AXIS 2021

‘AXIS’ is an annual exhibition hosted at 021gallery that aims to provide a base for new artists to focus on their creative works.

‘AXIS 2021’ exhibition will present the artworks from Minyoung Kang, Ram Han, Hayne Park, and Min Ahn.

Minyoung Kang paints sceneries. The nature that the artist paints is not the nature that is dreamy or beautiful. Also, the space is not a happy place where we go to appreciate the nature. She paints the areas that are near us but are isolated and strayed from our attention. In this exhibition, the artist uses different mediums to express the sceneries that have never been under a spot light to present artworks that have ‘spatialized the nature’.

“Recently, I’ve been experimenting with designs, paintings, and portrayals of multiple expressions of images using the medium of space and installation. Through multi-dimensional experiences that are not buried in visual information, I tried to interpret nature in a microscopic view by distancing myself from the traditional methods of scenery painting. I attempted to explore the artistic spaces through spacial recognition that puts a spotlight on the textures as well as the light and shadow, which are the traditional themes of the medium that has always dealt with space, architecture, as well as through visual proportion and periodic juxtaposition.

(Excerpt from the artist’s note)”

Ram Han mainly works with digital drawing as her main medium. The artist portrays abstract images by following the memories about things like games and buoy which she saw at a place where she went to travel, the things that have settled without a purpose somewhere in her mind. Like how tourists feel happy at places where they have no knowledge, and different from how people feel when they visit the tourists spots of their neighborhoods, Ram Han presents works that show the continuation of artificial romance which started on the glitch of different ecosystems on the Earth.

“I’ve always believed that my complex is what makes me want to keep drawing. Cartoon-like, flat object that strives to become closer to the reality, the drawings that move and that does not move, the comics that do not have stories and that is rich with stories, the works with an original piece and the ones that exist without it. I motivate myself with the works on such complexes which are based on being not able to be satisfied from the medium.

(Excerpt from the artist’s note)”

Hayne Park specialized in glass ‘modeling’ in department of formative art, not glass ‘craft’. She explores glass works that stand between the boundary of crafts and modern art. The artist tells the story around the vast topic of life and light through glass, a medium which has stayed with the humankind for over 6000 years. By collaborating with different fields such as architecture, art, and design, she presents glass works that have been given life by infusing the transparency and mobility of glass with light.

“Let’s think about the fact that things are created from liquid. Like many mythologies, forms that are created from water are like the things that are newly born. However, this birth is not described as ‘formed’ like when people describe how humans are formed by God, instead, the act is closer to taking out something from the water. As if it already existed in its form underneath the surface. Although this is a mere imagination, it is clear that the things that are created from water are created in a different logic from the things that are ‘formed’. The reason why I am bringing this up in the introduction is because glass is made from red liquid that shines. There’s something that’s alive that is being born, in other words, I wanted to make you remember the moment that the object was moving.

(Excerpt from the artist’s note)”

Min Ahn takes a personal approach towards the vast discussion of morality and immorality and explores it through things that are realistic and ordinary, and she works with the topic to express her work. She records the dates, types of vehicle, colors, and number plates of the vehicles which caused danger to anonymous others for the sake of their own. She then prints the images and destroys them, or she takes a reference from a scrapped car from online to create destructive drawings. After the work is done, she adds the number plate of the vehicles as the subheading of the work. In this exhibition, Min Ahn is going to present ‘canvas drawing’ and ‘digital drawing’.

“I like movies and music that are rather violent and rough. Complicated emotions that come from things like unfair practices of law, dissatisfaction with the society, violence, and personal revenges appear as if they’re mocking my rational ego and consciousness that try to control my thoughts. Perhaps I’m attracted to things that are clear and simple because there are so many things that I try to look away and avoid in the real world. (Excerpt from the artist’s note)”