Installation view
of 《Next Painting: As We Are》 ©Kukje
GalleryKukje Gallery presents a group exhibition 《Next Painting: As We Are》 at its Seoul
branch’s K1 and K3 spaces through July 20. This exhibition aims to assess
“painting after painting”—the “next painting” to come— through the work of six
young artists from the millennial generation (born in the mid-1980s through the
mid-1990s): Mackerel Safranski, Seeun Kim, Sinae Yoo, Eunsae Lee, Byungkoo
Jeon, and Yiji Jeong.
As digital natives who naturally embody the
media environment and have been shaped by digital technologies throughout their
lives, the millennials keenly perceive and capture images that promote the
speed and immersive intensity of contemporary life, while also engaging in
unique ways with the materiality and historicity of painting, one of the oldest
artistic mediums.
Installation view
of 《Next Painting: As We Are》 ©Kukje
GalleryFocusing on how the artists intersect the
qualities of images with the materiality of painting, the exhibition highlights
the critical potential of painting in an age of visual excess. By offering
points where the visual experience of artists who have grown up in the
post-internet era collide and converge with painting as object and material, it
underscores the enduring role of the medium in evoking visual and sensory
experience of images today.
Ultimately, the exhibition proposes that
the “next painting” to come will counter the acceleration of digital images,
persistently championing the value of material reality and the sensory
experience of slowness.
Installation view
of 《Next Painting: As We Are》 ©Kukje
GalleryWhile the painting of the millennial
generation is strongly influenced by digital image, the final result presented
to us remains as a physical object and form. While contemporary images can take
any source as a reference point—thereby flexibly moving from one image to
another—painting is definitely a challenge premised on a huge material
constraint.
Participating
Artists: Mackerel
Safranski, Seeun Kim, Sinae Yoo, Eunsae Lee, Byungkoo Jeon, Yiji Jeong
