Artists with Arario

ARTISTS with ARAIO, the first exhibition to present the representative works of 19 artists will be jointly held at the Arario Gallery in Seoul and Cheonan. This exhibition will be an opportunity to commemorate the memories and fruitful artistic accomplishments of the artists with special connections to the gallery, who for the last 5 years have been represented by Arario Gallery, as well as providing the public a chance to encounter the leading works of Korean contemporary art scene.

Tying its first connections with the young competent emerging artists in 2005, Arario Gallery has since then endeavored to provide the artists with the ideal creative environment in order to encourage them to focus solely on their creative oeuvre. As the most influential collector and sponsor in the world of art and culture in Korea, the president of ARARIO Co. Kim Chang-il has been putting in much effort in overcoming the problems of undesirable environment that stunts the growth of Korean artists to the international level, and has become the pioneer in instigating the system of artists being represented by gallery, which had not been attempted before in Korea. He paved a way for contemporary art in the local community of Cheonan through the foundation of his extensive art collection in order to perform the educational function for art students and art lovers across the nation, as well as sponsoring the artists represented by Arario gallery by providing a work studio and residency space totaling 2,260 pyeong in Hado-ri of Jeju island in which artists can reside and concentrate on their work freely. Furthermore his conviction to allow the completion of outstanding art works and create the kind of space that can let such work shine sufficiently after their completion, has propelled the expansion of the gallery in an ambitious manner. To surpass the regional limitations of Cheonan, Arario gallery was built in Beijing in 2005, in Seoul in 2006 and in Chelsea, New York in 2007, totaling 4 galleries that are located in the heart of the global contemporary art world. In this way, Arario Gallery has persistently mediated giving exhibition opportunities through world-class gallery administration and aesthetic venue, as well as providing full support and quest to expand the potentials of Korean art.

With Arario’s progressive administration, the artists represented by Arario gallery started to show individually stylized work in the art world and gain international recognition, as well as getting the art theoretical acknowledgement by becoming commonly discussed subject in the international discourse of art. The works of artists such as Kang Hyung-goo who is preparing for a solo exhibition at the Singapore Art Museum in 2011, Kwon O-sang, the first Korean artist to have had a solo exhibition in the Manchester City Art Gallery in 2008, Lee Dong-wook who’s scheduled for solo exhibition at Arario Gallery in New York in 2010, Lee Hyung-goo who held his solo exhibition at the Korean pavilion at 2007 Venice Biennale, and Chun Su-jin who participated in the Louis Vuitton exhibition in 2008, are more actively exhibited and sold internationally rather than domestically. Furthermore, as other artists representing Arario Gallery, Shine Kong tells her own narratives through drawn objects and space, Kyung Sung-hyun revives moments of hallucination in his work, Kim In-bai contrasts the black pencil and cold white sculpture, Kim Jae-hwan creates unwavering wooden dolls, Kim Hannah focuses on rabbits, Park Young-geun delivers movement of form through a grinder, Park Sejin draws the scenery of her own world, Paik Hyun-jin, the multi-artist, Lee Seung-Ae draws monsters with a pencil, Lee Ji-hyun juxtaposes spaces of different times, Lee Jin-yong depicts age-old objects as if they were alive, Tallur L.N criticizes globalism through diverse medium, Leslie de Chavez reflects Philippine’s winding history and society through art and Jitish Kallat deals with the issues of the internal conflits within India.

Since its establishment in 1989, Arario Gallery has been persistently unearthing diverse artists to introduce them domestically and abroad, planning exhibitions with the objective of globally proclaiming the excellence of Korean and Asian art in mind. This exhibition ARTISTS with ARARIO attempts to provide a site of multi-faceted discourse through the original works by 19 artists represented by Arario Gallery.