6/12/2007
Choi Jeong Hwa
Redcat, Los Angeles
The artist blurs the boundaries between art, graphic design, industrial design, and architecture. His work explores issues of accessibility in art and contemporary culture. Playing off the role of South Korea and its neighbors as the origin of the production of disposable consumer goods, Choi interrogates the preciousness of unique objects in a time of mass consumption and reproduction.
As a visual artist and founder of Gaseum studio, Choi Jeong Hwa blurs the boundaries
between art, graphic design, industrial design, and architecture. A contemporary of
artists such as Bahc Yiso, Beom Kim and Lee Bul, Choi was part of a generation whose
unique and varied practices gave rise to Seoul's bourgeoning art scene in the 1990s.
Trained in Korea during a period of rapid modernization and economic growth, the
artist’s work acknowledges and internalizes the processes of consumption and the
distribution of goods.
Choi Jeong Hwa's residency at REDCAT will culminate in his first solo exhibition in
the U.S. in which Choi will invite artists and craftspeople to install works
alongside his own--challenging concepts of individual authorship and originality in
art. Inspired by the chaotic vibe of local outdoor markets, his practice playfully
interrogates the preciousness of art works in a rapidly-changing, consumer-frenzied
culture. For a recent exhibition at the Ilmin Museum in Seoul, the artist stacked
brightly-colored plastic baskets in an interlocking, brick-like fashion to form a
floor to ceiling, undulating wall that ran the gallery's perimeter. This monumental
display of cheap plastic goods not only calls attention to the beauty of mechanical
processes but also the absurd excess that reconsiders art’s privileged relationship
to everyday objects and experience.
Choi's ambitious and often boisterous installations are inspired by the informal
economies of exchange. For REDCAT, Choi will radically transform the gallery space
and the lounge/bar of REDCAT in order to collapse the rarefied space of art and the
public space of everyday life. Part of the exhibition will function as a marketplace
where goods are available for sale.
Born 1961 in Seoul, Korea, Choi received a BFA at the Hong Ik University in Seoul.
He has been included in the 51st Venice Biennale, 2004 Liverpool Biennial, 2002 and
2006 Gwangju Biennales, 1998 São Paulo Bienal, as well as exhibitions at the Mori
Art Museum, Tokyo; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco; Walker Art
Center, Minneapolis; Centre Pompidou, Paris; and Ilmin Museum, Seoul. Choi lives and
works in Seoul.
Truth: Choi Jeong Hwa is made possible in part by the Nimoy Foundation.
Opening reception: Friday, December 7, 7 - 10pm
Redcat
631 West 2nd Street - Los Angeles