"Three Painters: Congenial Encounters:"
May 13 - Friday, June 10, 2005
Gallery Korea at the Korean Cultural Center New York
(460 Park Ave. 6th Floor, New York, NY 10022)
The Korean Cultural Service New York is pleased to announce the exhibition, "Three Painters: Congenial Encounters" from May 13 through June 10, 2005. An opening reception will be held on Friday, May 13 with the artists present.
This year, the Korean Cultural Service New York has scheduled a special exhibition series for leading Korean artists in New York. Following the previous exhibition, ¢®¡ÆNatural Synthesizer: Chong Gon Byun's 25 Years in New York¢®¡¾ from April 8 through 30, three Korean-American artists based in New York, Po Kim, Byoung Ok Min, and Woong Kim, are invited for the second exhibition in the series.
The gallery will present their recent large-scale works including Po Kim¢®?s Dusk, Byoung Ok Min's Untitled Ma 4, and Woong Kim¢®?s Checked Flower 05-02. Although each artist has developed a highly personal style of painting, we can find congenial common bases that they share with one another: they have steadily and persistently stood by the genre of painting for several decades in the face of fast-changing trends in the art world; as immigrants from Korea, they have gone through more competitive strife in the field, and they have been recognized in the art community for their outstanding and profound works; and they share the intangible Korean aesthetic sentiment, which is practical and sensible.
Please contact curator Jin Yong Chung for further information at (212) 759-9550 or nyarts@koreanculture.org. Images and artist CVs are available. Further information is also available at the Korean Cultural Service New York website, www.koreanculture.org.
Gallery Korea, run by the Korean Cultural Service New York, presents exhibitions devoted to diverse aspects of Korean and Korean diasporic culture, as well as group shows featuring international artists. The Korean Cultural Service New York works under the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea to promote mutual cultural understanding between the United States and Korea.
Artists
Po Kim
After completing his collegiate studies in Japan, Mr. Kim founded the art department at Chosun University in Korea in 1946. However, as an intellectual, he was a victim of the political and ideological chaos in Korea during the Japanese occupation and Korean War. He was falsely accused of being a Communist sympathizer and was tortured. He moved to the U.S. in 1955 as an exchange professor. The early abstract works in the U.S show the maelstrom of emotion he was experiencing at that time. Afterwards, he created works showing his more stable emotions, detail drawings of still life revealing his philosophical inquiry, and also impromptu painting beyond his specific compositions and plans. His continuous research and development of himself and his work have made him into one of the most recognized artists in New York.
Byoung Ok Min
Ms. Min received a BFA from Seoul National University and an MFA from the Pratt Institute. Her works have been recognized through numerous major exhibitions in Korea and the U.S. Her works are included in the collections of the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art in Connecticut, the Chase Manhattan Bank, the Whanki Museum and other institutions. She was awarded the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Award for Painting in 1996 and the New York State C.A.P.S. Award for Painting in 1976-77. Serpentine crossing lines over geometric compositions organically harmonize two aspects: cool-headedness and tenderness. In her secured compositions, we can feel the coexistence of mysterious comfort and awakening tension.
Woong Kim
Mr. Kim moved to the U.S. in 1970, and received his BFA from School of Visual Arts and an MFA from Yale University. He has had numerous exhibitions both in Korea and the U.S., and his profound works have attracted much attention. From his consistent enthusiasm for painting, we can feel his loyalty to the genre. His elaborate process of creation and sensitivity to colors balance with delicate and congruous composition. The profundity of the works echoes viewers' emotional sense and visual pleasure