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22/6/2011

On the verge

Dean Project, New York

AHL FOUNDATION and DEAN PROJECT are pleased to present ON THE VERGE, an exhibition of the works of the five Korean artists selected by the jury of the Seventh AHL Foundation Visual Arts Competition. In descending order of prizes awarded, the winners are Ji Eun Kim, Eunjung Hwang, Heejung Cho, Keosang Yoo, and Ha Lee. Addressing a diverse range of subjects from combat soldiers to domestic geography, subconscious dreams, and institutional aspects of our dwelling spaces, the artists of ON THE VERGE present a critical visual commentary on global contemporary culture through a variety of media – animation, installation, collage, and painting. For some of these artists, this will be their debut exhibition in New York. The three jurors for this year’s competition were Linda Norden, Curator; Benjamin Genocchio, Editor-in-Chief at Art+Auction; and Thomas Arnold, Director of Mary Boone Gallery. ON THE VERGE is curated by Hyewon Yi, Director of the Amelie A. Wallace Gallery.

Ji Eun Kim’s paintings and collages zero in on emblematic, isolated details of urban habitation – facades, vacant lots, development sites. She interchanges imagery of underlying structural elements of buildings with their exterior shells, offering architecture as the evidence of urban decay as well as the metaphor for reconstruction. For ON THE VERGE, Kim will construct a site-specific collage, Dumpster Korea (2011), referencing the disposable high-rise apartment buildings of Korea.

Eunjung Hwang’s animated digital videos and drawings are constructed in complex sequences rooted in her subconscious. Rather than rely on linear narrative, Hwang’s forms mimic the rhythm and structure of musical scores. For this exhibition, Hwang will present Future Creatures (2010), a low-tech animation video that utilizes hand-drawn characters. Heejung Cho’s Brooklyn Street (2010), made of plywood, wooden sticks, and wood stain, recreates the look of a residential street in Brooklyn in perspectival relief form on the gallery wall. Mapping the geography of a New York City neighborhood, Cho brings to bear her memories of personal experiences. Despite their apparent crudity, the carved surfaces charm the viewer with intimate intricacy.

Keosang Yoo presents Honeycomb (2011), a multimedia installation utilizing six video monitors. Turning the image of Capital Hill in Seoul, Korea into a beehive replete with buzzing sounds, the work suggests a satirical comment on greedy politicians at work, yet the artist also points out the necessity of individual activity to the existence of the group. Repetition is a quality Yoo frequently uses in his high-minded multi-media video and sound creations, in which he combines hand-drawn images with low-tech objects.

Ha Lee presents Pretty Dictators, a nine-panel painting series crudely stitched in printed fabric of fluorescent colors. His images appear as comically caricatured figures with a kitsch-like quality, although his subject matter is serious, as he portrays dictators and political figures both current and past, including Osama Bin Laden, Adolf Hitler, Kim Jung Il, Hu Jintao, Vladimir Putin, Muammar Gaddafi, Hosni Mubarak, and Barack Obama.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

Ji Eun Kim holds a BFA and MFA in painting from Seoul National University. She also earned an MFA in painting from Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI. Since moving to the United States in 2007, Kim has lived in Detroit and Cheyenne, Wyoming, amongst other places, where she has compared architectural development with what she observed in Korea. Her solo shows include Planned Obsolescence, at Brain Factory (2010), and Hermit Crab-ism, at Alternative Space Loop (2011), both in Seoul, Korea. Her residencies have played an important role in her artistic development, which she compares to the way in which a hermit crab moves its body to a larger shell when it grows. Her residencies include Vermont Studio Center and Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Kim is looking forward to joining the Taipei Artist Village this summer as an artist in residence.

After studying English literature at Yonsei University and painting at Ewha Women’s University, Seoul, Korea, Eunjung Hwang earned an MFA in computer arts at the School of Visual Arts, New York. Her animations have been screened and exhibited in many venues in the United States (New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Kansas City, Detroit) and abroad (Germany, Korea, Spain, Austria, Australia, Singapore, France, Netherlands, Japan, Ireland). Hwang is a recipient of numerous awards and residency grants. Her most recent solo show, Eunjung Hwang: Three Thousands Revisits, was presented at University Art Museum, SUNY, Albany.

After receiving a BFA in sculpture at Seoul National University in Korea, Heejung Cho received an MFA in Visual Arts at Rutgers University, New Jersey. Since 2005, Cho’s works have been included in many exhibitions, mostly in New York, as well as a solo show and a group exhibition in Beijing, China and Seoul, Korea. She participated in the AIM program at the Bronx Museum of the Arts in 2009. Currently, Cho is a resident artist at the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, New York.

Keosang Yoo received a diploma in postgraduate studies from the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne, Germany. After studying environmental sculpture at the University of Seoul, Yoo moved toward works combining electronic media and sculpture. He has participated in many group exhibitions, including the 23rd European Media Art Festival (2010) and Contemporary Art Ruhr (2011) in Germany. His solo shows include Media Story in Suwon, Korea (2009) and Repetition in Cologne, Germany.

Ha Lee earned a BFA in painting and an MFA in sculpture at Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Korea. He has worked as an editorial cartoonist for Korean newspapers, and has published about thirty series of short animated movies for Internet newspapers and websites over the decade before he moved to the United States in 2007. Established in 2003, AHL Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting Korean and Korean-American artists living in the United States by promoting exposure of their work in today’s competitive contemporary art world. In 2004, the foundation created an annual art competition open to all artists of Korean ancestry who are living in the United States.

This exhibition is made possible by the generous support and sponsorship of AHL Foundation Inc (www.ahlfoundation.org), a 501 (c) (3) not-for-profit organization. The exhibition is also sponsored by New York City’s Department of Cultural Affairs, Paradise Foundation, Hey!Korean, Korean Cultural Services, and The Korea Times New York.

Image: Ji Eun Kim

Opening Reception: Thursday, June 23, 2011, 6pm to 8 pm

DEAN PROJECT
511 West 25th Street, 2nd Fl., New York, NY 10001
Gallery hours: Tuesday - Saturday 12 - 6pm

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