December 11, 2003 - January 9, 2004

Gallery Korea at the Korean Cultural Center New York
(460 Park Ave. 6th Floor, New York, NY 10022)

Opening Reception: Thursday, December 11, 6-8 p.m.

Gallery Korea is pleased to announce "Reflection and Transparency," a group exhibition which features six international artists. This exhibition gathers paintings and photographs that employ figurative language to explore trace memories of familiar things, oscillating between the self to the social, and between the psychological and the external.
Hye-Sook Yoo's back views of female or male heads cause us to wonder about the identity of a person. Creating an illusion of photography, her portraits simply show the back of a head, with mostly straight hair against white background. The opaque, dense layers of hair replace the commonly recognizable facial features such as eyes and noses, thus making the identity of the person less transparent.
Fran Beallor's paintings assemble an interior consisting of familiar and exotic objects. They reflect the mysterious desire that dwells in her subconscious and escape any prediction or reasoning. Her recent self-portrait series carries on this act of reflection to herself. Focusing on her own face, she grasps the fleeing moments of her life. While Beallor's face paintings shows a multi-faceted self in various forms, often rendered in crisp lines and planes, Sarah Soon Kim's paintings use monochromatic colors on textured surfaces to depict faces of friends or religious figures. Kim's search for inner tranquility is often mirrored in the heads and torsos rendered in forms similar to ones in old, weathered murals.
Jinhwan Choi has been photographing young males and females in their own living space. His photographs not only capture their personal, intimate surroundings but also reveal the character of the resident through everyday, mundane furniture, bedding, and objects like a television set. Hosok Chung's recent works explore urban imagery that he encounters while he travels. His black and white photos magnify details of the city, such as a manhole on the street, to a scale that people could not miss.
Jeff Pullen's urban landscapes are reflection of alienated city dwellers' psychology. Constructed of architectural materials such as doors, tiles, and bricks, his paintings show nostalgic views of cityscape in which store signs and advertising boards dominate the city.
During an opening reception on Thursday, December 11 from 6 - 8 pm, there will be performances by two emerging artists based in New York, Ji-Young Kim and Anyssa Kim. Ji-Young Kim will perform "Point of View," inspired by the traditional Korean dance Salp'uri (spirit cleansing scarf dance). Anyssa Kim will read some of her recent English poems.
For further information, please contact Eunhee Yang at (212) 759-9550. Gallery Korea is open from 10 am to 7 pm Monday to Friday and from 10 am to 4 pm on Saturday. The gallery will be closed on December 25 and January 1.