From 29 May to 27 July 2013 Art Plural Gallery presented Assemblage, a solo exhibition of Korean artist Chun Kwang Young featuring 22 of his latest works.
Chun Kwang Young has spent his career seeking the individuality of a style that allows him to express the dualities indigenous to his work. Beginning the long journey into Abstract Expressionism in the 1970s, a move to America spurred him to embrace a direction that could freely express the divide he encountered between promises and reality. From there, Chun sought a personal language and a strong voice that would allow him to incorporate influences from his homeland. A seminal moment came in 1995, when Chun began to create structural works of art made of the assemblage of hundreds of polystyrene foam triangles wrapped in Korean mulberry paper. Known as hanji, the paper is deeply rooted in Korean tradition and was at one time a ubiquitous household material, as well as a means of wrapping various objects such as medicine and food.
In the words of the artist, “I think the thing I first saw [as a child] was my mother’s face, and then there was mulberry paper. This paper is not just for writing and drawing, but is like the spirit and soul of Koreans.”
