[Exhibition of the Week] Ayako Rokkaku: Dreaming Hands · Kim Seonjeong Solo Exhibition 'Bidan Kkoti Pieonne' and More

Editor's NoteThis week's exhibitions summarize and introduce a variety of attractive exhibitions that can be seen nationwide over the course of one week.

▲ Ayako Rokkaku Special Exhibition 'Dreaming Hands' = Exhibition planning company CCOC is holding a special exhibition titled 'Ayako Rokkaku, Dreaming Hands' at the Hangaram Art Museum, Seoul Arts Center. This exhibition is the largest solo exhibition in Korea, showcasing about 130 original works collected by the De Laive family from the Netherlands, including Ayako Rokkaku's early original paintings and large-scale objects, all displayed in one place.

Ayako Rokkaku 'Untitled', 2020, 130 x 130 cm. [Photo by CCoc]

Ayako Rokkaku is an artist from Chiba Prefecture, Japan, well known for her unique 'finger painting' technique, where she paints spontaneously with acrylic paint on bare hands without sketches. Having received no formal art education, she is said to have started painting at the age of twenty to find a means of expression beyond words. She has been active in various parts of the world including Tokyo, Berlin, Porto, and Amsterdam, and is an artist attracting attention from MZ generation collectors. In 2022, she set her personal highest auction price at 1.6 billion KRW at the 52nd Japan SBI Auction. She began gaining attention after participating in the Geisai Art Fair hosted by Takashi Murakami's Kaikai Kiki in 2006 and is recognized as a next-generation Japanese artist following Yoshitomo Nara and Yayoi Kusama.

This exhibition features about 130 works including early pieces and large objects collected by the De Laive family since 2006. It includes early works painted on cardboard in Tokyo parks, three large-scale abstract works over 3 meters tall created after moving her studio to Amsterdam, Netherlands, and a 1.6-meter-tall large object titled 'Sculpture with two ghost rabbits' (2011). The work 'Untitled' (2020), painted on a 2-meter circular canvas, depicts a girl lying in a spring flower field and is filled with colors that evoke a warm spring. These works are rare pieces not easily seen in the art market, drawing significant interest.

Ayako Rokkaku immersed in work at the studio. ⓒarticks [Photo by CCOC]

The exhibition is organized into six sections with about 130 works. Upon entering the exhibition hall, a sand art animation telling the story of Ayako Rokkaku's journey from Japan to the Netherlands is first screened. Then, the meeting process between the self-taught artist and art director Nico De Laive unfolds on a photo wall. After the intro section, the first section 'Barefoot Little Girl' presents early works painted in Tokyo parks when the artist began painting. The second section 'Dreaming Fingers' showcases the artist's representative works. These include pieces made from various everyday materials such as canvas, cardboard, T-shirts, vinyl, and plates, ranging in size from 26 cm to large works up to 1.6 meters. The third section 'To a Wider World' introduces original paintings created after the artist left Tokyo and started a new life in Amsterdam, the city of Van Gogh and Rembrandt, where she passionately worked on art. Three large original paintings over 3 meters tall, favored by the petite artist, are displayed, and the Amsterdam studio is recreated as a photo zone to enhance the exhibition experience.

Ayako Rokkaku is an artist known for bright and warm colors and a cute drawing style. She adds a special touch to her works by creating everything with her "fingers." ⓒk?nig galerie

The following section 'My Friends' is composed of the 'About Us' works. 'About Us' is the title of an animation created in collaboration with the Tokyo music label 'Contrarede.' The work tells the story of a girl connecting past and future times, featuring an autobiographical character of the artist. An 18-minute video is screened in the media room. Opening a door identical to the one at Gallery De Laive in Amsterdam leads to the 'De Laive Family' section. Here, a photo wall suggests the long-standing friendship between the De Laive family and Ayako Rokkaku, and portraits painted by the artist depicting the family with a familiar feeling can be seen. The sixth section 'Beginning of Spring' presents recent works created between 2021 and 2022 to the audience. The exhibition runs until March 24 next year at Hangaram Art Museum, Seoul Arts Center, Seocho-gu, Seoul.

Bidan Flower Exhibition Poster.
Photo by Gallery Dos

▲ Kim Seonjeong Solo Exhibition 'Silk Flowers Have Bloomed' = Gallery Dos is hosting a solo exhibition titled 'Silk Flowers Have Bloomed' by artist Kim Seonjeong. The artist's work frequently features entities that metaphorically represent the finiteness of life, such as human and flower forms. Through these entities, viewers experience temporality and simultaneously gaze upon condensed time and new worlds. Encountering the subjects in the artist's works evokes a quiet resonance, making one aware of their existence and allowing them to experience the illusory world of time, which was previously invisible.

The 'Myth' series presented in this exhibition expresses parts of the human body, such as arms and legs stretched long between flower petals as if releasing the energy contained within blooming flowers, creating a dynamic and fantastic atmosphere reminiscent of the elegant and lively movements of ballet dancers. The subjects in the works express emotions condensed within, finally blooming flower buds and radiating the released energy beyond the canvas. Viewers begin to breathe along, and the still images gradually reveal dynamic movement, intensifying the power of movement and emotional sensation.

Shinhwa_2023-4 50x43.5cm Ink on silk 2023 [Photo courtesy of Gallery Dos]

In the 'She' series, the artist was deeply inspired by Shin Yunbok's 'Portrait of a Beauty' from the late Joseon Dynasty, starting a work that combines traditional elements with a modern sensibility to present delightful Oriental paintings. Through a continuous exploration and inquiry into life and humanity over time, the artist conveys a calm yet powerful message about the strength of intuitive beauty transcending time and space by immersing in the lives of subjects through the intersection of past and present. The 'Persona' series offers a way of reflecting on human identity beyond the individual, focusing on relationships and attitudes between people.

Expressing the multilayered relationships and attitudes of humans, the artist uses the delicate and thin materiality of silk to implement transparent multiple layers on a single canvas. The understated depiction of figures is natural, comfortable, and purified, calmly expressing emotions, and somehow conveys a resolute will toward life. The carefully blended and layered color expressions traverse different dimensions of time through subtle changes, prompting reflection on each life.

The artist says, "I accumulate memories of time through painting," creating solid images of life on the canvas by remembering and sensing past time. In this exhibition, he implements a time of looking at himself living in harmony with flowing time from a step back, seeking answers about life. The exhibition runs until the 12th at Gallery Dos, Samcheong-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul.

Potting, 2023_Photo (c) Jinsol Kim. [Photo by Exhibition Space Reflat]

▲ Kim Euljiro Solo Exhibition 'Transplanting' = Exhibition space Reflat is holding a solo exhibition titled 'Transplanting' by Kim Euljiro. The artist, who has presented various 3D graphic works based on an interest in plants, focuses on the similarities in the way indoor plants and 3D graphics are consumed, showcasing digital plant videos and derived photographic works in this exhibition.

The representative work of this exhibition, the video 'Potting,' features four types of digital plants. Through this, the artist questions whether it is natural that graphics shared through media always appear sleek and 'perfect,' just like indoor plants whose genetic traits have been edited to look visually appealing, while also prompting reconsideration of the nature of 3D graphics. Furthermore, the video 'Soilmixing,' which captures glitches?usually removed during the 3D graphic creation process?raises this question once again clearly.

Soil mixing, 2023_Photo (c) Jinsol Kim. [Photo by Exhibition Space Repleat]

Additionally, through the photo series 'Harvesting Perspective' derived from the 'Potting' video and the 'Sequence' work, which prints the video's sequence as continuous images, viewers can also gauge the artist's working method and process. This exhibition is the artist's first offline solo exhibition, offering an opportunity to imagine the untold stories behind subjects previously obscured by our visual desires.

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