Riverside Gallery presents a solo exhibition titled, “Diary of Times,” featuring the works of the artist Jay Chung, from October 3rd to 17th, 2023 with an opening reception on October 3rd (Tue) from 6 to 8 pm. In pursuit and exploration of harmony as a human possibiity Chung continues his vibrant and colorful body of abstract Epoxy Resin paintings, but he has also been developing a new body of work that he calls “Times Writing” and “Human Faces.” Through Times Writing, Chung reminisces over the many years that he spent in Korea and America and captures the sensation of memory into painting in the form of writing with gestural energy. Chung constructs the composite and computer-generated image of the Human Faces to express the moment of one’s encounters with strangers and passerbys in the streets of New York.

Jay Chung attained his BA in Graphic Design from the ChungAng University in 1979 and attended the Seoul National University Graduate School to study Graphic Design. He then came to America and received his M.A.’s in Communication Design and Computer Graphic from the Pratt Institute in 1984 and 1995, respectively.

Artist Statement:

I decided upon the theme of this exhibition to be “Times Diary.” Everyone of us meets time without exception and lives within the years. We live within the situation that we must let it go immediately as we encounter it.

Times Writing:

We must spend with time the numerous events that occur and are experienced within time, without any choice. Within such years, we turn the pages of the meaningful album of memory by reminiscing over the past events, returning to those times, and visualizing the good memories, happy memories, hurtful memories, etc. I began to contain such poetic feeling and sensation arising from reminiscing over this kind of diary of recollections and looking back at my life in Korea where I lived until I was 25 years old and my life in New York where I lived for 40 years. On canvas, I captured the feeling of recording the marks freely with a pencil in the form of a sketch similar to writing a diary on a three-dimensional background. Over this, by letting epoxy resin flow down, I intended to write down a different kind of record diary yearly.

Epoxy Resin Images:

With the splendid and vibrant colors, I intended to express the harmony with humans as the simplified form and repeated layer.

Human Faces:

These works involve the simplifying and grouping of numerous different faces from New York that we encounter as we live our lives, with computer imagery. Each of the faces were taken of numerous people in the streets of Manhattan, worked on through computer manipulation, and put together on a single surface, composing the overall display. I wanted to express the appearance of people with all these different people’s expressions that become harmony.

Exhibition Artworks: