이관우 展

The Solo Exhibition of Lee GanU

Condensed_51.2x64 inches_Mixed media(Korean Stamps) on Canvas_2011

Chelsea, New York

2011. 9. 1 (목) ▶ 2011. 9. 24 (토)

Opening Reception : 2011. 9. 8 (목) PM6:00~PM8:00

511 West 25TH Street, Suite 507, Chelsea, New York, NY 10001 | T. 212-675-3057

Seoul, Korea

2011. 9. 1 (목) ▶ 2011. 9. 15 (목)

Opening Reception : 2011. 9. 1 (목) PM5:30~PM8:00

서울시 강남구 청담동 118-17 네이쳐 포엠 빌딩 204호 | T. 02-546-3057

www.ablefineartny.com | 아티스트비자(O-1 VISA) 설명회 바로가기

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Masks of Duplicity: Signs of the Times

Industrialism brought the multiple, ready-made object in to consumer culture while Post-Industrialism has dematerialized the commodified object into bits of data and information. This phenomenon of the West gradually expanded to South Korea where ancient tradition has mingled with the new, leaving many to wonder how exactly tradition will survive. Contemporary artist Lee GanU’s mixed media paintings turn the notion of the populous on its head by taking thousands of found objects, specifically Korean seal stamps, that have been used for purposes of authenticity in times past. As one of the most mass-produced, hand-made objects that pre-dates the Industrial Era, seal stamps were initially used by artists, philosophers and emperors as a mark of signature that designated a document as official. Today everyone in Korea owns at least two personal seal stamps but many are now utilizing the digital signature. Lee GanU scoops up what many Westerners would call souvenirs in order to de-authenticate objects of authentication, by removing them from their traditional use before validating them again within a painterly framework that represents the vibrant intersection of East and West. In a new series titled Condensed  Lee GanU uses small Korean stamps as individual color pixels, creating representations of larger icons, such as Buddha, as well as abstractions that reflect strong contours and contrasts, hinting at topographical landscapes.

Condensed_64.2x51 inches_Mixed media(Korean Stamps) on Canvas_2010

The gray representations of the meditating Buddha are offset with a red background, combining the forgotten individual identities of hundreds into part of something larger. As a play upon perspective, Lee GanU captures Buddha from above and below using an ocean of stamps that extends the notion of icon and identity. As an increasing number of hand-carved characters become signs of a growing population, these mixed-media paintings are pixel portraits showing that the whole is nothing without the sum of its parts. Within an increasingly polyphonic society that bases its identification on products, the notion of the original is suddenly an ossified after-thought, making authorship more problematic.

Other abstract works contain a litany of signs and symbols that appear to speak in multiple voices at once. Here, Lee GanU applies the Western notion of the sign and signified but dwarfs it within a large scale typically seen in scroll paintings from countries across Asia. As art critic Kim Jong-Gil states: “It can be expected that if Lee GanU attains a sense of streamlined, poetic condensation in the ways of reinforcing the frame along with the accumulation of seals, as well as the application of color and form, then his work could be enhanced.” The pieces appear to hint at silhouettes, but as soon as the vague trace of a representation is found, one’s eyes are immediately lost in a sea of signs, searching once again for something larger and definite. It could be suggested that these pieces respond to Roland Barthes’ essay Death of the Author from 1968. However their core substance appears to lay much deeper than a philosophical French theory that was formulated as a response to Western capitalism. In fact Koreans began using hand-made, mass produced seals as early as the 2nd-century B.C., long before sign and signified became a central theme in critical writing.

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His earlier works from 2010 consist of various scales of stamps that are arranged in a tight consistency, creating natural curves and depth that allude to the undulating slopes and hills seen across an open landscape. Jeong Seok Do describes the subject of these pieces as an empty bowl:  “The metaphor of a bowl is a common way of thinking about the process of cognition and linguistics.” This combination of texture and written characters, moreover, makes for a compelling illusion - a layered dialogue that is far from ambiguous. Appearing as hieroglyphics, the different height of these stamps renders a texture that twists and turns within a rectangular framework while reflecting either anonymous or forgotten identities. In the current age of overpopulation, the multiple challenges the unique qualities of singularity, making it harder for an independent vision to stand both alone and distinct from the rest of digitized visual culture.

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Lee GanU was born in 1969 in Gwacheon, South Korea. Having grown up near the city center of Seoul, GanU has lived near a cultural intersection of the world. While studying art at Kwandong University, the artist majored in Western Painting and subsequently had seven shows. Although this may appear to compromise Korean artistic tradition by playing into the West’s conspicuous desire for the exotic, Lee GanU utilizes the visual tradition of the West in order to communicate Korean aesthetics toward a Western audience without idolizing any of his chosen, found content. An argument could easily be made in favor of the artist’s chosen aesthetic approach due to the fact that he does not distort, glamorize or devalue the issue at hand. In addition, the artist does not seek to put these objects back into a Warholian circuit of meaningless mass-production. Rather, each mixed-media painting commemorates a dead technology, in this case the hand stamp, and therefore leaves the authentic, rustic nature of these found objects intact.

Condensed_64.2x51 inches_Mixed media(Korean Stamps) on Canvas_2010

By re-using countless seal stamps for purposes of fine art, without losing much of the original meaning that is seen on each object, Lee GanU’s choice to re-materialize the hand-made reveals that even though particular ways of life are replaced with others, the found object will endure. Regardless of country or culture, the demand for convenience will always juxtapose the staying power of particular customs. It is currently unknown what trace of any global society will look like in the future now that the preservation of documentation is mostly digital. Lee GanU focuses on the historic displacement of the cultural seal-stamp wrought by computer technology. His work has been featured internationally, in art fairs throughout the world, in cities such as Seoul, Peking, New York and Paris. This exhibition of Condensed at Able Fine Art NY Gallery marks Lee GanU’s debut in America.

July, 2011

vol.20110901-이관우 展