Visual Art 2013 -2021

~ 2021 ~

Artist Talk series on Korean Arts

Moderated by Prof. Sunglim Kim, who specializes in pre-modern and early 20th-century Korean art and culture. Her research interests include the rise of consumer culture in late Chosŏn dynasty and the role of the professional nouveau riche, the so-called chungin (middle people) in the production, distribution, collection, and consumption of art in 18th and 19th century Korea; artistic exchanges among China, Korea, and Japan; the shaping of images of Korea and her people during the Japanese colonial period; and the use of visual space as political tool in modern and contemporary Korea. She received her Ph.D. from UC Berkeley, and started in Dartmouth College in 2012 and Assoc. Prof now. Awarded a prestigious Korean Studies Grant for 2020 by the Academy of Korean Studies. in Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH.

May 8 – Joomchi (Traditional Korean Paper)

Jiyoung Chung is Joomchi artist, freelance writer, and independent curator. She has developed an innovative method for utilizing a traditional Korean method of papermaking called Joomchi. In Jiyoung’s hands, the ancient takes on a more contemporary appearance. The Hanji (Korean mulberry paper) reveals itself as a painterly, abstract and contemporary art form filled with sculptural and textural imagery.

Jiyoung received B.F.A. (painting) from RISD with honor and award, and M.F.A. (print/media) from Cranbrook Academy of Art. She had 28 solo and numerous group shows throughout Korea, China, Finland, Canada, U.S.A., Australia, France and U.K. including the one at Martin Museum of Art, Baylor Univ. in TX, in London, U.K. in conjunction with the Knitting & Stitching exhibition organized by ‘Twistedthread,’ U.K. and Minnesota Center for The Book Arts Gallery, sponsored by 2011 Surface Design Association Conference in MN, and Museum of Craft and Folk Art, San Francisco.

symposium recording: https://youtu.be/D7MjiNq1JRM

May 15 – Korean Shamanism

Yoahn Han applies contemporary techniques to native Korean themes often inspired by Korean shamanism. One of such themes is a flower-decorated bier used in traditional funeral rituals in Korean villages. Surprisingly, the bier is decorated with vivid floral and fauna patterns. It looks rather festive and extravagant. People in the village deliver the dead body to the grave using this bier. From the ritual’s initiation to its finale, the role of box is to transport the body between the world of the living to the world of the unknown. Parallel to bier, a flower palanquin carries bride from her birth family to her husband in the traditional marriage ceremony in Korea. This ritual is symbolic of a transition from one life to another. The funeral bier is for the continuation of life and the wedding palanquin is for the farewell to life. But both boxes share a common thread as well: they both confine. The confined party does not complete the metamorphosis from one life to the other until the ritual is over.

Yoahn received BFA from the School of the art institute of Chicago, and MFA from Mass College of Art and Design. His solo exhibitions were held in Boston, New York, New Jersey, and Seoul. He has taught in Harvard University, MassArt, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and now teaches in Rhode Island School of Design.

symposium recording: https://youtu.be/8HKOeoEc6yk

May 22 – Minwha (Folk Arts)

Seongmin Ahn takes Asian traditional painting as starting point and transforms it into something experimental with her own interpretation bridging tradition and contemporary, and East and West.

She received degrees in Asian traditional painting from Seoul National University and M.F.A from Mount Royal, Maryland Institute College of Art. Ahn held numerous exhibitions including Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts and Stony Brook University, and participated in a few projects such as Power and Pleasure of Possessions in Korean Painted Screens (Stony Brook University) and Hanji Project: Hanji Metamorphoses. She is a two times grant recipient of the Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant and the first prize winner from the AHL Foundation, Visual Art Competition.

symposium recording: https://youtu.be/Y_6r632IATg

May 29 – Fiber Art

Chung-Im Kim was inspired by bojagi (Korean traditional wrapping cloth) and creates her own Fiber Art, reminiscent of her happiness in earlier years in Korea. Ramie and hemp were widely used in Korea in the past for summer clothing and bedding for their natural coolness and subtle paper-like texture. Their unusual stiffness also allowed Chung-Im to revisit the textile heritage in a more playful, collage-like manner in some of her work. Chung-Im received BFA and MFA degrees from Seoul Women’s University, and began her career working in the textile industry as a surface pattern designer, also running a studio in Seoul and teaching at a college before moving to Canada in 1990. She has been a resident in the Tetile Studio at harbourfront Center, working in the design industry over fifteen years as a free-lance designer, and is currently an associate professor in the Fibre Dept at OCAD University. Chung-Im had solo exhibitions in various venues in Toronto and in Bom Gallery in Boston, and participated in numerous group exhibitions worldwide.

symposium recording: https://youtu.be/-iH8-HiWP0w