« Neon Plants, Night Lights and Travel to the Galaxy » opening reception

Oriental VisArt proudly presented our current exhibition, « Neon Plants, Night Lights and Travel to the Galaxy », on 24 May 2011 at Nest Gallery in Geneva, Switzerland. This is the first solo exhibition of Korean Artist Hyungji Park in Switzerland.

Hyungji Park was in attendance for this vernissage. Guests were treated to her works on a beautiful, summery Geneva evening. All the guests had the opportunity to speak with Park, asking all sorts of questions and getting to know this talented Artist personally. « Neon Plants, Night Lights and Travel to the Galaxy » continues until Sun 5 June 2011. Thank you to all who came to the vernissage, and if you haven’t had the opportunity to stop by already, we look forward to seeing you soon!

Please enjoy some images from the vernissage.

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Artist Hyungji Park and organiser Kayla Hye K. Yang

Korean Artist Hyungji Park

Hyungji Park was born in Seoul, Korea in 1977. In 2001, she earned her B.F.A. in Fine Art from Hongik University in Seoul, Korea. In 2006 she earned an M.F.A. in Fine Art from Korean National University of Arts in Seoul, Korea. Park also studied Fine Art at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London, UK, where she is currently living and working today. She specialises in Painting.

Hyungji Park’s first solo exhibition in Switzerland, Neon Plants, Night Lights and
Travel to the Galaxy, begins 23 May 2011 in Geneva, Switzerland. Her other exhibitions include:

Solo Exhibition
2010	Fake Tales From Somewhere	Harrington Mill Studios, Nottingham, UK,
	Strange Scenery	Nordisk Kunst Plattform Project Space, Brusand, Norway
Group Exhibitions
2010	Guasch Coranty International Panting Prize 2010	The Center of Art Tecla Sala, Barcelona, Spain
	4482[Sasapari] Korean contemporary Artists in London	Bargehouse, London, UK
2009	Raymond Gun: Platfrom	DegreeArt.com Gallery, London, UK
	Time, Time, Time	Terrace Studios, London, UK
	Drawn In	Sidcot Arts Centre, North Somerset, UK
	Flash Company	Cecil Sharp House, London, UK
	Private Practice 2	DegreeArt.com Gallery, London, UK
2008	The Tomorrow People: Artists of the Future Now 2008	Elevator Gallery, London, UK
	Private Practice 1	Chinese Characters Contemporary Art Space, Budapest, Hungary
	4482	Bargehouse, London, UK
2006	Like Something (Duo Show)	175 Gallery, Seoul, Korea

She says,

“My practice brings visual references and sources from everyday surroundings, pop culture and digital images from contemporary media. The references and sources are displaced into the painting language in my practice. I approach not only painting as a visual medium but also painting as a physical medium. I am searching for ways of creating a new and playful dialogue between the material conventions of painting and the abundance of imagery I find around me.

<Neon Plants, Night Lights and Travel to the Galaxy> includes my previous series Strange Scenery and recent works. Strange Scenery creates fictitious scenes and landscapes by combining visual sources from snapshots, images from the internet, magazines, advertisement and daily remnants. They are extracted, dissected and mixed with other images, resulting in strange new scenes and landscapes. On the other hand, in more recent work, I have an interest in everyday imagery in urban life and have more focus on exploring ways of interpreting in paint, the visual grammars and atmospheres found in display windows, illuminations, objects and designs.

In both Strange Scenery and the recent work, the source images are interpreted or reinterpreted through a particular handling of the paint. They are often further transformed into abstractions that deal with on the term of the material through the process of painting. I translate the visual elements of the sources into the matter of paint and painting language, allowing the paint to reclaim these images through colors, loose brush strokes, dripping and layers of paints. The original visual information from the sources are transformed, omitted, and deformed through being interpreted into paint. They are no longer placed in their original contexts rather they are reframed as something unfamiliar, functioning only within the structure of painting.”

Please enjoy some of her work images!

Bubble Castle, Acrylic on linen, 95x130cm, 2011

Neon Plants, Acrylic on linen, 130x145cm, 2011

Boramae Park, Acrylic on linen, 130x145cm, 2011

What happened is unknown, but ... is crystal clear 1, oil on canvas, 77x102cm, 2010

What happened is unknown, but ... is crystal clear 4, oil on linen, 77x102cm, 2010

Korean Artist Changyoung Kim

Changyoung Kim was born in 1974 in Seoul, Korea. He has earned her B.F.A. ChuGyue University for the Arts in Painting in Seoul, Korea; as well as his M.F.A. from the Partt Institute in Painting in Brooklyn, New York, United States. She currently lives and works in New York City, USA, where she specialises in Painting. Heis exhibitions include:

Solo Exhibitions

2008

Into the Illusion- Dumbo Art Festival, Front Street Gallery #265, Brooklyn, NY, USA

2007

Thesis Show, Pratt Institute South Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, USA

Three People Exhibitions

2008

Dream, Riverside Gallery, Hachensack, New Jersey, USA

Illusion of Shadows, World Culture Open Center, New York City, NY, USA

Group Exhibitions

2008

Election2008: The Square Foot Show, Art Gotham, New York City, NY, USA

Barack Obama Art Show: Hope, Rogue Space, New York City, NY, USA

Hope is Nowhere, Hope is Now Here, World Culture Open Center, New York City, NY, USA

99 Art Fair, HPGRP Gallery, New York City, NY, USA

Ten Artists, Gallery Xpose’, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, USA

He says,

“Contrast between light and shadow is the basic subject matters of my paintings. In my paintings, light substitutes for the actual world, and shadow means the spiritual world.

I concentrate on painting the shadows of my hand because that shape is familiar to everyone. Moreover, people have a preconception about the shape of a hand. In showing the various images of the shadows of my hand, which are changed by light condition, I tell audiences that our environment provides diverse situations that are different from their normal lives. Even though the shapes painted on my canvas look like abstract expressions, they are actual forms that people can find in their lives if they are interested in the shapes of shadows. This expression is the way I show my intention to the audience.

When I process my paintings, I spend a lot of time working on the surfaces of the canvases before I put colour on them. I apply the gesso on canvases repeatedly and sand the surfaces. I repeat this processing until the surfaces can sensitively show the colour that I will paint on them. After I finish the surface, I paint layers of tin oil colours on it, because the tin oil colour, which is made to be mixed with turpentine, helps keep the surface smooth and clean. In this way I can express the layers in my paintings without texture. Usually my paintings overlap between fifteen and twenty layers of hand shapes and a background colour.”

Please enjoy some of Changyoung Kim’s work images!

"Illusion Blue #3", oil on canvas, 36 x 48 in, 2009

"Illusion Violet #4", oil on canvas, 72 x 48 in, 2009

"Phenomenon #7", oil on canvas, 48 x 60 in, 2007

"Illusion Blue #6", oil on canvas, 48 x 72 in, 2009

Chinese Artist Chen Hongzhu

Chen Hongzhu was born in Chongqing, China in 1982. She is currently living and working in Beijing, China where she specialises in painting. In 2006, she earned a B.A. in Oil Painting from Sichuan Fine Arts Academy in Sichuan, China. Chen’s works have been shown at exhibitions throughout Asia, including:

Group Exhibitions

2010

Animamix, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China

2009

Beijing 798 Biennial, Beijing, China

Chinese International Art Fair, Beijing, China

Singapore Art Fair, Linda Gallery, Singapore

2008

Surfing Animamix, Linda Gallery, Shanghai

Chen Hongzhu says the philosophy behind her works is “to stir and upset all the hypocritical and artificial behaviour.”

Please enjoy her work images!

"Not in Control", oil on canvas, 200 x 120 cm, 2010

"Oh, to Fly!", oil on canvas, 150 x 110 cm, 2009

"What`s Memory No.2", oil on canvas, 150 x 110 cm, 2010

"Secret Alliance", oil on canvas, 180 x 130 cm, 2009

 

Korean Artist Hye Young Kim

Oriental VisArt is pleased to welcome its newest member, Hye Young Kim. Born in Seoul, Korea, in 1980, she is currently living and working in Berlin, Germany. In 2002 she earned her B.F.A in Fine Art at Korean National University of Arts in Seoul, Korea, and in 2006, earned her M.A in Fine Art at Korean National University of Arts in Seoul, Korea. She is currently working in two different programs: Hye Young studies History and culture of science and technology (M.A) Technische Universitaet Berlin, Germany, as well as studying Painting in the class of Prof. Held, as a guest student Berlin University of the Arts (Udk), Germany.

Hye Young Kim is the recipient of a few awards, including:

2007 Supporting Exhibition / Seoul-Paris Envoys / KCAF

2006 Supporting Exhibition / Fund Foundation of Korean National University of the Arts

Supporting Exhibition Program / Alternative Space HUE (KCAF)

Messena Program- Young Artist / Prime Motor Lexus Seoul

Her works have been shown at:

Solo Exhibition

2006     Dreamer Space Haam, Seoul, Korea

Timid Joke Alternative Space HUE, Seoul, Korea

Group Exhibitions

2008   Double Take Beaux-arts de Paris, Paris ,France

2007   Double Take KNUA Gallery, Seoul, Korea

Drawing to Drawing SOMA Museum, Seoul, Korea

One two Punch YeeMock Gallery, Seoul, Korea

Drawing open- end KNUA Gallery, Seoul, Korea

Two Person Show 175 GalleryElevator Gallery, Seoul, Korea

She says,

“For me it is important how I concentrate on things and mood, and how I treat the juxtaposition between concrete terms and spontaneous feeling.
In a way, my painting is very prompt and extrasensory. Specifically this way of painting is completed by focusing on the moment I catch and by expanding the detailed parts into larger corpus rather than by simply investing in deductive schemes. This method brings out an unexpected outcome into the picture.”

Please enjoy Hye Young Kim’s work images!

"Airfield ( Helsingki )", acrylic on canvas, 200 x 120 cm, 2010

"Kreuzberg", oil on canvas, 80 x 64 cm, 2009

"Hochzeit (a wedding)", acrylic on canvas, 200 x 120 cm, 2009

"Airfield (Berlin-Tempelhof)", acrylic on canvas, 180 x 140 cm, 2010

Chinese Artist Liu Ya Ri

Liu Ya Ri was born in 1975 in Shan Xi, China. He is currently living and working in Beijing, China. In 2000, Liu earned a degree from Beijing Institute of Education in the Department of Fine Arts. In 2008, he earned another degree from China Central Academy of Fine Arts, The Fourth Class Criticism. He specialises in painting and mixed media. His works have been shown in group exhibitions throughout China, including:

Group Exhibitions
2009	Special Touch	Zhong De Securities, Beijing, China
	“Reading from the Finished Products” Installation	Sunshine Art Base, Beijing 798, China
	Die Verwandlung	Shang Bao Art Museum, Beijing, China
	Spiritual Ceremony	Shang Bao Art Museum, Beijing, China
	100 Art Dreams	Original Art Expo Center, Beijing, China
	Highland of Spirit	Proud Gellary, Beijing, China
	The Tone	Original Art Expo Center, Beijing, China
	Rhetoric and Review	Original Art Expo Center, Beijing, China
2008	New Year, New Look	Yang Gallery, Beijing, China
	Plastic Arts Exhibition	National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China
	I Love Songzhuang	Around the Island Art Museum, Beijing, China
	Living in Songzhuang	Songzhuang Art Museum, Beijing, China
	Poly Autumn Auction	Guangzhou, China
	The 4th Songzhuang Art Festival	Beijing, China
	“To the Oak” the opening exhibition of contemporary drawing	Beijing, China
	Works of Creative Activity “Landform”	Songzhuang, Beijing, China
2007	Hypertext work “Concealment”	Songzhuang, Beijing, China
	Post Songzhuang Art Exhibition	Ou Art Space, Beijing, China
	Group Exhibitions	Tomorrow Art Museum, Shanghai, China

He says,

“The nature of abstract Art is pure format, which takes means as the purpose. Here means refer to the form of contents.

In the entire history of Western contemporary Art, what have been presented are the various skills and technologies applied in means, and the notion that means could serve the contents on a traditional sense. In the category of contemporary Art, the things reversed are notions, contents and thoughts all work for means. Means are notions, thoughts, contents and format as well in the context. In my opinion, art is not only the absolute pursuit of format, but also the pure pursuit of format, which can be interpreted as methods and purpose.

Once the Artist has mastered the methods he pursed, his works will be endowed with life. The works I have created will neither seek the contents with intensive attention, nor consider those beyond the format. In my eyes, abstract painting should not be limited to fixed format, because anything that keeps constant and unchanged will be destroyed and die out.”

Please enjoy images of his works!

"Match Gun", 20 x 30 cm, 2009

"Match Gun", match, iron wire and bicycle chain

"Emptiness", oil on canvas, 120 x 80 cm, 2008

"A Chain Gun - 1", print, 35 x 30 cm

Indian Artist Upadhyay Chintan

Upadhyay Chintan was born in Partapur, Rajasthan, India in 1972 and is currently living and working in Mumbai, India. He received a B.F.A. in Painting from Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S.U Baroda in Gujarat, India in 1995. In 1997, he received his M.F.A. in Painting from the same university. In 2000-01, he received Gadi schloarship, NLKA, New Delhi, India, and in 2004 was awarded Charles Wallace Foundation Award for a residency in Bristol, UK. His work has been shown in numerous group and solo exhibitions throughout India, as well as over the world:

Solo Exhibitions

2008

Metastasis Of Signs, Gallery Espace, New Delhi, India

2007

Tentuaa Dabaa Do (Kill Her), Jawahar Kala Kendra, Jaipur, India

2006

I Want to Be an International Artist, Seoul Art Center, Korea

Mutants, Sarjan Art Gallery, Gujarat, India

Baar Baar, Har Baar, Kitni Baar?, Sarjan Art Gallery, Gujarat, India

Clone Vithalla, Ashish Balram Nagpal Gallery, Mumbai, India

2005

Maya, Ashish Balram Nagpal Gallery, Mumbai, India

2004

Conker’s Installation Project, Spike Island, Bristol, UK

Designer Babies, Ashish Balram Nagpal Gallery, Mumbai, India

Group Exhibitions

2007

Have You Eaten Yet?, Asian Art Biennial, Taiwan, Japan

Beijing Art Fair, Art Fair, Beijing, China

Here & Now: Contemporary voices from India, Grosvenor Gallery, London, UK

2006

Satyagraha A group exhinbition by South African and Indian Artists, Travanore Art Gallery, New Delhi, India and Kizo Art Gallery, Durban, South Africa

“Pink Shop” Part of Hybrid Trends, Seoul Art Center, Seoul, Korea

Bombay Maximum City, Lille 3000, Lille, Frace

‘I am a slut’ a collaborative Video and performance with Amit Kekre, Gallery Beyond, Mumbai, India

KAAM, Arts India Gallery, New York, USA

KAAM, ArtsIndia West, St. Palo Alto, California

Annual show, Sakshi Art Gallery, Mumbai, India

2005

India/Australia cultural and regional exchange, KikArts Gallery, COCA. Perth, Australia

Sanjeev Khandekar has this to say about Chintan:

Our new world of transgenic realities and virtual possibilities has made it possible to have a new order for the world. This new order is precisely the contestation that Chintan wants to put forward through his works. Hyper-reality is the new order of the real, or ‘ireal’ is the new real, is the polemic that he offers through his more recent works.

For Chintan, the sculptures and his paintings serve as units of cultural information, symbols of political memes, kind of cyber game objects, substance-less, disinvested of material, inertia opening up the possibilities of new realms of reality.

All of his works strike a strange angle, as a built in architecture, or as if default system, what hits your eyes every time is the infantile visage, with the globus fat head and the conspicuous genitals of the body, making a weird and wonderful relationship between head and genitals apparent. Once we understand the limits of viewer’s gaze, the ideolological and fantasmatic coordinates of his works in the matrix of the late capitalist, consumerist contemporary society get denoted, and find their location.

Smart Alec is his new real, a copy of the copy, without an original, It stands for a symbol of New Man. Smart Alec is predicament and a dilemma, his desire and death. Smart Alec is new myth that Chintan is building, predicative of outmoded utopia of renewal of perception.

(This is an extract of an essay written by Sanjeev Khandekar, on Chintan Upadhyay’s recent works for private circulation. Sanjeev Khandekar is a visual artist, poet and writer. He lives and works in Mumbai.)

Metastasis Of Signs

Writer and independent curator, Johny ML, weighed in on Chintan’s works as well:

Once detached from the zones of production, signs gain independence from the ideology of their producers and start accumulating values that operate between the logics of the intentional and the experiential. Any society that consumes the signs while replicating the intentional ideology of the producers, also replicates the values created out of the consuming experience and these values proliferate in the social body as the cancerous cells ‘spill over’ from the zone of origin to other parts, conveniently passed through the unsuspecting mediums. This metastasis, a term Chintan Upadhyay adopts from the discourse of human pathology, effectively transcends from the realm of pathology to the realm of culture. Signs could be as polemical as the cancerous cells, not to mention the process of metastasis which could be even worse…

Please enjoy some images of his works!

“Chintu”, Oil & Acrylic on canvas, 24 x 24 in, 2010

 

“Memory”, oil & acrylic on canvas, 36 x 36 in

 

“Moon Child”, Oil & Acrylic on canvas, 24 x 24 in, 2010

 

“Take Me Home”, oil & acrylic on canvas, 36 x 36 in

Oriental VisArt 1st Group Show- Opening Reception

The oepning reception was on Wed 29 September 2010, at La Cave in Old Town, Geneva, Switzerland. The curator/sculptor Gunwoo Shin and Artist Juyoung Park were present to talk with the guests. There were many different groups of people- different nationalities, age groups and people in different fields. I would like to share the atmosphere of the evening with you!

Left: ‘Sculpture’, by Gunwoo Shin, Right: ‘Park Cemetery’, by Juyoung Park

 

‘La Cave’ in Old Town, Geneva

 

‘Skin of Trees’, by Parasuranman Saravanan

 

‘La Cave’ in Old Town, Geneva, Switzerland

 

‘Untitled’, by Parasuranman Saravanan

 

‘Empty Hands’, by Gunwoo Shin

 

Guest

 

Guests

 

Guests

 

Listening to the Curator/Sculptor Gunwoo Shin

 

Gunwoo Shin with the Korean Ambassador, his wife and the 1st Secretary in Geneva

 

Guests

 

Guests talking with the Artist and Organiser

 

Guests

 

Left: Curator/Sculptor Gunwoo Shin, Right: Artist Juyoung Park

 

Left: Artist Juyoung Park, Middle: Organiser Kayla Hye K. Yang, Right: guest

 

Guests

 

Guests

 

Guests

 

Our good friend ‘Antoine’ at the bar

 

Listening to the Artist ‘Juyoung Park’

 

Oriental VisArt 1st Group Exhibition in Geneva

Threshold to everyday-life

Oriental VisArt presents ‘Threshold to everyday-life’, the 1st group exhibition in Geneva, which includes 5 Asian Artists, who are now working across Europe and Asia. This exhibition is curated by Gunwoo Shin.

In my opinion, one of the most frequent discourses in the art world since the 1990s has been the notion of the ‘everyday-life’. Artists are fed up with the boundlessly expanding notions of art and its bulky discourses. They have sought to discover their own values and have tried to capture and represent this theme of the everyday. At this moment, there is no doubt that the domain of contemporary art has expanded from the ambiguous and abstract to the specific and concrete. The world each of us knows consists of everyday incidents and specific happenings, repeated over and over again.

The exhibition ‘Threshold to everyday-life’ brings together five international Artists. Each Artist presents and manifests how everyday-life can influence them and the world through their works with diverse cultural perspectives. All the work, exhibited in this show, might open new avenues to the question: “what is real everyday life and what exist beyond it?

By Gunwoo Shin

Chinwook Kim attempts an expansion to another unfamiliar space in ever-changing daily life. He inserts an image he discovered in a familiar place in another space, randomly, and endeavours an attempt to excavate another aspect buried between image and image, space and space, through new assumptions and suppositions.

Gunwoo Shin’s work portrays mental landscapes on the crossroad between the conscious and the unconscious, through relief style painting. He freely moves beyond the lines of reality and the world of the surreal, giving diverse artistic imaginations to realistic subject matter.

Ju young Park focuses on ‘movement’ in her painting with fast strokes. She starts with moving her brush very quick and tries to capture her gestures. After that the Artist develops spontaneous brush work into a more objective language. Her paintings look quiet and tranquil. However, you can feel a kind of ‘tremble (moment)’ even in the static image on a plane surface.

Kumeresan Selvaraj experiments with new spaces and materials using untouched marginal areas of medium in his work such as a blank space of photography or an outer space of existing objects. His perception of self-existence is the key source for understanding his works. He transforms his perceptions into works of art through confusion, analysis and references.

Saravanan Parasuraman‘s works are based on his intelligence that he acquired from his self-existence. He has been influenced by the world of nature. He uses ordinary objects such as an old palm tree, steel balls and clay in his work. He is interested in capturing traces of which every element has reacted to the world.

The opening reception is on Wednesday 29^th September from 6pm to 10pm. The Curator Gunwoo Shin and one of the Artists Juyoung Park will be present. Hope to see you there. I will attach the invitation and Artists’ information. Thanks a lot!

Artist

‘Skin of Trees’, Fibreglass & Silverstone, 49×96 inches (inc frame), 48×18 inch each panel, 2010

 

Kumaresan Selvaraj, Orpin, Fibreglass, 91.4 x 91.4cm, 2010

 

 

Inside and outside of landscape-4, Chinese ink on canvas, 152 x 122 cm,  2009

 

 

‘Toto’, watercolor on paper, 78.5 x 57 cm, 2009

 

 

‘Untitled’, Acrylic on resin on wooden board, 100 x 125 x 20cm, 2010

Chinese Artist ‘Hongbei He’

Hongbei He was born in 1969, Chongqing, China and she currently lives and works in Beijing, China. She was given a B.A. in Fine Art Painting, from Sichuan Fine Arts Institute in Chongqing, China. She has shown her work globally as below;

Solo exhibition

2009  Beijing Zhou Gallery, Beijing, China

2008  Beijing Art Seasons Gallery, Beijing, China

2001  Noel Gallery, Charlotte, NC, USA

Selected group exhibitions

2008  ’Chinese Art group Exhibition’, Zurich, Switzerland

2007  ’Critical Thread Contemporary Art Associated Exhibition’

Awards

2002 Annual Art Exhibition, Parimus, NJ, USA Best of Show

1992  The First 90′s Biennial Exhibition of Arts Guangzhou, China 3rd Prize

Enjoy her work images!

“Throw Away the Trash – Relax”, oil on canvas, 200 x 180 cm, 2009

“Throw Away the Trash – Relax”, oil on canvas, 2009

“Throw Away the Trash – Relax”, oil on canvas, 200 x 150 cm, 2009

“Throw Away the Trash – Relax”, oil on canvas, 2009