Susan Kang

Profile:

Education
2008   B.F.A, Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, Vancouver, Canada
2004   Certificate of Fine Arts, Kwantlen University College, Vancouver, Canada
         Certificate, Programme Court d’Apprentissage du Francais Pour-Non-FrancoTel,

         Université du Quebec a Trois-Rivieres, Trois Riviere, Canada

Solo and Group Exhibition2011   re.surface, Seoul Art Space GEUMCHEON, Seoul, Korea
         Sketchbook Project Tour, Various cities of U.S.A
2010   Anonyme Zeichner Archive show, Berlin, Germany
2009   Anonyme Zeichner No10, Berlin, Germany
         Painting on the Edge, Vancouver, Canada
         Legacy Artists Helping Artists, IMA, Wells, Canada
         Surrey Art Gallery Juried Exhibition, Surrey, Canada
2008   Anonyme Zeichner No9, Berlin, Germany
         Windsor Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
         China Earthquake Relief Fundraising Auction, Vancouver, Canada
         The Unwritten History of a Quixote, Helen Pitt Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
         Surrey Art Gallery Juried Exhibition, Surrey, Canada
         Leave Room for the Holy Spirit, Helen Pitt Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
         Under Graduate Exhibition, Concourse Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
         Art Noir, Women’s Health Dinner & Art Auction, Saskatoon, Canada

Award
2009   Emerging Artist Award, Painting on Edge, Vancouver, Canada
         3rd Place in sculpture, Surrey Art Gallery, Surrey, Canada
2008   Honorable Mention in painting, Surrey Art Gallery, Surrey, Canada
         Helen Pitt Award, ECIAD, Vancouver, Canada

Publication2009 Anonyme Zeichner No10, Berlin, Germany

CollectionSaskatoon(Canada), Vancouver(Canada),Tokyo(Japan), Seoul(Korea), Berlin(Germany)

Residency
2011 Seoul Art Space GEUMCHEON 2nd-term residency artist, Seoul, Korea

I have started out as a painter. And for that, I was able to develop a pictorial viewing ways. What particularly interest me in the pictorial viewing is the distancing between the work and the viewers. This distancing creates continuation in ways of looking the work in multiple layers or depths as well as both physical and visual narrative. To see is to discover and to experience.

Despite my work being presented in plain view, the visibility of the work depends upon the viewer’s ability to observe the surrounding space. And the placement of my work, in it’s varying medium, is decided upon after observing the space in a way that predicts the viewer’s movement. I would like to think of the viewer’s movement as a narration. The word narration is related to Latin adjective gnarus, meaning “knowing” and narration can also used to refer to the sequence of events. The sequence starts as the viewer is made aware of the work by its’ prosaic yet direct hints, such as the title or the location of the title. From this discovery the viewer pursues the search for the work. At times such discovery may come abrupt. The viewer’s

movement flows from one end of the space to another to be stopped sudden by the work that remained invisible/in visible until serendipity creates a poignant disruption to the flow. This disruption creates a moment, the moment of a discovery. But this disruption quickly subsides by the viewer’s narrative movement, who continues onto his or her path to the other end of the space. The repetitive quality in my work has the similarity to this movement. Repetition itself has minor resonances of difference that creates visual disruptions but in whole the work flows in expected manner in same direction.

It’s not the “near-invisible” state I’m interested in working as so much as creating a depth in work where there is a process of viewing. I don’t want the work to sit in comfortable “art” status or in preciousness. And creating visual depth in the work results in tension that pushes and pulls with the viewer’s gaze that never stands. If anything, I would rather like to believe that my work is absurdly prosaic (and in sense I see myself holding lots of similarity to works of Park Ki-won, Tara Donovan and Giorgio Morandi). Materials of no significance are used in no significant manner, but with absurd dedication and obsession that is repetitious. The materials are handled to balance the logic of its usage with romanticism of personal that renders reason as absurd. By no means the “logical usage”, such as hammering the nail, wrapping the plastic wrap or simply using the staple, is to perpetuate the material truth. By being selective of the traits in these materials I dedicate myself to the humble honesty.

Susan Kang