130 ORCHARD STREET
NEW YORK, NY, 10002
Perrotin is pleased to present A Certain Scenery, a solo presentation of works on canvas and paper by Korean born artist Shim Moon-Seup (b. 1943). Looking towards the seascapes of Tongyeong, the coastal city where Shim grew up and has since returned to, the works on view continue the artist’s ever expansive and empathetic outlook on time, space, and nature— then, and now.
My core is always at sea. Like the everlasting ocean, like the ever changing ocean, it is blown by the wind to reach an unknown world.”
In 2010, Shim began making an ongoing series of works on canvas entitled The Presentation. Known primarily as a sculptural artist in the decades prior, this material turn coincided with the artist’s relocation to childhood hometown Tongyeong in 2012, after a five-year sojourn in Paris (and prior to that, in the suburb of Seoul.) The return to familiar bodies of water and a slower pace of life not only allowed the artist to reconnect with the seascapes which has nurtured his curiosity and sensibility since childhood, but also allowed for a vital reengagement with the core of Shim’s personal and artistic belief. What gravitates Shim towards the sea is its permutations between mundaneness and infinity. To Shim, the universal experience of the ocean as a landscape, and the emotional specificity of ocean-watching subjected to each viewer, do not present themselves as paradoxes; rather, they consubstantiate opportunities to “reveal to, share with, and invite others to engage in mutual resonance.”
A member of the seminal A.G. Group (Korean Avant-Garde Association, 1969-1975), Shim’s indelible contribution to the constellation of Korean experimental art began in the 1970s, when he made series of sculptures which spatially reveal modules of drawing, painting and performance. What unites the diverse forms in Shim’s near-five decade-long oeuvre are the works’ tendency to reduce, challenge or even negate the very grounds which sustained their structural and conceptual wholeness—often through elements of surprise. For example, Shim’s 1971 seminal work Relation (Place) presents a torn paper canvas, with the upper half affixed the wall and the lower half anchored by the gravitational weights of rocks. In doing so, the work presents a three-dimensional configuration with an intense planar awareness. For the artist, the gesturally minimal, yet radically transformative intervention to materials and site are precisely what allows for sculptural materials––be it canvas, wood, or rock, or steel—to reveal their true properties and relational specificity with the site which they share.
In many ways, The Presentation and Re-present, works on canvas and paper made in the recent decade, continues Shim’s exploration of three-dimensional forms which reflect the history or continuum of its flatness—a concern which the artist has held and systematically explored since the 1970s. Using a “brush rather than a hammer,” and “canvas rather than wood,” Shim sees the seascapes as cognate twins of his provocative sculptures, in that both bodies of work address the shared contingencies of plastic techniques and the allegorical potential which emerges out of the forms’ mutual acknowledgement.
My work has a dual nature of drawing and painting. It is a painting by drawing, and a drawing by painting. The lines from the extremely delicate brush strokes make the paint transparent and the paint invigorates the line. The screen is formed by the balance of the conflicts. The painting runs to an infinite world with no beginning or end.
The cross pollination between drawing and painting, intent looking and mnemonic rehearsal, the calling ‘out’ and calling ‘in,’ reveal themselves through multiple, layered actions. The mixing, erasing, redrawing, and layering of paints and marks are analogous gestures to the ebb and flow of the ocean, or waves breaking, colliding, and gathering. There are times, however, when the light source underneath the measured densities reveal the illusionary depth of the pictorial plane, presenting the canvas as a screen flat as ever, once again. As Shim never fails to put so elegantly: “color makes its own voice, canvas plays its own role, and artist performs as an artist.”
- Felix Ho Yuen Chan
Né en 1943 à Tongyeong, Corée du Sud
Habite et travaille entre Tongyeong, Corée du Sud et Paris, France
Shim Moon-Seup (b.1943-), the pioneer of modern sculpture in Korea, utilizes ‘nature’ and ‘temporality’ as the core element of his works and continuously strives to pursue the quest for how to perceive and express his themes with the infinite possibilities of arts beyond the standardized genres and media. Being recognized overseas as well, he received France Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Grade Chevalier) in 2007 and the Excellence Award from the 2nd Henry Moore Grand Prize Exhibition in 1981.
He has had solo exhibitions in major venues including Gyeongnam Art Museum, Korea (2023); Yuan Art Museum, Beijing (2018); National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA), Korea (2017); Palais Royal, Paris (2007); Fondazione Mudima, Milano (2001) and Tokyo Gallery, Tokyo (1999). His work has also been featured in international biennials and group exhibitions, such as Tail of Tiger: ’95 Venice Korea Contemporary Art 15 People Exhibition, Venice Biennale, Venice (1995); the 1st Seoul Olympics International Sculpture Symposium, Seoul Olympics Sculpture Park, Seoul (1987); the 13th Sao Paulo Biennial (1975) and the Biennale de Paris (1971, 1973, and 1975). His works are included in the collections of major art institutions, such as the MMCA, Korea; Seoul Museum of Art, Korea; Leeum Museum of Art, Seoul; Hakone Sculpture Park, Japan and FNAC, Paris.
The artist participated in the recent group exhibition, Only the Young: Experimental Art in Korea, 1960s-1970s, held at National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) in Seoul, Korea in 2023. The exhibition travelled to Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York and was on view until January 2024.
À propos de l'artiste
