A coming year preview. The artists include Mark Golamco, Hei Myung C. Hyun, Yoshio Ikezaki, Soo Jin Kim, Kaoru Mansour and Mineo Mizuno. Many of them will be featured independently in the coming year.
A coming year preview
LMAN gallery is pleased to announce a group show, entitled "LOOKING AHEAD -
a coming year preview". The artists include Mark Golamco, Hei Myung C. Hyun,
Yoshio Ikezaki, Soo Jin Kim, Kaoru Mansour and Mineo Mizuno. Many of them
will be featured independently in the coming year. The exhibit opens on
Saturday, November 29th, with a reception from 7 until 9 p.m., and closes on
February 7th, 2004.
Mark Golamco is a young artist who began his music study at UCLA but left
the program after two years to join the Art school, where he worked closely
with Lari Pittman and Roger Herman. Evolving from one of the printmaking
course, he became more interested in woodblock carvings as a direct artistic
medium and to use it to explore narrative experience. He said in his own
artist statement, "The relationship of Man and Nature interests me." He has
shown his work at various galleries in LA, including The Black Dragon
Society and Track 16. He participated in a number of school exhibitions
juried by LA Times critic David Pagel, UCLA Hammer Museum Deputy Director of
Exhibit Russell Ferguson, and Japanese American National Museum Curatorial
Director Karen Higa.
Hei Myung C. Hyun was educated both in Korea and in the US. In addition to
her BFA from her native country, she studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of
Fine Arts in Philadelphia, and received her MFA from the University of
Hartford, Connecticut. Her work combines bright hue and strong geometric
shapes with illustration-like imagery, often time derived from traditional
Asian paintings. According to her, she learned about Western art primarily
through illustrations in textbooks. For over thirty years, her paintings
have been shown in solo and group exhibits in galleries and museums
throughout US including Los Angeles, as well as in Korea, Japan, and
Germany. She has received numerous prizes and won many competitions.
Aside from working on his painting and paper sculptures, Yoshio Ikezaki
spends half of his yearly time in Los Angeles and Japan teaching. He holds
positions at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, SCI-Arc and
various universities in Japan. In addition to having his fine arts degrees
from the US, he also received private training in Japanese papermaking with
Master Papermaker, Shigemi & Shigeyuki Matsuo. He lectures regularly and has
received many awards, most recently the 2002 LA Artcore 14th Annual Award
and 2001 Government Commission for Exposition, Kitakyusyu, 2001. Many of his
paintings and paper sculptures are of minimalist nature. However, his paper
collage paintings can be colorful while meditative at the same time.
Soo Jin Kim received her BA in Studio Art from UC Riverside and MFA in
Critical Writing, Film and Video from California Institute of the Arts. She
has extensive teaching and curatorial experiences for over eight years. Her
work is in the collections of LA County Museum of Art, North Carolina Museum
of Art, the Broad Foundation and the California Museum of Photography, just
to name a few. Her extensive bodies of work have been published and received
numerous highly praised reviews from various news media, including the LA
Times. Soo's work continues to evolve and progress over time. Even though
her pieces here at the gallery are selected from her earlier work, they are
intended to suggest her next phase of new artistic development, which will
become evident in her upcoming solo exhibit here in the spring.
Last season, Kaoru Mansour had an extremely well received show at the
gallery. The exhibit was recommended by LA Weekly art critic Peter Frank,
and editors from the email magazine Flavorpill. As a result, she was invited
to a major solo exhibit at San Diego Mesa College this fall. Born in Japan,
Kaoru has lived and worked in LA since 1986. She studied at Otis Parson
Art-Institute and her work is in more than fifty major private and corporate
collections. Her paintings have been shown in Los Angeles, San Francisco,
New York, Japan, Germany and Korea. Although her nature inspired collage
paintings are technically complex, they are exceptionally subtle and
elegant. In addition to be a musician, she is a very motivated artist who
paints tirelessly. Therefore, we are fortunate to be able to exhibit some of
her latest work again.
Mineo Mizuno, a well respected ceramic artist and sculptor who is among the
top in the area, also had his work shown here last season. The recent
Sept/Oct NY Arts Magazine has an in-depth review of the show and his other
work at his studio. Born in Japan, Mineo studied at California Institute of
Arts, Chouinard Art School, Los Angeles. He received the Craftsman's
Fellowship Award from National Endowment for the Arts in 1981. His work is
in the collection of LA County Museum of Art, Long Beach Museum of Art, the
Smithsonian and Yamaguchi Prefecture Museum. His sculptures always
demonstrate his bi-cultural background. His earlier ceramic pieces show his
interest in pop culture, as well as whimsical interpretations of western
classical forms. Another body of work clearly reflects his root, a Zen-like
Minimalist ideal. Being a prolific artist, his work can also be personal and
investigative, like his Zero series; or light hearted, like the Welcome Cat
in this show.
Specially chosen for this exhibit, the work include Mark's human figures
haunted by displacement in carved wood paintings; Hei's colorful and
geometrical paintings with references to nature and her cultural heritage by
imbedding various collage prints, such as Korean and Chinese calligraphy;
Yoshio's paintings employing traditional sumi wash composed with exquisite
Japanese papers, suggesting an imaginary landscape view from inside a
historical Japanese villa; Soo's transient photographic images of familiar,
and yet dreamlike journeys; Kaoru's graceful crackled paintings with
botanical collages and illustrations, balancing between serenity and joy;
and Mineo's sculpted Welcome Cat, Aka Neko, a symbol of prosperity, with
elegant and gentle form tightly wrapped with images of good fortune money.
Image: a work by Soo Jin Kim
For further information on the exhibit or other events at the LMAN gallery,
please contact Lawrence Man at 213-628-3883
Reception: Saturday, November 29, 7-9pm
Hours: Wednesday  Saturday, 12-6pm
LMAN gallery
949 Chung King Road Los Angeles CA 90012
Contact: Lawrence Man
213.628.3883, Fax 213.628.3882