GWON Osang

Arario Gallery Seoul Cheongdam is pleased to present the solo exhibition by artist Osang Gwon. The artist’s recent body of works will be on display. This is Gwon’s first solo exhibition in Korea since his last solo show six years ago in Arario Gallery Seoul Cheonan in 2006.

Gwon is considered the pioneer of a new genre in sculpture, with his on-going research in three different types of form including Deodorant Type, Sculpture, and The Flat series. In particular, his photo sculptures Deodorant Type series—in which photographs of the subject are glued on to the actual form of the subject made of light material such as Styrofoam—has become a widely-recognized work that reinvents the flat into sculptural. The Flat series presents advertisement images that are cut out from magazines, mounted on a flat surface, re-photographed, and then assembled in one image. While representing the subject, Gwon’s works repeatedly transform back and forth between two-dimensional photograph and three-dimensional sculpture, freely crossing over boundaries of flat and sculpture, real object and its image, and reality and fantasy.

The interesting aspect about this solo exhibition by Gwon is that most of the photographic images, the main component of the sculptures, were originally gathered by surfing the internet. Gwon boldly gives up the splendid details of high-resolution photographs as seen in his previous photo sculptures, and embraces images of various resolutions found on the internet. Upon closer look, one can clearly see the shattering of pixels which occurs when an image is blown up in size. The photography’s aesthetic and directive role in completing the sculpture is replaced by the pixel and its role of transforming a subject in media world to sculpture in reality. Gwon’s new working process using internet media mimics ‘searching on the internet’, which is the fastest and easiest way to find information today. Search results easily found on-line propose surface-level solutions to people today looking for quick answers. This also reflects Gwon’s fascination on trickery of deodorants, something which conceals a certain smell and replaces it with a new scent, and demonstrates why Gwon titles his sculptural works Deodorant Type series. Thus, the infinite assemblage of on-line images of a certain subject actually reflects a third-person perspective which conceals the truth of the subject.

The recent works from The Flat series is completed by cutting out all images from one magazine and putting them together on a flat surface. Monthly magazines are filled with countless products and their images, which have been elaborately and strategically refined in order to spark the consumerist desires. Putting all the images together on one surface, Gwon’s work demonstrates a compact summary of public desires of a certain period. Activating the imagination, these images in dark lines have been intentionally re-captured with a lower-resolution camera, transforming the inflated and provocative images from magazines into unclear images. As opposed to the existing photo sculptures of individual human forms, the three new works in this exhibition including the bust, Flat series and Deodorant Type series, constitute a combined assemblage of human bodies and animals in various postures. Measuring over 3 meters tall, the sculpture of different subjects entangled into one reveals its grandiose form within a tight structure. While seemingly referencing the human body posture and structure of traditional Greek sculptures, Gwon’s works also reflect the stereotypical position of modern attire and advertisement in media today. In addition, the lion in the large scale sculpture is created by combining many images of lions from the media. This exhibition demonstrates Gwon’s ability to transcend time and space, and the artist’s proposition of a new methodology of contemporary sculpture which can represents any subject.

About the artist

Osang Gwon (b. 1974) studied sculpture at Hongik University. He received international attention through his solo exhibition in Arario Gallery Cheonan in 2006, Arario Gallery Beijing and Manchester Art Gallery in 2008. Gwon has also participated in numerous group exhibitions, including the Memories of the Future at Leeum Samsung Museum of Art in 2010, Manipulating Reality at the Center of Contemporary Culture Strozzina in 2009, and the South American travelling exhibition Peppermint Candy at the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Korea in 2007. Osang Gwon presents his solo exhibition at Arario Gallery Seoul Cheongdam in 2012.