VISUAL ARTS COMPETITION AWARD WINNERS 2009
Curated by Hyewon Yi
August 18 – August 29, 2009
Gana Art New York
Artists
Jinkee Choi, Jarrett Min Davis, Yeon Jin Kim, Jeonghyun Lee, Kakyoung Lee, Jaye Moon
THE AHL FOUNDATION is pleased to present Eclectic Visionaries: The AHL Foundation Visual Arts Competition Award Winners 2009, an exhibition of works by six Korean artists living and working in the United States. AHL Foundation’s sixth annual competition jurors were Nathalie Anglès, former director of the International Residency Program, Location One; Melissa Chiu, director of the Asia Society and Museum; and Benjamin Genocchio, art critic for the New York Times.
The AHL Foundation is a nonprofit organization formed in 2003 to support Korean artists living in the United States and dedicated to promoting exposure of their work in the contemporary art world. In 2004, the Foundation established an annual competition open to artists of Korean ancestry living in the United States. AHL awarded four monetary prizes each year and has been mounting bi-annual exhibitions to display the
winning works. Beginning last year, AHL made the winner’s exhibition an annual event, and this year for the first time, the jurors extended their selection to six artists.
Common characteristics of this year’s entries are heightened levels of color along with playful references to Surrealism and Pop Art. Despite the originality of their work, these artists’ techniques are relatively traditional:
whether painting, sculpture, installation, or video, they reveal evidence of construction by employing elements of assemblage and collage. But the notion of making invoked in these artworks is less about craftsmanship than it is about the truthful and compelling realization of concepts. These six eclectic visionaries give us a wide range of ideas in diverse media displaying exceptional visual power, striking originality, formal sophistication, and a discreet sense of humor.
