the three designers alongside works created by prospective designers from SUNY Korea FIT (Fashion Institute of Technology) who utilized craft elements found in the first-generation designers’ works.

'Clothing, Appearance, Art: Crafts for Wearing and Adorning' Planned Exhibition View.
Photo by Kim Heeyoon

The synergy created by exhibiting works of Korea’s first-generation fashion designers Choi Kyungja, Nora No, and Andre Kim alongside craft works by contemporary artists Moon Bori, Kim Gyeok, and Jo Yeryeong is also noteworthy. Behind a pleated skirt work, Moon Bori’s textile relief work 'Connecting the Relations of Time,' made by applying the method of creating pleats in clothing, is exhibited, visually embodying the intersection of fashion and craft. The exhibition runs until April 2 at the Seoul Museum of Craft Art, Anguk-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul.

1983-2023 Ghana Gallery-Gana Art: Exhibition commemorating the 40th anniversary of the opening. [Photo courtesy of Gana Art Center]

▲ 1983-2023 Gana Gallery-Gana Art: 40th Anniversary Exhibition = Gana Art is celebrating its 40th anniversary with the exhibition '1983-2023 Gana Gallery-Gana Art' held until March 19 at the entire Gana Art Center in Pyeongchang-dong. The exhibition looks back on the 40 years since Gana Gallery started in Insadong in 1983 and grew into today’s Gana Art, aiming to envision the future based on the accumulated achievements.

Regarding this exhibition, Gana Art stated, "We have engaged in almost every area a company can through art as a medium and have boldly challenged by pioneering new areas that did not exist before. The exhibition is organized with the intention of reflecting on that time and properly reassessing Gana Art’s present."

The first exhibition hall is arranged as an archive revealing records of over 720 exhibitions and projects held by Gana Art from 1983 to 2023. It includes timelines, photographic materials, posters and catalogs from major exhibitions such as the 'Gana Art Center Relocation Opening Exhibition,' and art magazines published by Gana Art.

The second and third exhibition halls showcase a carefully selected total of over 60 works from the collections Gana Art has accumulated. While the core of a gallery is connecting buying and selling artworks, Gana Art has focused diligently on 'collecting' as much as a museum. The young founder and chairman Lee Hojae, who opened the gallery and went to Europe for new experiences, met Ernst Beyeler (1921?2010), founder of Art Basel, and adopted his management model of buying two works by an artist, selling one, and keeping one for himself. The time spent adhering to this principle is the foundation of today’s Gana Art collection.

1983-2023 Ghana Gallery-Gana Art: Exhibition commemorating the 40th anniversary of the opening. [Photo courtesy of Gana Art Center]

Especially, the Gana Korean Modern Art Collection introduced in the second exhibition hall consists of works by important figures in Korean art history such as Gu Bonwoong, Kim Whanki, Na Hyesok, Park Sugeun, Lee Jungseop, Lee Inseong, Jung Kyu, and Ham Daejeong. From its opening, Gana Art has devoted efforts to re-examining Korean modern art, hosting various planned exhibitions including posthumous exhibitions of deceased masters and retrospectives of veteran artists, and contributing to establishing Korean modern and contemporary art history through steady art collection. The Korean modern art collection, the result of these efforts, has become the root of Gana Art’s strength in discovering and nurturing domestic artists and introducing them to the world.

The third exhibition hall contains the Gana European Art Collection and stories accumulated as Gana Art kept pace with global art trends. Since the early 1980s, Gana Art has expanded into overseas art scenes starting from Europe, collaborating with artists based on diverse regions and cultures. Through this, it introduced global contemporary art to Korea and contributed to expanding opportunities for the public to enjoy high-quality art. The Gana European Art Collection shows the first steps of Gana’s 40-year journey, featuring works by artists who remain central in the art world such as large-scale paintings by Anselm Kiefer and human sculptures by Antony Gormley, as well as works by artists who held solo exhibitions at Gana Art. The exhibition runs until March 19 at Gana Art Center, Pyeongchang-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.