이상원

Education

College of Fine Arts, Seoul National University, Seoul 
The Art Students League of New York

Selected Solo Exhibitions
2020  Gallery Hyundai, Seoul, Korea
2019   Tina Kim Gallery, New York, USA
2018   Almine Rech Gallery, New York, USA 
           Jeju Kim Changyeol Museum, Jeju, South Korea
2017   Perlam Gallery, Hong Kong, 
2016   Galerie Bodin Le Bon, Paris, France
2014   Gwangju Museum of Art, Gwangju, Korea
2013   Gallery Hyundai, Seoul, Korea
           Galerie Boardin Le Bon, Paris, France
2012   National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Taiwan
2009  Busan Museum of Art, Busan, Korea
2004  Musée National d'Orsay, Paris, France
1990   Gallery Hyundai, Seoul, Korea
1989   Kasahara Gallery, Osaka, Japan
1987   Naviglio Gallery, Milan, Italy
1985   FIAC-Stempley Gallery New York, Paris, France

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Selected Group Exhibitions

2019   Song Art Museum, Beijing, China
2018   Abu Dhabi New York Art Gallery, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

2010   Choto's Poetry: Portraits of the Korean War, Seoul National University Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea

2007   Linguistic Forms, Figurative Language: Letters and Art, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea

2005   Poetry of Sumi Ink, Guimet Museum of Asian Art, Paris, France

2004   Korean Flat Surface Painting - Yesterday and Today, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea

2002   Four Korean Artists, Bijutsu Sekai Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

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About the Artist

Tschang-yeul Kim has been drawing water droplets for a very long time. He continues to draw water droplets today. He seems to have his own reasons why he can't say no. He doesn't say anything about it. He doesn't even feel the need to make excuses. He feels it's the right thing to do. Perhaps tomorrow, or the next day, he will continue to draw droplets without comment. It will continue to be the same. Once he has painted a drip on a canvas, his drip has become a certainty, a definite fact, an authorized formality or formality. Nevertheless, he will continue to draw droplets on other canvases as usual. For him, it is not a mere habit; he is repeating a labor that requires hours and days of pondering and working, like that of a monk. His studio is filled with droplets of light, waiting for his call. Invariably, he goes back to work.
His canvas is filled with drops of water. At first, the canvas is filled with light. But when we suddenly look away, all we see is an unrecognizable smudge of paint. Something catches your eye and you look at the canvas again, and it's full of droplets. This is an optical illusion, a so-called illusion. Only when we close our eyes do we see the paint marks on the canvas that we saw a moment ago, imprinted on us as a single drop of water. It's a droplet that no one has ever seen exactly before, a droplet that doesn't seem to exist. It's so mundane that it's hard to believe it even exists. When everything quiets down, its reality is called up from our subconscious and conveys a single concept. It is our ever-changing consciousness that exists between 'concept' and 'reality', neither 'is' nor 'is not', and it is the materiality of the paint that supports the glittering droplet, which is thick and abrasive and painted with a specific intention.

-Yongdae Kim, from The Silent Procession