'PANORAMA' exhibit at Songeun showcases rising Korean artists

The group exhibition “PANORAMA” at Songeun offers a good reference for art lovers looking for up-and-coming Korean artists. The exhibition at the art museum in Cheongdam-dong of Gangnam District, southern Seoul, kicked off in August with the goal...

Artist Park Grim's work is displayed in the ″PANORAMA″ exhibition at the art museum Songeun in Gangnam District, southern Seoul. [SONGEUN]

The group exhibition “PANORAMA” at Songeun offers a good reference for art lovers looking for up-and-coming Korean artists.

The exhibition at the art museum in Cheongdam-dong of Gangnam District, southern Seoul, kicked off in August with the goal of promoting Korean artists to foreign art experts that visited Korea during the Frieze Seoul art fair earlier this month. Among the 16 artists featured in the show, 10 artists overlap with those in the state-run Arts Management Support Center’s “Dive into Korean Art” program, which invited international art professionals to visit Korean artists’ studios in early September.

The exhibition starts with a large-scale media art piece by Hong Seung-hye, the Korean pioneer of abstract art composed of digital pixels, created with computer software. Her animations of pixelated geometrical figures slowly moving and changing to music are known for being playful and evoking emotions. Such qualities are also shown in the media art piece for the “PANORAMA” show, which symbolizes the 16 artists participating in this exhibition.

On a staircase, simultaneously being used as an auditorium for a film or video art, three video works by artist Jaye Rhee, all of which fall under the theme of “nostalgic utopia,” or feeling nostalgia for a time and place that is familiar but never within reach, are on repeat. In “The Perfect Moment” (2015), a former dancer tells the story of her experiences on the stage and the feelings and emotions she felt when she was performing certain dances. A young dancer recreates the motions as the former tells her story.

In the same space, a film by artist Sungsil Ryu is also played, which is a kind of black comedy that satirizes capitalism and consumerism and tying it in with Korean politics.

Artist Raejung Sim's work is displayed in the ″PANORAMA″ exhibition at the art museum Songeun in Gangnam District, southern Seoul. [SONGEUN]

On the second floor is a room for Raejung Sim’s work “Bath House: Dr. Pali's Bathing Method,” which incorporates sculptures, wall drawings and violent hand-drawn animations that incorporate dark humor. The work is based on a fanciful narrative in which Dr. Pali, who believes that he has developed a bathing method that can cure all mammalian diseases, uses humans as guinea pigs to test his hypothesis.

In an interview with the Korea JoongAng Daily back in 2019, the artist said that she makes everyday drawings inspired by the news and things happening around her, “many of which arouse stress and a dislike of humankind” and that she makes a story line to link the drawings. The “Bath House” series is based on personal episodes she had with her mother, who passed away several years ago after suffering from an extended illness.

On the third floor are paintings by Park Grim, one of the few gay Korean artists who actively promotes themselves to the public through exhibitions about their personal identities. In this exhibition, he presents paintings that celebrate not only the artist’s identity but also his exquisite art technique.

Inspired by Buddhist art from the Goryeo Dynasty (918-1392), Park’s paintings have elegantly flowing lines, elaborate details, mystic hues and luminosity, which he achieved by repeatedly applying pigments to the front and back of silks strands. He majored in Buddhist art and created taenghwa, or Buddhist altarpieces, for several temples.

Artist Lee Jinju's work is displayed in the ″PANORAMA″ exhibition at the art museum Songeun in Gangnam District, southern Seoul. [SONGEUN]

Lee Jinju's works are also displayed on the third floor. The artist uses a new interpretation of oriental painting techniques to express the subtle psychological states and repressed memories of humans. She is the only Korean artist participating in the inaugural exhibition of White Cube Seoul, which runs through Dec. 21. The London-based gallery newly opened its Seoul branch near Dosan Park in Gangnam District.

“From the superfluous cut to its well-made frame, following their softly soundless stories, cuddling the insignificant and petty motifs of the everyday, she discovers the unconscious sensuous layer that is hidden inside,” according to Arario Gallery, a Korean major gallery that represents the artist.

The other participants are Anna Anderegg, Jeon Hyunsun, Kang Ho-yeon, Keem Jiyoung, Kim Young Eun, Inbai Kim, Kwon Hyewon, Lee Hee-joon and the artist duo GRAYCODE jiin. The exhibition runs through Oct. 28.

BY MOON SO-YOUNG [moon.soyoung@joongang.co.kr]