Forming Expressi o n s
3 Approaches to B e a u t y
Debbie Han | Jeong il O h | We e d o n g Yu n
E x h i b i t i o n Ve n u e :
S o t h e b y ’ s Te l - A v i v
1 1 Ye h u d a H a l e v i S t r e e t
Te l - A v i v 6 5 1 3 5 I s r a e l
Te l : + 9 7 2 3 5 6 0 1 6 6 6
Tu e s d a y, M a r c h 1 6 – S a t u r d a y, M a r c h 2 7 , 2 0 1 0
M o n d a y – T h u r s d a y : 1 0 : 0 0 – 1 8 : 0 0
Fr i d a y – S a t u r d a y : 1 0 : 0 0 – 1 4 : 0 0
We l c o m e t o t h e E x h i b i t i o n o f
E m e r g i n g Ko r e a n A r t 2 0 1 0 !
Co ntents
This year marks the 48th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic
ties between the Republic of Korea and the State of Israel. Overcoming the
geographical distance, the two nations have cultivated friendship and thriving
relationship with each other in many fields such as trade, culture and sports.
Ambassador’s welcome
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Fo r m i n g E x p r e s s i o n s / Ta l D a n a i
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D e b b i e H a n _ G r a c i n g B e a u t y / M a y a A n n e r
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We e d o n g Yu n _ S e a r c h f o r t h e R e a l / M a y a A n n e r
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J e o n g i l O h _ To a H a i r / M a y a A n n e r
Artist Biographies
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Throughout millennia, Korea has accommodated major cultures, religions
and traditions of other Asian region on one hand and developed a distinctive
culture of its own on the other. Under this context, Koreans have acquired
a peace-loving yet dynamic characteristics and contemplative yet vibrant,
optimistic yet sentimental culture.
Although recent trend of the Hallyu (Korean Wave) has attracted many people
around the world to Korea’s modern films, dramas, music and art works,
various aspects of Korean culture have not been introduced to the Israeli
public so much yet.
In this respect, ArtLink’s carefully designed efforts to introduce Korean
artists and their works to the Israeli public deserve much attention. ArtLink
was successful in hosting the Korea Now exhibition in 2008, introducing
a group of Korean artists with various styles to Israel. The exhibition to be
held by ArtLink this year will present an intriguing aspect of contemporary
Korean art by featuring three Korean artists’ works to the public. The theme
of the exhibition this year is “Forming Expressions, 3 Approaches to Beauty:
Debbie Han, Jeong il Oh, Wee dong Yun”. Although Koreans and Israelis
speak different languages, the power of vivid images of the art works at the
exhibition will be enough to get into your heart.
I am very grateful to ArtLink for its great contribution to introducing Korean
art to Israel. I sincerely hope this meaningful exhibition will get you more
interested in Korean art and culture.
Young Sam MA
Korean Ambassador to Israel
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Hyperrealism a n d Co n c e p t u a l A r t
What you see is w h a t y o u g e t ?
T h e H y p e r r e a l i s t Co n t e x t
Tal Danai
Founder & President
ArtLink Inc.
In his enlightening paper on Realism and Hyperrealism Nicholas Oberly
(2003) notes that: “The Oxford English Dictionary defines reality foremost as
“the quality of being real or having an actual existence” and supplements this
with a definition of real as “having objective existence,” and finally to exist
as having “place in the domain of reality.” These conventional definitions of
reality represent a larger problem in the attempt to locate the real on the most
basic level, for they are wholly circular”.
is contrasted with the literal approach found in traditional photorealist
paintings of the late 20th century. Hyperrealist painters and sculptors use
photographic images as a reference source from which to create a more
definitive and detailed rendering, one that unlike Photorealism, often is
narrative and emotive in its depictions. … The photorealistic style of painting
was uniquely tight, precise, and sharply mechanical with an emphasis on
mundane everyday imagery, as it was an evolvement from Pop Art.
The plot thickens when one searches sources such as Wikipedia or
Britannica for the term Hyperrealism. Wikipedia says: “Hyperrealism is a
genre of painting and sculpture resembling a high resolution photograph.
Hyperrealism is a fully-fledged school of art and can be considered as an
advancement of Photorealism by the methods used to create the resulting
photorealistic paintings or sculptures. The term is primarily applied to an
independent art movement and art style in the United States and Europe that
has developed since the early 2000s.
Hyperrealism, on the other hand, although photographic in essence, can
often entail a softer and much more complex focus on the subject depicted,
presenting it as a living tangible object. These objects and scenes in
Hyperrealism paintings and sculptures are meticulously detailed to create the
illusion of a new reality not seen in the original photo. That is not to say that
they are surreal, as the illusion is a convincing depiction of (simulated) reality.
Textures, surfaces, lighting effects and shadows are painted to appear clearer
and more distinct than the reference photo or even the actual subject itself”.
The word Hyperealisme was created by Isy Brachot in 1973 as a French word
meaning Photorealism. It was the title of a major catalog and exhibition at
his gallery in Brussels Belgium in that year. Hyperealisme has been since
used by European artists and dealers to apply to painters influenced by
the Photorealists”.
In commenting on the circular definition of reality found at the Oxford
Dictionary Oberly adds: “The slippage of reality, its elusiveness encountered
even in a basic search for a definition, is an element of the hyperreal – a
condition in which the distinction between the ‘real’ and the imaginary
implodes. There is no static definition of hyperreality, and the interpretations
employed by theorists vary on some of the most essential terms”.
In the Encyclopedia Britannica, under Hyperrealism we find: “American art
movement that began in the 1960s, taking photography as its inspiration.
Photo-realist painters created highly illusionistic images that referred not to
nature but to the reproduced image. Artists…attempted to reproduce what
the camera could record. Several sculptors…were also associated with this
movement. Like the painters, who relied on photographs, the sculptors cast
from live models and thereby achieved a simulated reality”.
While the Britannica is satisfied with placing Hyperrealism in a semihistorical context and leaving it at that, Wikipedia goes further into defining
the difference between Photorealism and Hyperrealism: “Hyperrealism
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One can hardly agree more with that observation. Studying thousands
of Hyperrealist works and interviewing hundreds of hyperrealist artists
since the mid-Nineties, I have come to think of the Hyperrealist process
as a transformation of perceived reality into a manifestation of objective
conceptual reality, which in turn illuminates perceived reality in a new light.
I found a very strong backing to my observations and understandings in the
writings of Gilles Deleuze, Jean Baudrillard and Nicholas Oberly especially in
what may be less emphasized, but most fundamental concept of Hyperrealism
- the simulation and the simulacrum.
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The simulation is characterized by a blending of ‘reality’ and representation,
where there is no clear indication of where the former stops and the latter
begins. The simulacrum is often defined as a copy with no original, or
as Gilles Deleuze (1990) describes it, “an image without resemblance”.
Jean Baudrillard (1994) maps the transformation from representation to
simulacrum in four ‘successive phases of the image’ in which the last is that
“it has no relation to any reality whatsoever: it is its own pure simulacrum”.
Cr a f t – A n E s s e n t i a l I n t r i n s i c E l e m e n t o f H y p e r r e a l i s m
Many Hyperrealist works are an epitome of high-level artistic craftsmanship.
The cross over from an imaginary world to the believably-real world, which
uses the paraphernalia of the ‘real world’, featured in hyperrealist works,
requires it. So does the viewer who wishes to believe the “reality” created.
When studying a Hyperrealist work one may find that in some cases the artistic
craftsmanship is means to an end, but more often artistic craftsmanship is an
inseparable part of the essence of it.
When discussing the mechanics of making Hyperrealist works Wikipedia
teaches us that: “The Hyperrealist style focuses much more of its emphasis
on details and the subjects. Hyperreal paintings and sculptures are not strict
interpretations of photographs, nor are they literal illustrations of a particular
scene or subject. Instead, they utilize additional, often subtle, pictorial
elements to create the illusion of a reality which in fact either does not exist
or cannot be seen by the human eye…Hyperrealism requires a high level of
technical prowess and virtuosity to simulate a false reality”.
The Graces works by Debbie Han are a result of months of painstaking
laborious process transforming photographs of Korean woman pixel by pixel
to those historical and cultural hybrids of contemporary women in ancient
Greek sculptural form. Her Sport Venuses sculptures are a fascinating
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combination of Hyperrealist cast of human busts in contemporary material
with the centuries old techniques of Korean lacquer and Mother of Pearl
inlay. The outcome in both media, if to quote Jean Baudrillard again: “has no
relation to any reality whatsoever: it is its own pure simulacrum.” However,
the images are so “real” that we forgo their unrealistic features and accept
them, much as we would accept a street lamp, a bench and a suitcase on a
theatre stage as a train station, to be displaying a rare facet of our reality.
Wee dong Yun’s almost unbelievable watercolors are painted off photographs
he takes of his models. Sitting in his studio and looking at the reference
photographs he is working from compared with the painted image that
slowly emerges on the paper, one cannot neglect to notice that the majority
of the “realistic” details that are incorporated in the image do not exist in the
reference images. The “Photorealistic” work of Yun captures a reality that
only partially exists outside its “reproduced” scope.
I have known Jeong il Oh for over a decade. During those years he has been
using a single hair brush to paint only human hair. Painting the hair, one
hair at a time, suggests that over the past ten years he had painted millions
of Hyperreal hairs. The “realistic” human hair has long transcended
to other plains, which we will later discuss, but that transcendence was
only possible thanks to the Photorealistic execution of Jeong il’s chosen
subject matter.
There is one additional aspect of the extreme craftsmanship efforts that
Hyperrealist artists commonly invest in their works. That aspect may not
be appreciated by a viewer experiencing the work outside the setting of the
artist’s studio, or who has never spoken or read what the artist has to say
about his or her work process. However, spending countless hours in the
studios of Hyperrealist artists around the globe I have learned that toiling
the realistic features of the internally created reality has a lot to do with the
notion of integrity. The search for the inner truth in the produced reality
carries strong elements of the Odyssian journey. To be appreciated by the
artist making it, it has to be, well… real.
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Fo r m i n g R e a l i t y – T h e M a k i n g o f t h e R e a l
If we accept that “the Real is not Real” in Hyperrealism, and that the assumed
reality of it cannot be comfortably characterized as Surrealism, than how is it
different and how does it come about?
While the difference between “Realism” (as in real life) in Hyper-realistic works
and that in Surrealistic works may be simplified as the difference between a
clearly imaginary and “unrealistic” (in its most common laymen’s sense) reality
on the Surrealist side, and the “almost real” or “could be real” or even outright
“Real” (in the same laymen’s sense) on the Hyperrealist side, the making of the
latter is of a much more illusive nature. As the number of Hyperrealist works,
so may be the number of ways by which their inner reality comes about.
In this paper I limit my discussion to the samples provided by the works of
the artists participating in this exhibition; Debbie Han, Jeong il Oh and Wee
dong Yun.
Debbie Han
D i s t o r t e d M i r r o r s a n d t h e E l a s t i c i t y o f Ti m e a n d S p a c e
Many elements go into the making of a Hyperrealist reality. In trying to
analyze it one should be constantly aware that that reality is not made for the
purpose of creating an imaginary reality. It is developed by the artist as means
to an end of making comments on the reality the artist lives and operates
in. That means that the visual work functions as a telling mirror allowing
the artist to direct it at issues, ideas, emotions or any other elements of the
artist’s ‘real’ world. The better polished the mirror, the more telling it is.
Han’s mirrors are polished to perfection.
One of the most intriguing elements in producing Han’s “mirrors” is the
distortion embedded in them, which makes one undergo an experience
similar to that experienced in a distorted mirrors room – a fresh, distorted,
yet fathomable and even amusing look at what one may call reality.
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The gestures, the human interactions, the human scale and the poses of
the female figures in the works all suggest reality and are registered as
such, however, the “sculpturalization” of the figures clearly distances them
from it.
That distancing is enhanced by Han’s treatment of time and place. Both
dimensions stretch in all directions. In Bowing Grace, for example, Han
photographed a Korean woman in a traditional bowing pose and “sculpturized”
it in the form of a classical Greek marble sculpture. The time stretch is linear.
The photo and the object are contemporary, the posture is a hundreds of years
old tradition and the Western reference is many more hundreds of years
earlier. The work manages to place Korean unique tradition, the female form,
Western culture, history of art and aesthetics all in the same neutral space for
the viewer to witness and participate in making the multitude of threads that
connect and separate them.
Things get more complicated in a work like Seated Three Graces. Here both
time and space seem to stretch and contract depending on which of their
angles or elements are looked at. Here too, Han photographed Korean women
in familiar poses, engaged in a common act and “sculpturized” them in the
fashion of the classical Greek marble sculptures.
However, the aesthetics are not classically Korean. The plump figures suggest
Western contemporary and classical aesthetics of eras not coinciding with
ancient Greece. The common conversational poses do not correlate well with
the classical Greek sculptural poses either. More so, each individual pose takes
from a different time and place. The figure on the left places her hand in a
pose that may be the closest to traditional Greek sculptures, while the figure
in the middle is seated in the pose of the Buddha or that of an Indian god,
and the one on the right adopts the “thinking” pose of post-Romantic Europe.
Unlike Han’s other works exhibited here, the three figures are seated in a
“realistic space”. Notice the shading of the ground, suggesting an actual three
dimensional space, which is still devoid of any characteristics but it is not a
black void as in the other works.
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Debbie Han, Bowing Grace, 2007
lightjet print, aluminum, acrylic
edition 1/7, 220 x 115 cm
Debbie Han,
Seated Three Graces, 2009,
lightjet print, aluminum, acrylic
Edition 4/5, 120 x 166.7 cm
This is an exercise in control. By weaving the various elements the way she
does in Seated Three Graces, Han manages, on the one hand, to force the
suggested dimensions of time and place in her Hyperrealist environment to
remain limited to the cultures and issues she wants to discuss, while, on the
other hand, she succeeds in leaving vast conceptual fields elusive and open to
richer and deeper readings and inputs of the viewer.
of an element of art or craft. The process endears the object while the objectto-be provides the cause for the process.
Je o n g i l O h - T h e Cr o s s - O v e r Fu n c t i o n a l i t y o f t h e O b j e c t
Jeong il Oh was drawn to start this body of hair work over a decade ago
through his fascination with the work of Andrew Wyeth. What fascinated
him was not just the way Wyeth has drawn the hair of Helga, but the fixation,
the dedication, the duration of time and the romantic flare that went into the
works. Oh did not find his own Helga over the years painting hair, but he did
reach the depth he was after in the artistic process that enabled their birth. It
took him over a decade to produce less than fifty works.
Jeong il starts his work from a small image he has either taken by his small
digital camera or found in a newspaper or magazine. In most cases the
reference image contains a suggestion for the work and a negligible amount
of information compared to the drawn figure.
We e d o n g Yu n
God is in the Details
On this fine virtual path between the reference image and the painted image,
which is very slowly taking shape on the canvas, the two continuously pass
one another. The artist uses the “real” image as a reference and source for
the fictitious one, but no less, and as the painting develops – much more, he
uses the fictitious image as a meditative source with which he draws from the
original what may or may not has been in it.
Much as Woody Allen did in the Purple Rose of Cairo, Oh’s participants
cross over from the screen to “real life” and back, while the artist serves as
the screenwriter, the director, the set builder and the cameraman. Much
as making a film or engaging in the act of writing poetry to strict rules of
rhyming and weight, Oh plans his canvas to the inch and follows his plan
within the grid to completion. Much like making films and writing good
poetry, the magic happens in the process of the making.
Rather than painting his works, Oh meditates them into reality. The hairs are
placed on the canvas with hardly any reference to those in the original source.
They are placed where the artist feels they should be, but within the confines
of the pre-planned strict grid. This process requires a meditative mode. It is
rooted deep in the Oriental tradition that sanctifies the process in the making
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I have been the witness of many viewers’ first encounter with Yun’s works. I
have gone through it myself. In a catalog or from a few yards away the works
register as photographs. Well made photographs. Then you stand closely in
front of them and are owed by the painterly execution of the figures, and
then it dawns on you that you are looking at aquarelles surrounded by a
background of either black or white acrylic. After the initial disbelief (that
may take quite a while) comes the admiration of the exceptional execution.
It takes a long while and almost a physical effort to put that fascination aside
and read into the Hyperrealist figures.
Despite the meticulous and careful execution of the works Yun’s working
process is all about emotions. Pain, fear and sorrow are intertwined with
faith, hope and love of his models. His models are his family members and
himself and the works are emotional adaptations of life experiences. The
emotional elements Yun’s Hyperrealist world (and real world) are made of
are universal. So are the cultural and religious elements he borrows into
them. The outcome is a display of how photorealistic may the unreal be, of
how natural is the unnatural and of a sophisticated use of universally known
elements in the process of making a visual statement.
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Jeong il Oh, Braid, 2009
acrylic on canvas, 90.5 x 55 cm
Andrew Wyeth, Braids, 1979
tempera on masonite
Private collection
Much like the works of Jeong il Oh, Yun works from photographs. Much like
the works of his peer, most of the details in the works are absent from the
photographs. The photographs serve as references on which the artist places
his reality.
Oberly summarizes: “Although theorists highlight different historical
developments to explain hyperreality, common themes include the explosion
of new media technologies, the loss of the materiality of objects, the increase
in information production, the rise of capitalism and consumerism, and the
reliance upon god and/or ‘the center’ in Western thought”.
The wealth and abundance of artistic visual symbols of Christianity had
found its way to the Hyperrealist world of Yun’s work as well. In a series of
self portraits, not exhibited here, the artist is displayed with a variety of fresh
small wounds on his legs and hands. Those wounds were not in the original
photographs. They reference the wounds of the Savior and place the artist
in the imaginary position he would have liked to assume vis a vis his family.
A Concluding Comment
Reading this paper one may feel that Hyperrealist artists, or at least the three
followed in here, are conceptual philosophers and social theorists and that
their work is a manifestation of their well thought out and solid ideas and
views. Such reading of the paper will do to reality what Hyperrealism does to
it – it will create its own.
The creative process is much less clear and organized than its analysis. Many a
time it is totally un-filtered and its understanding may only come in hindsight
or with the help of outside viewers. Much of what is said may be manipulated
to suit this or that theory. One aspect of Hyperrealism is clear enough though
and should not be overlooked. Hyperrealist artists create realities we would
like to imagine or those we would like not to imagine, or those we have never
imagined. That is the magic of Hyperrealism. It reveals the under folds of
what one usually refers to as real. It brings out the shadows, the nuances,
the hidden sounds and the shades that loom in the human realm which T.E.
Lawrence coined: “the dusty recesses of our minds”.
Four works out of the twenty two works made so far as part of that body
of Yun’s work are of his pregnant sister. Three of them are pretty straight
forward. In Contrast 25 the pregnant figure is drawn in profile and is almost
completely engulfed in the black background. Very few features are seen of
the image, and of them center stage goes to the belly and hands. The hands
are poised as if they are holding and offering the belly and the latter is treated
with a diffused borderline and is the best lit element in the work. That
borderline creates a halo around the belly rendering it a sanctified object on
the one hand and a very theologically laden image on the other.
Wee dong Yun, Contrast 22,
2009, watercolor and acrylic
on paper, 194 x 130 cm
Wee dong Yun, Contrast 32,
2009, watercolor and acrylic
on paper, 117 x 91 cm
Wee dong Yun, Contrast 28,
2009, watercolor and acrylic
on paper, 100 x 80.3 cm
This body of work is finalized with Contrast 28, an image of a nursing infant
in the tradition of the mother and child in earlier works of the Madonna
and Child by Andrea Solario and Leonardo da Vinci. Yun’s Hyperrealism is
much about the practicing of Christianity as it is about the depiction of the
human figure, and it does so by layering easily read, culturally universal
images in a photorealist manner so that they become an inseparable part of a
new reality.
Andrea Solario, Madonna with
the Green Cushion, 1507-10,
Oil on wood, 59.5 x 47.5 cm
Louvre, Paris
Leonardo da Vinci, Madonna
and Child (Madonna Litta),
Circa 1482, Tempera on canvas
(transferred from panel),
42 x 33 cm
The Hermitage Museum,
St. Petersburg
Wee dong Yun, Contrast 25,
2009, watercolor and acrylic
on paper, 83 x 59 cm
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Debbie Han
Gracing Beauty
Maya Anner, Curator
The immediate reaction that Debbie Han’s artworks evoke at a first glance is
a great appreciation to their beauty and aesthetics. At a further look, and that
applies to almost all of her works in various media, the viewer asks himself:
“what is this and how was it made”? These two immediate reactions can be
seen as the essence of all of Han’s works. Beautiful objects masterfully created
while at the core of each of them is a complex thinking process and many
layers of meaning.
Though educated as a painter, Han works in various media: photography,
sculpture, pottery, installation and more. Whichever of these media Han
applies herself to she is first and foremost a conceptual artist. Saying that, her
works are far from only being conceptual statements and all of them involve a
very high level of craftsmanship which in itself is a key element in her works.
Talking Three Graces, 2008,
lightjet print, acrylic, aluminum
120 x 185 cm
Three Graces, 2nd century BC
marble (Roman copy of Greek
sculpture), height 119 cm.
Louvre, Paris
The Graces series is an ongoing series of digital works Han has been working
on for the last four years. The series portrays images of female figures in
various positions resembling white marble Classical Greek sculptures isolated
against dark backgrounds. The works start off as photographs that Han takes
of nude Korean women. Han photographs those women one by one and in
small groups in different activities, positions and gestures. In the next phase
Han uses digital manipulation, alters their bodies to look like smooth marble
sculptures and attaches Classical Greek heads to these bodies. The process
is very complex and forces Han to work pixel by pixel in order to achieve
the desired result. Due to the complicated process each work takes her a few
months to complete. The final outcome does not look like photographs of
sculptures but more like images of sculptures that have come to life.
Han declares that she photographs the women in gestures that are connected
to Korean and Asian cultures in general. In her work Bowing Grace from
2007 (see p.17) Han depicts a single figure in a bowing position typical to the
traditional Korean greeting act. Other works such as Secretive Three Graces
(see p.18) and Talking Three Graces show the women huddled together in
intimate poses. In Talking Three Graces the woman in the center lays her hand
over her mouth in a way typical to Korean women covering their teeth while
they laugh or talk. The intimate gestures among women are another element
that is typical to Asian culture. Although such intimate gestures among
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women are not common in the Western world today, in the Classical sources
which Han consciously refers to, the female figures are actually portrayed
in similar poses. A good example is the Hellenistic portrayal of the Three
Graces from second century BC. Today, such representations can be associated
with male fantasies about women and pornographic images. In combining
characteristics from different eras and cultures Han raises questions dealing
with the power of the female image throughout art history and brings to the
fore stereotypes projected on Asian women.
Han’s works bring to mind the works of another Korean-American artist,
the photographer Julie An. An’s staged self-portrait photographs deal with
common stereotypes towards her identity as an Asian-American woman. In
the photograph Odalisque (After Ingres) she positions herself in a scene taken
from Ingres’s famous painting The Grand Odalisque from 1814. Like Debbie
Han, Julie An uses art history in order to raise questions and criticism on
perception of women in general and Asian women specifically in today’s
global village. Through the use of sensual artifacts and costumes An deals
with the fetishistic representation of the “Other” in popular art and culture.
An’s works are more scathing then Han’s and to the best of my knowledge
Han isn’t familiar with the works of Julie An, nevertheless it is interesting to
see how the two artists who share similar biographical backgrounds deal with
related subject matters.
Looking at the most recent works in the Graces series such as Seating Three
Graces (see p.20) and Pregnant Grace (see p.19) it is interesting to notice the
direction that this series is taking. It seems as if these works are now dealing
less with translating the Asian gestures into the Western Classical beauty
canon but are more generally directed to all-embracing female issues. The
gentle portrayal of these women in everyday poses puts in mind the work
of the French painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec who was famous for his
humanistic paintings of low class women in daily acts and poses. A good
example is his painting Nude Standing Before the Mirror from 1897.
In her Sport Venus sculpture series Debbie Han continues to examine the
role of female sensuality in contemporary society. Han sculpts Classical
Venus heads almost identical in their basic form to the famous Hellenistic
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Julie An, Odalisque (After Ingres),
2003, color print, 78 x 93 cm
Jean August Dominique Ingres,
The Grand Odalisque, 1814
oil on canvas, 91 x 162 cm
Louvre, Paris
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec,
Nude Standing Before the
Mirror, 1897
work Venus de Milo from second century BC. On each Venus bust Han inlays
mother-of-pearl elements that symbolize a popular sport. Han uses the figure
of Venus as a universal icon of female beauty with which she combines these
popular sports and through this unification examines the appropriation of
the female body into public property. Han introduces an Asian angle to the
works by the complex sculpting technique she uses. The busts are lacquered
in a traditional Korean technique from the 17th century inlaid with the finest
seashells similar to mosaic style as can be clearly seen in the detail of the work
Sport Venus I (full work on p.21). This technique is very well known in Korea and
considered to be Asia’s jewel of craftsmanship. It almost seems as if Han is
trying to compensate women around the world and throughout history for all
the objectification they suffer through her tremendous efforts in sculpting the
Venuses in such a complex and honoring manner.
Venus de Milo (detail),
2nd century BC, marble
(Roman copy of Greek
sculpture), height 202 cm
Louvre, Paris
Sport Venus I (detail)
Terms of Beauty II (detail),
2007, ceramic celadon,
35 x 15 x 16 cm each
Similar elements can be found in Han’s sculptural series Terms of Beauty II
from 2007. This work is an installation consisting once again of Venus busts.
The facial features of each Venus are different representing various cultural
characteristics / clichés: slanted “Asian” eyes, a curved “Jewish” nose, plump
“African” lips. The busts in this series are made in traditional Korean celadon
ceramics, a technique Han has studied extensively over the last few years. The
celadon ceramic work process is very complex and demanding and involves
a great deal of trial-and-error. Therefore, out of all the hard work Han has
put in each firing session only few pieces “survived” the process and didn’t
break, bringing to mind the fragility of women throughout the world. In this
series Han raises questions about the meaning of beauty and supports them
in an almost Sisyphean sculpting technique which is an integral part of her
work’s meaning.
As stated at the beginning of this essay, Debbie Han’s works stimulate the
viewers to ask questions, both on the technical level and on the content level
which in her works are inseparable. Han investigates the world and deals with
issues of femininity, culture differences and beauty while exploring different
means of expression to assist her in finding the meaning.
B o w i n g Gr a c e , 2007
lightjet print, aluminum and acrylic
edition 1/7, 220 x 115 cm
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P r e g n a n t Gr a c e , 2009
lightjet print, aluminum and acrylic
edition 1/7, 142.5 x 185 cm
S e c r e t i v e T h r e e Gr a c e s , 2009
lightjet print, aluminum and acrylic
edition 2/8, 150 x 170 cm
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S p o r t Ve n u s I , 2008
lacquer and mother-of-pearl on mixed compound
edition 2/8, 60 x 27 x 27 cm
S e a t e d T h r e e Gr a c e s , 2009
lightjet print, aluminum and acrylic
edition 4/5, 120 x 166.7 cm
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S p o r t Ve n u s I I , 2008
lacquer and mother-of-pearl on mixed compound
edition 1/8, 60 x 27 x 27 cm
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S p o r t Ve n u s I I I , 2008
lacquer and mother-of-pearl on mixed compound
edition 1/8, 60 x 27 x 27 cm
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S p o r t Ve n u s I V , 2008
lacquer and mother-of-pearl on mixed compound
edition 2/8, 60 x 27 x 27 cm
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S p o r t Ve n u s V , 2009
lacquer and mother-of-pearl on mixed compound
edition 2/8, 60 x 27 x 27 cm
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We e d o n g Yu n
Search for the Re a l
Maya Anner, Curator
Wee dong Yun is the youngest artist showing in this exhibition and has only
recently graduated from art school (in 2008). Nevertheless, Yun’s works, both
technically and content wise show outstanding painting capacities and an
ongoing search for novelty and meaning.
Yun uses watercolor technique to depict hyper-realist images of human
figures. He utilizes the watercolors in order to achieve a sense of fragility in the
paintings exposing the brighter areas of the works to the texture of the paper.
The inconceivably detailed results look more alive then a photograph. Such
results are rarely achieved in oil or acrylic paintings let alone watercolors.
In the last two years Yun has gone through a fascinating process in his paintings,
getting closer and closer to real life and at the same time distancing himself
from realistic representation. In his works from 2008 and the beginning of
2009 Yun mainly painted female figures in various poses and compositions. In
some of these paintings the figure’s face was exposed, in others the head was
lowered, some had white backgrounds, some black and some had indications
of actual interiors such as the painting Contrast 4 from 2008 showing a young
woman sitting on a windowsill. At a first glance, all these paintings look like
hyper-realist representations of attractive women. In a closer look at the details
small imperfections pop out: veins, dirty fingernails, body hair, wrinkles.
Looking at the details of the figure’s hands in the painting Contrast 4 it almost
seems as if these harsh hands do not belong to the young delicate woman in
the painting. The hands look uncannily real but not as a part of the figure they
are connected to. This is an example for the beginning of a process in which
Yun employs hyperrealist watercolor painting techniques in order to change
the actual reality for the sake of emphasizing the psychological and emotional
aspects of his paintings.
Contrast 4, 2008, watercolor
& acrylic on paper on canvas
123 x 81 cm
Contrast 4 (detail)
Contrast 16 (detail)
During the past year Yun has stopped painting realistic or bright backgrounds
and is concentrating on placing his figures in front of black backgrounds.
Facial features are barely evident and full body parts have faded into the dark
backgrounds. In the paintings Contrast 8, Contrast 11 and Contrast 16 (see p.31,
30, & 35) young women are portrayed lowering their heads in a fetal position.
In these pieces, though the female figures look beautiful and appealing from
a distance, Yun has taken the process one step further as can be seen in the
images’ details. Wrinkled feet and neglected fingernails serve as Yun’s means
to search the souls of his sitters and himself.
In a self portrait from 2009 Contrast 34 (see p.28) Yun takes the real/unreal process to a different direction. Yun portrays himself against a black
background, once again in a fetal position, only his limbs are visible, his face
and the rest of his body have totally vanished in the black background. Though
the details of the hands and feet look extremely authentic, the absence of the
rest of the body creates a supernatural atmosphere. This feeling is intensified
by the changing colors in the painting. The legs and one hand are painted in a
grayish almost bloodless color and only one arm is painted in a lifelike color.
These elements evoke a very uncomfortable feeling. The viewers feel as if Yun
portrays himself drifting away while only one hand struggles in keeping him
alive. The painting makes one think of Michelangelo’s Creation of Man from the
Sistine chapel where God’s hand brings Adam to life.
Religious connotations are another element that can be seen in Yun’s recent
works. In another self portrait from 2009, Contrast 32, Yun paints himself
once again in the darkness, only his hands, feet and a small part of his head
visible. The intriguing elements in the painting are the cuts and bruises that
appear on his hands and legs bringing to mind famous paintings throughout
art history representing scenes of the Lamentation of Christ. In Contrast 31
(see p. 29) Yun depicts a woman in a praying posture, a recurring theme in
his works. It’s interesting to notice that in this painting the hyper-realist
deficiencies that were added to the paintings before are no longer present.
In the work Contrast 25 (see p. 33) he takes this direction one step further, now
subtracting realistic details and using elements of light and shadow in order to
create an atmosphere of spiritual pureness. In the painting of the breastfeeding
baby Contrast 28 (see p. 34) Yun adds a rare touch of lively purple color, so far
from the monochromatic palette that dominates most of his works.
It is fascinating to see how in a period of two years Yun has managed to
construct a unique world of intensive emotions and contradictions (it is no
coincidence that all his works are titled Contrast) all executed while struggling
with extremely complex painting medium and technique.
Contrast 11 (detail)
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Michelangelo, The Creation
of Adam (detail), 1511, Fresco
The Sistine Chapel, Rome
Contrast 32, 2009
watercolor & acrylic on paper
on canvas, 116.8 x 91 cm
Contrast 32 (detail)
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Co n t r a s t 3 1 , 2009
watercolor and acrylic on paper on canvas
116 x 80.3 cm
Co n t r a s t 3 4 , 2009
watercolor and acrylic on paper on canvas
116 x 83 cm
29
Co n t r a s t 8 , 2009
watercolor and acrylic on paper on panel
169 x 118 cm
Co n t r a s t 1 1 , 2009
watercolor and acrylic on paper on canvas
162 x 139 cm
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31
C o n t r a s t 2 5 , 2009
‹
watercolor and acrylic on paper on panel
83 x 59 cm
Co n t r a s t 3 5 , 2009
watercolor and acrylic on paper on canvas
116 x 90 cm
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33
Co n t r a s t 2 8 , 2009
watercolor and acrylic on paper on canvas
100 x 80.3 cm
Co n t r a s t 1 6 , 2009
watercolor and acrylic on paper on canvas
162 x 130 cm
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Jeong-Il Oh
To a Hair
Maya Anner, Curator
For over a decade the human hair has been the sole subject matter in the
works of Jeong-il Oh. Oh’s acrylic on canvas paintings are produced in a very
unique technique. Oh has developed a paintbrush that contains only one hair.
He creates this brush by folding all hairs in the brush except for a single
hair with which he paints. When that hair is no longer useable, he cuts it
out and releases a new one. Looking at the unbelievably detailed works that
Oh creates it becomes evident that the completion of each work takes him a
very long time. Similar principles apply to Oh’s whole working and thinking
process; his body of works is a result of years of profound methodical
thinking executed with endless patience and willingness to deeply investigate
the meaning of painting and of being a painter.
Untitled, 1998,
acrylic on canvas, 130 x 163 cm
Untitled, 1998;
acrylic on canvas, 130 x 163 cm
Michelangelo Merisi da
Caravaggio, Medusa, 1597,
oil on canvas mounted
on wood, 60 x 55 cm.
Uffizi Museum, Florence
In Oh’s work from March 1998 Untitled a profile of a young lady is depicted
against a dark background. It appears as if a light source is directed to
her head emphasizing her facial features and hair. Three months later, in
June 1998 in another Untitled work Oh depicts a figure in the same pose,
positioned on the same location, on the left side of the canvas. Once again, a
light is directed towards the model’s head, only this time it is just the hair that
is visible while the facial features have been absorbed in the dark background.
These examples show a beginning of a process that its outcome can be seen
in Oh’s recent works that are part of this exhibition. Looking at the works
Braid from 2004 and 2009 (see p. 42 & 38) and the work Lover from 2009 (see p.
39) it is clear that Oh no longer seeks realistic evidence for isolating the hair in
the paintings. The female hair has become a totally independent essence set
against the dark background. It is also interesting to notice the change of the
background over the years. While in the early works the dark background was
textured and could be interpreted as an actual wall in the current works the
background is a smooth black surface and can be experienced as an endless
void.
to be influenced by Caravaggio’s style, creating a combination between hyperrealist imagery and mysterious dark backgrounds and constantly playing
between the beautiful and appealing to the grotesque and threatening.
Another one of Oh’s early paintings Portrait in My Soul from 1998 seems to
directly correspond with Caravaggio’s and other Renaissance depictions of
Bacchus.
Looking at Oh’s painting of another common subject in Art History, the story
of Judith and Holofernes, it becomes clear how he interprets any story or
occurrence through human hair. In his painting The Head of Holofernes from
2000 Oh reduces the ancient religious tale into a depiction of Holofernes’s
hair. As opposed to the customary portrayal of this story throughout art
history, where Judith is the focal point, the only reference to Judith in Oh’s
painting is what seems to be her hand at the bottom of the canvas holding the
head of her enemy which she has just cut off. The painting is dominated by
a poisonous green color and evokes a very uneasy feeling. A similar feeling
rises from Oh’s painting El Dorado from the same year, where frizzy hair
is displayed in front of an unclear substance or body part. This painting
is a good example of the way Oh’s works shift between alluring to almost
repulsive imagery.
Through endless patience and a unique painting and thinking process Jeongil Oh manages to narrow down the whole world around him into human hair.
The result is beautiful, appealing, harsh and offensive, like life itself.
It will be truly fascinating to see the next phase this process takes him.
The Head of Holofernes,
2000, acrylic on canvas
162 x 130 cm
In the two works completed in 2010 Alive II and Alive III (see p. 40 & 41) Oh
takes this process one step further. The hair is not only isolated from the
human figure but is hardly recognizable as hair. In these paintings, especially
in Alive II, the hair has turned into an organic being with a life of its own.
The hair resembles different life forms, plants or reptiles and brings to mind
Caravaggio’s painting of Medusa from 1597. Oh’s overall body of works seems
36
Portrait in My Soul (detail),
1998, acrylic on canvas,
100 x 236 cm
El Dorado (detail),
2000, acrylic on canvas,
60.5 x 92.5 cm
37
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L o v e r , 2009
acrylic on canvas
91 x 42.5 cm
B r a i d , 2009
acrylic on canvas
90.5 x 55 cm
39
A l i v e I I , 2010
acrylic on canvas
97 x 145.5 cm
A l i v e I I I , 2010
acrylic on canvas
91 x 75.7 cm
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Artist Biographies
Debbie Han
B. 1969, Seoul, Korea
1999, MFA, New Forms, Pratt Institute, New York, USA
1993, BA, Art, University of California, Los Angeles, USA
Solo Exhibitions
2010
Debbie Han, Mbf-kunstprojekte,
Munich, Germany
2009
Hybrid Graces, LA Contemporary,
Los Angeles, USA
2008
Hybrid Graces, TouchART Gallery,
Heiri Art Valley, Korea
2007
Debbie Han, Galeria Punto,
Valencia, Spain
2006
Visions of Beauty, Freddie Fong
Gallery, San Francisco, USA
2008
The Border of Virtuality: Korean and
Chinese Media Art Now, Hanjiyun Contemporary Space, Beijing, China
Good Morning Mr. Nam June Paik,
The Korean Cultural Center, London, UK
A’s Paradise, Songgok Museum,
Seoul, Korea
2007
Wilhelm hack Museum,
Ludwigshafen, Germany
In Touch of the Present, Wada Fine Arts,
Tokyo, Japan
DEBBIEHAN, Gallery
Sun Contemporary, Seoul, Korea
2006
Media City Special Exhibition: Mertz’s
Room, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea
2005
Terms of Beauty, Gallery Ssamzie,
Seoul, Korea
2004
Idealistic Oddity, Brain Factory
Gallery, Seoul, Korea
2002
Condom Series, Gallery 825,
Los Angeles, USA
2005
Sweet World, Steuben East Gallery,
New York, USA
Reinventing Heritage, Hangaram Art
Museum, Seoul, Korea
2004
Composition and Center, Hangaram
Art Museum, Seoul, Korea
1999
Made in Korea, Gallerie Martine et
Thibault de la Chartre, Paris, France
Hybrid Trend, Hangaram Art
Museum, Seoul, Korea
S e l e c t e d Gr o u p E x h i b i t i o n
Selected Awards
2009
B r a i d , 2004
acrylic on canvas
53 x 33 cm
Korean Eye: Moon Generation,
The Saatchi Gallery, London, UK
2009
Cluster, Barbara Davis Gallery,
Houston, Texas, USA
The Sovereign Foundation Asian Art Prize,
Hong Kong
2007
Dissonant Visions, Seoul Museum
of Art, Seoul, Korea
The Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant,
NY, USA
2007
ARCUS Project, Artist-in-Residence,
Ibaraki, Japan
New Digital Age, Novosibirsk State
Art Museum, Novosibirsk, Russia
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2003
2009
Jeong il Oh
We e d o n g Yu n
B. 1972, Busan, Korea
B. 1982, Seoul, Korea
2002, MFA, Fine Arts, Hong-ik University, Seoul, Korea
1999, BFA, Fine Arts, Hong-ik University, Seoul, Korea
2008, BFA, Department of Western Painting,
Chungang University , Korea
Solo Exhibitions
Solo Exhibitions
Strange Forest, Gallery Sang, Seoul
2006
G RI DA - Illusion/Disillusion,
Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea
S e l e c t e d Gr o u p E x h i b i t i o n
2005
Brush Hour, Space Ieum,
Beijing, China
4 Men Talking Through Painting,
UNC Gallery, Seoul, Korea
2004
Young Realism, Gallery Artside,
Seoul, Korea
Re- interpreting Lee Sang
Through Contemporary Art,
Il Ju Art Center, Seoul, Korea
2003
Uncanny, Gallery La Mer, Seoul, Korea
2000
ArtLink@Sotheby’s
International Young Art 2000,
Chicago, Tel-Aviv, Vienna
Next Generation, Open Art Center,
Seoul, Korea
Communication & Groping, Jeon Ju
Art Museum, Jeon Ju, Korea
2008
Korea Now, ArtLink at Sotheby’s
Tel-Aviv Gallery, Tel-Aviv, Israel
2007
New Acquisitions 2006, Seoul
Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea
2009
S e l e c t e d Gr o u p E x h i b i t i o n
2008
MIXED & MEDIA, Chohyoung gallery,
Seoul, Korea
Painting the Inside, Jeonwon gallery,
Yangpyeong, Korea
ASYAAF Asian College & Young
Artists Festival, Seoul Train Station, Korea
Korea Now, ArtLink at Sotheby’s
Tel-Aviv Gallery, Tel-Aviv, Israel
Mixed Images, Gainro Gallery,
Seoul, Korea
Seikei-Chungang Donggwalgeumcheon Masterpiece Exhibition,
Heibei, China
Daegu Youth Biennale 2000, Daegu Culture
and Art Center, Daegu, Korea
1999
Contrast, INSA Art Center, Seoul, Korea
2007
The 3rd Eternity Exhibition,
Shilla Hotel Rm.516/Yogiga Galley,
Seoul, Korea
The Way of Human Relation, Gallery
Artside, Seoul, Korea
Recto Verso of Korean Hyper Realism,
Gallery LM, Seoul, Korea
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48