Installation view of 《The Cumulative
Burst》
ⓒPKM GalleryPKM Gallery presents a solo exhibition 《The Cumulative Burst》 by sculptor CHUNG,
Hyun, on view through December 13.
This comprehensive survey spans more than
thirty years of the artist’s practice and marks a pivotal moment of renewal and
transformation. Featuring 84 works—including sculptures and drawings created
between 1991 and 2025—the exhibition gathers the trajectories of the past,
condenses them into a moment of release, and invites audiences to reflect on existence
and essential values amid a time of rapid change.
In 《The Cumulative
Burst》, CHUNG returns to his point of departure: the
human form—and carries it forward. His newly unveiled bronze busts, formed by
forcefully striking and compressing clay from all directions, evoke an inner
energy forged through endurance, while its white patina recall the human in an
unadorned state.
Installation
view of 《The Cumulative
Burst》
ⓒPKM GalleryWithin the two eyes of each figure lies a
fleeting instant when innumerable scenes of a lived life intersect.
Concurrently, the rhythmically arranged sequence of bust sculptures from the
early 1990s to the mid-2000s in the main gallery invites reflection on the
passage and vicissitudes of human life.
Displayed alongside are charcoal sculptures
made from trees burned in the 2019 Goseong wildfire. He treated these burnt
trees as if performing a cremation—refining their forms by fire and coating
them with a white paint, akin to make-up, as a gesture of reverence for their
final state.
Across the exhibition, expressive drawings using
coal tar—a residue from the distillation of coal or petroleum—chart the
artist’s gestures, emotions, and thoughts.
Installation
view of 《The Cumulative
Burst》
ⓒPKM GalleryCHUNG has held over 20 solo exhibitions,
including those at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art
(Gwacheon, Korea), Nam-Seoul Museum of Art (Seoul, Korea), Kumho Museum of Art
(Seoul, Korea), Kim Chong Yung Museum (Seoul, Korea), and Jardin du Palais
Royal (Paris, France). CHUNG has received several awards, including the Kim
Bok-jin Art Award (2024), Kim Sechoong Sculpture Award from the Kim Sechoong
Memorial Association (2014), Artist of the Year from the National Museum of
Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (2006), and Artist Today from the Kim Chong
Yung Museum (2004).
His works are held in the collections of
the Leeum Museum of Art, the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art,
Korea, the Seoul Museum of Art, the Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art, the Busan
Museum of Art, and the Seoul National University Museum of Art, among others.
