We are pleased to introduce our first “Brief Encounter” exhibition. With the idea of creating short, spontaneous, experimental shows for artists who have never shown with us before, “Brief Encounters” let us bring you occasional snapshots of some the many interesting artists we come across in our daily explorations as a contemporary gallery. This first show presents the work of Chinwook Kim and Ying Yang.
Chinwook Kim is a Korean artist we’ve been admiring for some time following his MA show at the Slade in 2010. His work is a combination of drawing, painting, sculpture and doodling, producing from the mix some imaginative and lyrical works that grow organically across any surface he chooses to work on. On the one hand it’s graphic and almost illustrational, but there is also something much more complex and ambitious happening in his paintings – as if the process of production were an adventure in itself, and from the paths he follows, this imaginative terrain is created. There are a number of young artists working with this idea of meandering graphic line at the moment, to the extent that it’s almost becoming a bit of a genre in itself, but for us Chinwook’s work has a distinct edge, and really stands out for its ambition and fluidity.
Ying Yang is a Chinese painter who was part of the 85 New Wave movement in China that broke the bonds of the Cultural revolution and paved the way for the explosion of Chinese contemporary art today. Ying’s recent paintings are anchored in the figurative tradition of still life but with an inescapably surrealist edge. Even with simple images of reflective objects (here, a silver Buddha and a chrome rabbit), there is something potent in his imagery, as if these novelty toys somehow “meant” something, or had some totemic power. In advance of plans to return to China and explore several projects with what were then his colleagues, and what are now some of the biggest and most established names in contemporary Chinese art, we are pleased to bring some of Ying Yang’s recent paintings to light.
