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Tina Kim Gallery is pleased to participate in Expo Chicago Online 2021 this April. Kindly find a preview to our presentation below with works by Ha Chong-Hyun, Davide Balliano, Suki Seokyeong Kang, Kibong Rhee, Park Seo-Bo, Lee Seung Jio, Minouk Lim, and Tania Pérez Córdova.
EXPO CHGO ONLINE is a curated digital exposition of contemporary and modern art complemented by five days of virtual programming, presented in collaboration with Hook. EXPO CHGO ONLINE features over 80 galleries in a focused online presentation, with a portion of proceeds benefiting the Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA). -
DAVIDE BALLIANO
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HA CHONG-HYUN
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KIBONG RHEE
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LEE SEUNG JIO
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MINOUK LIM
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PARK SEO-BO
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SUKI SEOKYEONG KANG
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Tania Pérez Córdova
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DAVIDE BALLIANO
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Davide Balliano’s (b. 1983) research operates on the thin line of demarcation between painting and sculpture. Utilizing an austere, minimal language of abstract geometries in strong dialogue with architecture, his work investigates existential themes such as the identity of man in the age of technology and his relationship with the sublime.
Through a practice that is self-described as monastic, austere and concrete, Balliano’s meticulous paintings appear, upon first glance, clean and precise. However, closer inspection reveals scrapes and scratches that uncover the organic wooden surface underneath the layers of paint, as a decaying façade of abandoned modernistic intentions.
In addition to painting, Davide Balliano is also known for his sculptural work, which translates the visual vocabulary found in his paintings into solid objects, often in ceramic, wood or stone. Originally trained in photography, Balliano shifted to painting and sculpture in 2006 while relocating to New York City, where he currently resides and works.
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Exhibition Walkthrough | Davide Balliano
Tina Kim Gallery, March 6 - April 17, 2021 -
HA CHONG-HYUN
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Ha Chong-Hyun (b. 1935), a leading member of the Dansaekhwa group, began his Conjunction series in 1970s post-war Korea and has dedicated his practice to this series ever since. Conjunction refers to the physical connection between the two most important elements of his practice, his methods and his materials, and how the two are intertwined, or ‘conjoined.’ The burlap he began to substitute in place of the more traditional canvas after the Korean War allows him to approach each painting from the reverse, pushing thick paint through the loose weave. The oil paint then emerges from the front, creating a texture that has become entirely unique to Ha’s practice. Though he has maintained these practical methods for decades, Ha continues to experiment in his works, incorporating new colors and abstract patterns.
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In the Studio with Ha Chong-Hyun
Dispatches From KoreaAs the world slows down, Ha Chong-Hyun continues to experiment with new processes and techniques in his studio in Paju, Korea. "It seems like there is an invisible force acting upon us beyond our control," says Ha. In this video, Tina Kim sits down with Ha to revisit his early memories from art school as an emerging artist, discuss his most recent art practice, and the future of Korean art.
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KIBONG RHEE
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Kibong Rhee (b. 1957) achieves a perfect sense of the ephemeral in his hazy, dreamlike landscape paintings, in which he layers painted plexiglass and sheer fabric above canvas in order to create a convincing optical depth that draws the viewer in.
The scenes in these works appear to be in the process of either disappearing and taking form, capturing a between a moment in time and space.
The diaphanous quality of these images is informed by the foggy and humid landscape surrounding Rhee’s studio in Korea. Water plays a crucial role in these paintings, as Rhee believes that water, in its variety of forms, embodies the fleetingness of life.
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Kibong Rhee in the Studio
Dispatches From Korea"In my painting, the viewer sees the tree, but what I see is the fog.”—Kibong Rhee Tina Kim Gallery visits Kibong Rhee in his studio. Watch Rhee's unique process to achieve a perfect sense of the ephemeral in his hazy, dreamlike landscape paintings, as he layers painted plexiglass and sheer fabric above the canvas to create a convincing optical depth. The artist’s works on canvas reflect his interest in a continual state of disappearing and taking form—a phenomenon he has likened to water flowing. Visit our website to learn more and view recent works.
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Lee Seung Jio
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Lee Seung Jio
Lee Seung Jio (1941-1990) is a pioneer of Korean geometric abstraction who emerged with the avant-garde group of artists in the 1960s. Lee co-founded the Origin Group alongside his contemporaries Suh Seung-Won and Choi Myoung-Young in 1962, a movement pursuing a return to the pure form of art. Lee also contributed to the formation of the AG (Korean Avant-Garde Association). Throughout his 25-year-long career, Lee established his own identity through the notion of ‘nucleus’ and developed his abstract pipe-like forms as an integral element to his paintings, visualizing the interaction between flat plane and optical depth.
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Flipping Through Lee Seung Jio's Drawing Book From 1967
Flipping through the pages of Lee Seung Jio’s drawing book from 1987 reveals the origins of the artist’s central motif and details of his process. Engaging with Lee's sketchbook first-hand allows the rare opportunity to dig deeply into his precise, yet unconfined process of making.
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MINOUK LIM
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Minouk Lim (b. 1968) is an artist of many forms, and has been creating works that are beyond the boundary of different genres and media, deepening the scope of questions while encompassing writing, music, video, installation and performance as her means of artistic expression. Lim’s work recalls historic losses, ruptures, and repressed traumas. Rooted in language, and specifically the politics of expression, of what has been said and what that, in turn, has silenced, her sculptures, videos, performances, and installations don’t replay past events, rather, they elevate the experiences, memories, and feelings of those sidelined by the political violence of the Korean war and its ensuing process of modernization. Curator Soyeon Ahn has written that Lim’s work “testifies on behalf of the invisible.” Indeed, her projects cast that which has gone lost and missing—be this collective memories or deep feelings of longing and grief--into generative, even hopeful, new forms.
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Minouk Lim: From My Work Place
Dispatches From KoreaVirtual studio visit with Minouk Lim in Korea as she discusses her work, memory, and the importance of preservation.
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Park Seo-Bo
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Park Seo-Bo
Born under Japanese occupation, Park Seo-Bo (b. 1931) is known as one of Korea’s most significant early modernists as well as a vital interlocutor of Korea’s cultural history. In the 1950’s he was one of the first to introduce abstraction into what was then a very conservative art world, balancing tradition with the rising influence of the West. Park’s steadfast commitment to pushing boundaries and embracing new vocabularies of expression has consistently resulted in new and influential bodies of work widely heralded both in Korea and abroad.
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In the Studio with Park Seo-Bo
Dispatches From KoreaIn this virtual studio visit, Park Seo-Bo discusses the evolution of his personal philosophy, finding the joy in painting, and using color as a healing tool.
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SUKI SEOKYEONG KANG
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Suki Seokyeong Kang’s (b. 1977) research-driven practice spans across media, incorporating sculpture, painting, video, installation, and performance, as she investigates the notion of space and its relationship to an individual’s social position within society. Kang appropriates the formal language of the grid used in traditional Korean musical notation as a spatial and social structuring device. The grid is translated and reproduced as standing formations in her works that balance against, hinge on, and even protrude from the wall. In her works, the sculptures in the space appear and are further activated in her videos or performances. Hwamunseok– mats used in traditional Korean court dances – produced from woven sedge by Korean craftswomen. Each of these signals the minimum space an individual is provided in society. As these notations multiply, Kang configures them into a rich visual score suggesting the possibility of a collective consciousness rooted in individual action.
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Suki Seokyeong Kang: Square See Triangle
Buk-Seoul Museum of Art, 2019-2020Video courtesy of Suki Seokyeong Kang Studio and the Seoul Museum of Art.
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TANIA PÉREZ CÓRDOVA
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Tania Pérez Córdova (b. 1979, Mexico) quiet and contemplative works relate to temporality and the lifespan of objects. With her installations having often been likened to film sets, she uses language to situate each work within a larger narrative, forgoing the autonomy of objects in favor of their integral role within a nexus. Her practice spans across media, incorporating sculpture, photography, found objects, and activation or performance. Objects function as characters in Córdova’s installations. With her guidance and care they seem to undergo narrative arcs and inherent changes. Verbal clues in artwork titles incite the viewer to consider both the lifespan of the object and the practices and actions that were involved in its making. She considers media in an abstract sense, often embedding actions and situations into an object as a material itself. Such references to the world beyond the sculpture itself create a vivid sense of time and space outside the gallery. She strategically widens the nuanced relationship between artwork and viewer to include external places, people, and actions.
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Tania Pérez Córdova : Short Sight Box
Tina Kim Gallery, Sep 12 - November 14, 2020Virtual tour of Tania Pérez Córdova's exhibition Short Sight Box, narrated by the artist. Pérez Córdova walks us through the space, discussing the process behind each sculpture and her conception of artworks as events in and of themselves.
