Kwon Yongju
Year : 2013
Genre : visual arts
Profile
Education
2002 BA University of Seoul, Environmental sculpture
Solo exhibition
2011 Waterfall_Structure of Survival, Munrae Art Factory, Seoul, Korea
2010 Buoylight, Insa art space, Art council Korea, Seoul
2002 Former) Spa, Parking area, Seo-ung medical company, Seoul
Group exhibition
2013 Art on Farm, Jim Thompson Farm, Thailand
Gunpo International Art Residency, Geumjung pachulso, Gunpo-si
A House yet Unknown, Art Space Pool, Seoul
On-Mobility, Gallery Factory, Seoul
2012 Play Time, Culture Station Seoul 284
So We Side With You. Art Space Pool, Seoul
Above Your head, below their feet, Seoul New Media Festival, Seoul
Project – A cabinet in the washing machine, Seodaemungu recycling center
2011 Piece like a river, space 99, Seoul
music video screening show ‘millions of…’ with mixrice’s publication party,
ggooollpool, Seoul
2011 No excavation, Art space pool, Seoul,
2010 Honorable Citizen Award, Art space pool, Seoul
In absentia, Dongduk art gallery
Day of confidence, art space pool & art space ggooollpool, Seoul
Seogyo sixty 2010 the imaginary archive – the gaze of 120, gallery sangsangmadang, Seoul
Daily opening, gallery 175, Seoul
2009 Evanescent Landscape, Tongui-dong, Bo an yeo kwan, Seoul
2008 Spring Art Show, ‘Salon des Refusés’, space C, Seoul
Residency
2013 Jim Thompson Art Center, Bangkok, Thailand
Gunpo International Art Residency,
Geumcheon Art Factory, Seoul Art Space, Seoul Foundation of Arts and Culture
2011 Gunsan Art Residency, Gunssan, Korea
2010 Ggoollpool, Seoul
Concours / Fellowship
2011 Waterfall _ Structure of Survival, Munrae Art Factory, Seoul Foundation of Art & Culture
2010 Buoy Light, Insa Art Space, Arts Council Korea
Public art project, ‘dong-dong-dong’, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism
2005 Jeune creation 2005, Paris, France
Etc.
Present : Public Art Group‘Sam Go Ri’, Co-op
2013 SS-Lab, Korea Artists Welfare Foundation
2010 Public art project, ‘dong-dong-dong’, Ministry of culture, Korea
2009 Criticism Workshop for Young Artists, Arts Council Korea
Works
Melting point 2013
Burned & Melted Plastic Chair
60cm x 60cm x 160cm(H)
A House yet Unknown, Art space pool, South Korea
Melting point 2013
Burned & Melted objects
blue chair : 50cm x 50cm x 150cm(H)
table : 120cm x 60cm x 70cm(H)
A House yet Unknown, Art space pool, South Korea
Waterfall _ Structure of survival 2011
object, water pump
Munrae art factory,
Seoul foundation for arts & culture
Monument - Society for a better tomorrow, 2012
painting on carved styrofoam
Waterfall _ Structure of survival 2011
object, water pump
Munrae art factory,
Seoul foundation for arts & culture
Waterfall _ Structure of survival 2011
object, water pump
Munrae art factory,
Seoul foundation for arts & culture
Waterfall _ Structure of survival 2011
object, water pump
Munrae art factory,
Seoul foundation for arts & culture
Amateur Architecture Association, 2010
drawing, cement bricks, variable size
In absentia, Dong duk art gallery
Buoy Light 2010
objects installation, variable size
Insa art space, Art Council Korea
Somebody’s mountain _ We’ll see You at the top 2009
Evanescent landscape, Bo-an Yeo-kwan
Being Urged to Document
Lee Su Yeon, Curator (National Museum of
Modern and Contemporary Art)
Kwon Yongju begins his work from the
reality we inhabit. He produces his works by using techniques learned through
production of documentaries, public sculpture, and a part-time job installing artworks
at a gallery, exploiting common objects he could obtain in his surroundings. He
explores harmony between his life and work through an exchange of labor and
work, providing viewers with an opportunity to think about what meaning labor
has in contemporary society. His endeavor to juxtapose his artistic work with
his life displays a social anxiety the present generation shares: people of the
present generation tend to consider their work represents themselves. Since
2008 he did not separate artist and worker any more. He used abandoned
materials such as construction materials, packing materials, vinyl cloth,
paint-pots, and MDF for his works including the <Who’s mountain-We’ll see
you at the top series>, displayed at Boan Yeogwan in Tongui-dong, Seoul, and
<Buoy-light> series (2010) exhibited at Insa Art Space, constructed by
adopting technologies and methods he learned working at his part-time job.
Colossal installation works are made with these articles piled up from floor to
ceiling. The structures’ close equilibrium harks back to a balance between
labor and life. His single-channel video <Knots> features factory scenes
at a textile plant in Thailand, dubbed with the voice of his mother who was a
factory worker at a textile mill in Korea between the 1960s and 1970s. His
mother’s memories and Thai workers’ work showcase labor conditions that have
changed very little alongside simple happiness. The artist recently considered
how to turn out more products of his labor and work in a more aggressive
manner. He engaged actively in exhibition design at <BONUP: Art as
Livelihood> (2014), an exhibition held at the Doosan Art Center Gallery with
an all-round wall that can be used as a screen or partition. He joined at the
4th Anyang Public Art Project in 2014 as an exhibition designer to rearrange
the space of the Kimchungup Museum. In his thesis, An Archival Impulse, Hal Foster
pointed out that contemporary artists begin their work from preexisting objects
and information, which is one of the characteristic signs of contemporary art.
According to Foster, artists create new information and employ their practical
experience for their artistic work by using the import of everyday objects.
Kwon Youngju can be credited as one of the artists leading the orientation of
contemporary art in that he attempts to encapsulate the present generation’s memories
of labor and experience while utilizing the meaning of quotidian objects.
