In October, Kwai Fung Hin Art Gallery is delighted to present the third solo exhibition of French-Korean artist Myonghi, entitled 'Consciousness of Color, Color of Consciousness'. The exhibition showcases 15 oil paintings and 14 works of pastel created by Myonghi in recent years. Inspired by the natural scenery of Jeju Island in Korea, Hong Kong and France, she captures the fleeting nature by her unique sensibility in abstract strokes. The exhibition is sponsored by Bank of China (Hong Kong) Private Banking.
The exhibition is accompanied by an exhibition catalogue with essays by Mr. Dominique de Villepin, former prime minister of France and poet, French philosopher Régis Debray, and French historian Daniel Arnald, providing in-depth analyses for the art of Myonghi.
Born in 1947 in South Korea and graduated from College of Fine Arts, Seoul National University, Myonghi moved to France in 1972. In 1986, she was invited to exhibit in the Centre Pompidou in Paris and has drawn attention of the Western art world since then. She was highly regarded by Western art critics, including philosopher Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe and poet Alain Jouffroy. Mr. Dominique de Villepin, the former Prime Minister of France and poet, described Myonghi as "a gem known only to insiders".
The universe and nature are the themes of Myonghi's works. She travels around to sketch and never focuses on representing the realistic scenery. Instead, she intuitively captures the rhythm hidden in nature, recalling the spirituality underneath the superficial and deconstructing the logic of structure and colour senses; she explores the core of nature and recreates landscape painting that is beyond representation and abstraction.
Myonghi has spent a lot of time travelling, mostly to the exotic places, to confront the fierceness of nature. Her traces cover Gobi desert, Mongolia, Chile, Patagonia Glaciers, Huangshan, etc. This exhibition is a representation of the artworks created back at the place where Myonghi was rooted. Most of the exhibits were inspired by Seokwang Village, garden of camellia, pine fields and the coastline of Jeju Island in Korea.
The exhibits are ranged from works on paper to oil on canvas, small to very large formats, nearly figurative landscapes to compositions of quick strokes. Myonghi seeks to present the reality on the painting, and to achieve a certain pure state through painting.
At the age of seventy-one, Myonghi's creative passion has never been compromised. To her, creation is the process of self-liberation. Her paintings are a pure sensibility freed from boundaries and a pursuit of the connection and resemblance between human and nature.
As quoted from the article written by Mr. Dominique de Villepin specially on this exhibition,
'Myonghi is a rare artist… but even rarer because of her qualities, her talents and in short her difference in the contemporary world of artistic creation… This selection shows the magnitude of her palette, ranging from her delicate and ridged paintings escaping the white reserve of the canvas to rich landscapes, loaded with life where colours confront one another the way sky and earth attract, repel, interpenetrate each other...'
Consciousness of Color, Color of Consciousness - Solo Exhibition of Myonghi
Exhibition period
15 October - 15 November 2018
Location
Kwai Fung Hin Art Gallery, G/F, 20 Ice House Street, Central, Hong Kong
