Luminous Coordinates: Zaun Lee, Jake Sungwook Seo, Zin Helena Song, Yusam Sung, JooYeon Judy Yang
Opening Reception: April 2 – April 17
Opening Reception: Saturday, April 4, 3-5pm
Hutchins Gallery
Long Island University, Post Campus
720 Northern Blvd., Brookville, NY 11548
The AHL Foundation is pleased to present a Special Exhibition at Long Island University’s Hutchins Gallery curated by Eun Young Choi. Luminous Coordinates brings together five artists of Korean heritage who explore human relationships and complex social phenomenon in visually colorful metaphors that range from minimalist abstract paintings to multi-layered collages. The artworks act as interwoven pieces of the puzzle that combine Eastern and Western traditions as they interpret and define fascinating and intricate narratives of the human condition in order to find coordinates to anchor themselves within the ever changing contemporary world.
Yusam Sung’s “Arrows” series are austere minimalist paintings composed of frenzied and chaotic scribbles, which reference the uniquely defined directionality of arrows, yet explores the complexities of our lives and the world that may not be so unidirectional or orderly. Sung is interested in examining the duality of order and disorder inherent in human life and the challenge of defining what that means. His work often re-examines art history and reinterprets the purpose of familiar objects.
Zin Helena Song’s sculptural paintings are composed of vibrant geometric planes. Though abstract in their final form, Song’s paintings develop out of line drawings and are informed by the fragmented urban landscape. Song’s interests lie in the interaction of color, shape, space, and geometry as the polygonal planes meet and create unexpected effects. Song views these phenomena as metaphors for people and society.
JooYeon Judy Yang’s “The One Nation Banknote Series” is an ongoing project that deals with the idea of Utopia and the end or beginning of the world. The intricate collage made of real international banknotes act as currency for a fictional country called the One Nation. Taking its cue from myths, religious stories as well as reality, Yang’s fanciful narratives utilize the utopian symbols that each unique bank note carries within them, the often hidden and forgotten historical social catastrophes and the exploitation of the social and economic weak.
Zaun Lee’s paintings and drawings utilize the grid as a starting off point and a practical tool to efficiently shape and understand contemporary society in physical and symbolic ways. She considers the grid a compositional unit of individual pixels as it is often used in postmodern technology and internet media and by manipulating, reducing or expanding the grid units, she explores the dual functions of mathematic system of division and segmentation that simultaneously functions as connecters to unify individualization, differentiation, multiplicity, and divergence. Lee’s beautifully sublime surfaces are filled with both architectural precision and expressive drips.
Jake Sungwook Seo’s work is inspired by his experience in the laundromat. The daily chore can tell myriads of stories through its distinct textiles and colorful folds that come together to form a harmonious pattern just as different races, cultures, beliefs, and personalities come together and commingle in our society. Traces of people’s lives and stories remain on the clothes and as these clothes are washed and neatly folded, they came to symbolize the people’s hopes and dreams for the future. Seo views the folded cloths as stand-ins for the diverse aspects of daily life that he encounters in the city.
Eun Young Choi is a New York-based independent curator, museum educator, artist and arts administrator originally from Seoul, Korea. She holds a MFA from the School of Visual Arts and a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Choi has organized exhibitions and performance events in collaboration with various organizations including the New Museum’s IDEAS CITY Festival, National Academy Museum, United Nations Headquarters, Asian American Art Centre and Arario Gallery New York. Her exhibitions and programming have been featured in the New York Times, New York magazine, VOGUE magazine, The Brooklyn Rail, Artcritical and numerous other media outlets.
Her most recent project is a feature in Culturehall (http://culturehall.com/feature_issues.html?no=118).
AHL Foundation is a 501(c)3 visual arts organization with a mission to support Korean artists living in the United States and is committed to promoting and providing greater exposure of their work. This exhibition is organized by the AHL Foundation with the generous support from Long Island University, Post Campus, Jason J. Kim Oral Design and numerous other donors.
