Seol Kwon could also be an summary artist, however she began portray to unravel a real-world drawback. Kwon was born in Korea in 1972 and was raised in the USA. Her earliest photos have been portrait-like, she explains on this interview, and have been created to assist her discover her personal place in a society the place female, Asian faces like hers have been a comparatively uncommon sight.
These nascent visible investigations have developed into way more nuanced, mature works, which grapple with the themes of gender, race, consumerism and political id, whereas additionally drawing on organic and scientific varieties.
Kwon took her BFA on the College of the Museum of High-quality Arts, Boston, a Postgraduate diploma in New Media Artwork on the Haute Ecole D’artwork et Du Design, Geneva; and has proven extensively on either side of the Atlantic. Right now she lives in Switzerland, and attracts inventive steerage from such greats as Louise Bourgeois, Marilyn Minter and Bronzino.
Collectors may additionally detect echoes of Lawrence Weiner and Jean Arp in her fastidiously fashioned, extremely coloured works, which can nonetheless mimic portraits, however by no means fully resolve into figurative compositions.
Kwon is one in every of many up to date artists who’ve chosen to supply their work straight by way of Artspace, as a part of our Artist Direct program. We spoke to Kwon about her ambitions for her work, her hopes for the longer term, her personal inventive follow, and the exceptional piece of museum structure that first set her on a path to changing into a fantastic artist.
SEOL KWON – Have an effect on of Snow, 2021
How would you describe your work to somebody who has by no means seen it? As lush colourful abstractions, which initially appear to be solely painterly and expressive gestural marks, however are, upon nearer inspection, fantastic strains and tiny circles which create luminous and voluminous varieties. The expressions of concentrated vitality and shapes might be concurrently interpreted as mobile microcosms and common macrocosms.
I additionally combine neon parts, typically as abstractions, typically as descriptive strains that full an elusive figurative portrait. These shocking, luminescent, neon parts add one other dimension and thriller, talking to the battle of human-cyborgian up to date life and lightweight of the digital dimension.
There are references to the ratio of the gold spiral, divine proportions which might be present in nature, and cross sections of DNA to talk to a sure universality inside the work as patterns, colours and luminescent neon strains.
These create archetypical varieties that might be learn as a recorded dialog between the artist and canvas about experimentations in deep consciousness and the resonant patterns in existence.
What made you need to turn out to be an artist? My earliest creations have been portraits of feminine faces as a baby. It was my approach of making an attempt to know and manifest a mirrored image of myself which was not seen on the planet round me. Being nearly the one one with an Asian look in a black and white group made it a battle for me to attempt to settle for and depict the eyes. I at all times made them ’western’ trying, as that was largely what I noticed round me. To make eyes which regarded like mine, with out feeling disgrace, was the primary impulse that drove me to attract.
The precise second once I knew I need to turn out to be an artist, was once I was fully gripped and entranced by an paintings within the Denver Artwork Museum. I couldn’t consider artwork could possibly be so lovely. Then I noticed with a lot mortification and humiliation, that it was not a ‘actual paintings’ however a window which was coated and emanating a glowing mild. Right now I do know, it wasn’t simply any window, it was Gio Ponti! The constructing was the paintings.
SEOL KWON – Nothing shall be higher tomorrow than it’s right now, 2022
What are the issues happening which are inspiring you proper now? A societal shift from globalism to nationalism. This invokes me to much more deeply search threads of commonality within the human expertise. I’m a pupil of Carl Jung.
What are essentially the most attention-grabbing issues that individuals say to you about your work? That it stays of their reminiscence. That it’s putting. That it’s constructive and evokes pleasure. That they get pleasure from watching it shift throughout completely different instances of the day.
Feminism performs an enormous function in an understated approach in your work. What parts are you notably keen on? The liberation of id irrespective of the standard technique of subjugation.
SEOL KWON – I held out two fists in entrance of him, 2022
The place do you slot in, who do you suppose you belong alongside? By way of inventive temperament, Louise Bourgeois for her rebelliousness and dedication to the magic of her childhood. With the inventive follow, Marilyn Minter as a result of she took the trajectory of the long-distance run and was keen to work a day job in an effort to not compromise her work for {the marketplace}. And for aesthetic affect – not the subject material or talent – Bronzino for the way he engaged viewers to look deeply into the small print of his portraits, the place form is given by coloration creating the shape, not the inverse. It consequently is ready to imbue, in a uniform floor, a mess of textures and a way of wonderment.
Might you describe your course of and the way it works? My course of isn’t typical, but it may be methodical and meditative. Planning what instruments I’ve readily available and my psychological mindset is essential to how I start. Then I take a leap into the void. At first, I power myself to relinquish management, and from that time onwards, use that preliminary impulse to have a dialog, shaping a message by means of layers, texture transparency, colours, and the seek for a sure proportional code. I revisit issues for months, and at instances years, till it tells me it’s completed.
Are you able to inform us just a little about three of your works on Artspace? Have an effect on of Snow and Document Cowl Eye are nearly a diptych, and each are neo-portraiture in that they converse to an area which is concurrently about inner psyche and exterior panorama and digital vs. pure mild. Wind, turning water into the velocity of sunshine was made in a extremely concentrated second. For me it’s like a cross between Jean Arp and Lawrence Weiner if he didn’t use textual content.
Do you acquire artwork your self ? Sure, largely up to date girls artists and ornamental design objects from the fashionable period. At a sure level I noticed that it’s attainable, if one appears exhausting sufficient, to get one thing by the dwelling artists who’ve actually impacted my life trajectory, even when it’s one thing very small or modest, as a totem. It retains me from changing into overly narcissistic. The very last thing I obtained was a print by Marc Bauer of Queen Elizabeth waving to a crowd.
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