Kang Un
Biography
Kang Un
(born in 1966, Gwangju, South Korea)
Born in 1966 in Gwangju, South Korea, Kang Un graduated from Chonnam University of Fine Arts. In Korean "Un" mean "cloud", and the artsist maintains a very close,personal relationship with the sky and its representations since his childhood.
In the early 1990s, he began the series, Drawing a Stroke on the Water. He applies paint on the back of a rice paper sheet, hanji, which is moistened beforehand. The contact of the ink with the water gives birth to a form, at first, hazardous, but then suddenly all its suggestive, even figurative, force unfolds. The artist thus manages to grasp the essence of the cloud. And as he himself points out, "doesn't the cloud originally arise from the drop of water? ".
Following a great exhibition "Elegance of Silence" at the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo in 2005, Kang Un develops the new series "Air and Dream". Constructing a mosaic of colored and carved hanji paper pieces, he captures the energy of nature, the force of wind and the light piercing through the clouds.
If the "Drawing a Stroke on the Water" is a variation around the power of "a single brush stroke", the patience and application behind "Air and Dream" are an invitation to meditation and daydreaming. A unique way, according to the artist, to "get away from the troubles of daily life and embrace nature entirely".
Exhibitions selected
Solo exhibitions
2017 - Sky - Touch the Air, Françoise Livinec Gallery, Paris
2015 - Trace of Wind, May Hall, Gwangju, Korea
2014 - Room of Sky, Haewa Space, Gwangju, Korea
2013 - Mudeungdowonkyeong-Language landscape, Lotus gallery, Gwangju, Korea
2012 - Water, Air and Dream, Museum of Posco, Seoul, Korea
2011 - Drawing a Stroke on the Water, Lotte Gallery, Anyang, Korea
2010 - Cloud, Wind, Flower and Pure, Beacon Gallery, Seoul, Korea
2006 - Expression of the sky, EBS space, Seoul, Korea
2005 - Pureness Form-Soman, Museum of Art, Gwangju, Korea
Group exhibitions
2017 - Art Basel - YIA, Basel
2017 - Ailleurs est ici, École des Filles-Espace d'art, Huelgoat
2017 - Art Paris Art Fair, Paris
2016 - Being in Nature, Museum SAN, Wonju, Korea
2015 - Cloud and Flight, Daejeon Museum of Art, Daejeon, Korea
2015 - 200 Years of the Namdo Art, Busan Museum of Art, Busan, Korea
2014 - Heritage, Legacy and Light, UNESO Headquarters, Paris, France
2014 - Korean Beauty-Two Kinds of Nature, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea
2013 - Biennale de Pyeong Chang, Earth Harmony, Donghae, Korea
2013 - All About Korea, White Box, Munich / Schultz gallery, Berlin, Germany
2009 - The Spirit of the Terrain, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Art, Taichung, Taiwan
2007 - Slow, Miki Wick Kim Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland
2005 - Elegance of Silence, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
2005 - Record of Nature, Seoul City Art Museum, Seoul, Korea
2001 - Salute to summer Exhibition, Gallery Asia, Hong Kong
Collections
Leeum Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea
Samsung, Headquarter, Séoul, Korea
Seoul City Art Museum, Seoul, Korea
Mori Art Museum, Japan, Tokyo
Jeju Museum of Contompory Art, Jeju, Korea
Gwangju City Art Museum, Gwangju, Korea
Sunggok Art Museum, Seoul, Korea
