Suki Seokyeong Kang: Jeong 井
Opening Reception: Wednesday, February 28, 2018 | 6 pm – 8 pm
Tina Kim Gallery is pleased to present Jeong 井, a solo exhibition of works by Seoul-based artist Suki Seokyeong Kang. On view from 28 February - 7 April 2018, the exhibition features installations, sculptures and video works that reflect Kang’s study of the traditional Korean musical notation system Jeongganbo (井間譜).
First invented during the Joseon Dynasty (1392 until 1910), Jeongganbo is a method used to notate the pitch and length of time of notes within traditional orchestral music. The notation system is distinctive from the Western method of using staffed paper; in Jeongganbo each note occupies a small square, organized sequentially to connote time. Kang has chosen to use the Chinese character (井) in her title because of its resemblance to this grid system. Kang (b. 1977) has adopted this traditional grid as a foundation of her practice, using it to explore how we form social spaces.
In Jeong 井, Kang presents a series of modules that are a visual translation of Jeongganbo. Using the logic of the grid allows the artist to incorporate other elements including painting, mixed media and found materials and narratives from traditional Korean lyrics. Kang’s practice is organized around this complex and layered research, and her distinctive translation process is used to transform the notational system of traditional music into a spatial choreography. For the artist, each individual square symbolizes the rich tonality and movement of the viewer, all the while maintaining the restraint that defines Jeongganbo. When combined, her modules become a visual system that seeks balance, allowing for the coexistence of each individual square in a greater installation that frames the relationship between artwork and viewer.
Using the architecture of the gallery, Kang has transformed the three spaces to mirror a sequence of Jeongganbo squares. The exhibition comprises numerous mixed media sculptures, including Jeong and Pause and Position – Jeong, as well as the 26-minute video Black Under Colored Moon, which shows actors moving Jeong sculptures and arranging them in an ongoing series of notational arrangements.
Kang has written that, “It is through this structure of logic that I explore the contradictions and conflicts each individual faces in society, and build a structure of condensed harmony. Appropriating this past way of coexistence, I wish to portray the anxiety of the present while also nurturing a hope for the future.”
ABOUT SUKI SEOKYEONG KANG
Suki Seokyeong Kang (b. 1977, Seoul, Korea) uses various media including painting, installation, and video to seek a synesthetic expansion of painting methodology. Her practice is situated between the abstract and the figurative, the organic and the geometric. She is interested in creating a visual language of balance and harmony, through which she portrays the structure and order of various social conditions.
Kang studied Oriental Painting at Ewha Womans University, Seoul, and Painting at the Royal College of Art, London. She now lives and works in Seoul. Recent exhibitions include The 8th Climate, Gwangju Biennale (2016); As the Moon waxes and wanes, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Gwacheon (2016); Group Mobile, Villa Vassilieff, Paris (2016); Foot and Moon, Audio Visual Pavilion, Seoul (2015) and Grandmother Tower, Old House, Seoul (2013).
This April, Kang will participate in her first US museum presentation at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia.
-
The 10 Best Booths at Art Basel in Miami Beach
ArtsyFor her first-ever solo presentation at Art Basel in Miami Beach, Tina Kim selected a handful of Dansekhwa (Korean minimalist) works in addition to stranger,...Read more -
Suki Seokyeong Kang Reimagines the Korean Landscape by Turning Traditional Techniques on Their Head
CulturedTo depict her own visionary landscapes, Suki Seokyeong Kang re-interprets the centuries-old True-View method of Korean landscape painting. Coined in the 18th century, True-View was...Read more
-
The Artsy Vanguard 2019: 50 Artists to Know Right Now
Artsy[...] There’s a reason why many of Suki Seokyeong Kang’s abstract, found-object structures feel strangely familial, even human. Her subtly anthropomorphized “Grandmother Towers” are sculptural...Read more -
Art Basel Highlights
Cultured[...] Tina Kim Gallery / Kukje Gallery The New York and Seoul-based gallery makes a statement in the Unlimited section of the fair with a...Read more
-
Five Artists Representing Korea at the Venice Biennale
CulturedBy Julie Baumgardner The Venice Biennale is an international expedition—so noting artists from across the world may seem a bit like pointing out the obvious....Read more -
58th Venice Biennale Review: Brilliance and Bluster
FriezeBy Jennifer Higgie In Ralph Rugoff’s exhibition ‘May You Live in Interesting Times’, disorientation is the order of the day [...] We live in a...Read more
-
Mexico City’s Major Fair Exposes the Art World’s Renewed Love of Craft
ObserverBy Michael Anthony Farley The Subtly Subversive Artists of Korea’s Dansaekhwa For all the utopian connotations that come with evident craft and populist aesthetics—a celebration...Read more -
Suki Seokyeong Kang in Conversation
OculaBy Stephanie Bailey In June 2018, Suki Seokyeong Kang was awarded the Baloise Art Prize at Art Basel, alongside Lawrence Abu Hamdan: an annual award...Read more
-
In Perfect Harmony: Suki Seokyeong Kang’s Spatial Notation
FriezeBy Evan Moffitt With work in the Liverpool Biennial and ICA Philadelphia, the Seoul-based artist reanimates an ancient Korean musical system The Golden Ratio might...Read more -
Suki Seokyeong Kang: “Jeong 井” at Tina Kim Gallery
Art ObservedBy Osman Can Yerebakan For her first exhibition with Tina Kim Gallery, Seoul-based artist Suki Seokyeong Kang has orchestrated a three-stage installation of sculpture, film...Read more
-
Must-See Art Guide: New York
Artnet NewsBy Tatiana Berg Are you ready for Armory week? Ready or not, here it is: You’ve got NADA, you’ve got VOLTA, you’ve got SCOPE, and...Read more -
‘Suki Seokyeong Kang: Jeong 井’ at Tina Kim Gallery, New York
Blouin ArtinfoTina Kim Gallery, New York, is hosting “Jeong 井,” a solo exhibition of recent works by Seoul-based artist Suki Seokyeong Kang. The exhibition features installations,...Read more