In the process of painting, Kwon first takes photos, then makes a draft based on the photos and finally paint it on canvas with oil. Particular reality emerges through this process by overlapping the reality by the photos with an artist’s imaginary touch. This painting method, however, is not so uncommon in the field of recent contemporary painting.
Although Kwon is excellent in representing above particular realism, her works are more impressive in that describing rather simple but strong “Portrait” attaching a symbolic item, the white bandage, to the faces and naked bodies of the boys and girls.
An innocent look looking back us between the bandage and a fragile naked body bandaged all over are telling us without words how they have been struggling with their trauma experienced in the past and still flashbacking vividly as yet.
The reason why Kwon depicts so called “Portrait” might be that as trauma is imprinted on our body and impossible to describe it by words, the artist cannot but express it by the look of the eyes and the naked bodies bandaged.
And the white bandage seems an indispensable item to purify the bodies and minds.
The bandage color “white” is, however, a symbol of self-extinction as well as that of healing. Looking at Kwon’s paintings, as a result, we always feel something unsettling and the shadow of death along with a hope of recovering from trauma. When we summarize our life as Eros according to Freud, and needless to say the abusers who gave trauma to the young girls and boys were driven by Eros, self-extinction indicate one other desire within us, Thanatos. By Freud, Eros and Thanatos are the fundamental desires which drive us till death. So we might say that Kwon does not simply depict the struggle of traumatized adolescent boys and girls but has been trying to depict our life itself symbolically on canvas.
Kwon Kyung Yup
[Solo exhibition]
2010 “Last Letter” unseal contemporary, Tokyo (upcoming)
2009 “Space of Memory” Gana Art Gallery, Seoul
2008 Art Seoul 2008, Seoul Arts Center, Seoul
[Group exhibition & Art fair]
2010 Sun gallery 33th Anniversary Exhibition Sun gallery, Seoul
2009 Korea International Art Fair COEX, Seoul, Hong Kong International Art Fair Hong Kong Convention Center, Hong Kong, Asian auction week in Hong Kong Conrad Hong Kong, Hong Kong, HaHa Museum Geumsan Gallery, Paju
2008 Times Gallery Opening Show Times Art Gallery, Taipei, Seoul Auction Hong Kong Sale Grand Hyatt Hong Kong, HongKong, The 9th 'Cutting Edge' Seoul Auction Center, Seoul, Korea International Art Fair COEX, Seoul, Meet with passion Gallery i-sang, Seoul, the BRIDGE In-Sa Arts Center, Seoul, Blue Dot ASIA Seoul Arts Center, Seoul, MicroART 69-Heart In-Sa Arts Center, Seoul, Next Art 2008 Insa Art Plaza, Seoul
2007 Team preview “Art Show” Gallery Indeco, Seoul, Team preview 7th Alternative Space Team preview, Seoul
* The text provided by unseal contemporary.