Exhibition of South Korean artist Kwan Yong Chan Automatic translate

The exhibition will include the artist’s key works created between 1990 and 2021. Arranged in chronological order on two floors of a large-scale exhibition space, the works will present the history of the formation and development of the master’s work, who managed to combine European and Asian culture.

Initially, the style of the master was formed under the influence of American modernism of the middle of the 20th century, which Kwan Yong Chan studied closely during his studies in Philadelphia. However, he subsequently decided to abandon the American artistic tradition, return to South Korea and create his own style, which is a unique synthesis of Western and Asian values. The tragic history of his native country, childhood memories, Confucianism and Western pragmatism gave rise to a series of Aggregations (Associations), which has become the hallmark of Kwan Yong Chan.

Original art objects in the form of wall panels are created from hanji, a traditional Korean paper made by hand from the bark of a mulberry tree. It has been widely used throughout Korea for many centuries and is used in various fields, from the manufacture of various household items to works of art and custom design. As a basis for his compositions, Kwan Yong Chan uses old accounting reports, love letters and fragments of philosophical treatises, which he folds in a special way into small triangles, where the text serves both as an ornament and as a carrier of information. Thus, in the hands of the artist, the sheets of hanji get a second life, and his works are filled with new meanings. Each detail of the relief, formed from a fragment of a particular document,the author calls "the minimum unit of information". Collected in a bizarre composition, they invariably remind of the importance of historical memory and at the same time call for renewal and rethinking.