Riverside Gallery presents the “SPARK” group exhibition by KACAL (Korean American Contemporary Arts, Ltd.) from November 3rd to 9th, with an opening reception on November 4th at 3pm.
The artist community at KACAL presents a vision of the concept of spark in creativity. What is it like to experience or have the spark of an idea or inspiration? The Korean American artists offer a glimpse of how a spark in the creative process can dynamically transform both the artwork and the artist. Various styles of paintings and sculptures are presented, including the ones sourcing their inspiration from Modernism in particular, such as Post Impressionism and Abstract Expressionism. On the other hand, some works are positioned in the ecosystem of Contemporary Art and utilizes collage and text. And other works still are bounded by the traditional style of calligraphy and the Eastern philosophy.
In the midst of an eclectic display, we identify four artists whose works comprise experimental and/or authentic vision: Hongmi Kim, Steel Che, Sooyeong Lee, and Hellen Draves.
Homgi Kim’s ceramic piece titled ,”uNtitLeD_X2,” consist of glitch-y layers and patterns that alternate between the geological layering of sediments or rocks and irisdescent inlaying of gold. The re-presentation and re-packaging of the geologic patterns as glitch art, in which the ceramic bowl appears to reference the computer-based visualization like a screensaver or a music visualizer on iTunes, imposes the time scale of the geological over that of the technological and the machine.
Steel Che’s piece, “My father old boots,” is made of steel, which is in a way the artist’s playing with his own name on a metaphorical level, as a a visual pun. On a deeper yet more obvious level, the artist utilizes traces of memory and affection to depict his father’s old boots. The shoe is constructed as an exoskeletal wiring that allows for the viewer to form varying visual association of form, depending on their position, the angle of light, and the resulting shadow. The sculpture is also reminiscent of Vincent van Gogh’s painting of old boots.
Sooyeong Lee’s terra cotta sculpture titled, “Bobbie,” is a somewhat traditional shaping of a female nude. However, what is more interesting is the juxtaposition of the nude with the cushion onto which the nude is seated, below which is the marble cube. The entire presentation of the figurative sculpture, in which the figure is perfectly balanced on the cushion-like extension and the marble cube, which are also on top of a white pedestal, is akin to a painting that is framed within a frame. The artist declares the sculpture a work of art through the framing device of the pedestal, which acts as a constructed yet imaginary boundary between the larger physical reality that is “non-art,” and art that is the sculpture.
Lastly, Helen Draves’ “Eternoscape,” which is a large-scale sculpture made with steel, ceramic, acrylic mirror, wood, and light, merges the concept of the a kaleisdoscopic vision with Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirror. Up and down, and forward, space that is reflected onto itself within the stacked, round forms offer the illusion of infinity that contrasts the finite nature of humans. A feeling akin to the sublime, in which the fear or the worship of the infinite nature of the landscape or the cosmos, arises in the viewer when looking at Drave’s sculptural piece, which borders on the scale of an installation. The only way to comprehend infinity is through mathematically sublime logic of using the power of reason, which is discussed by the 1700s philosopher Immanuel Kant.
