Installation view of 《Love of this Age》 ©Johyun Gallery
Johyun Gallery Seoul presents a solo exhibition 《Love of this Age》 by artist Lee So Yeun, on
view through February 8.
Featuring
twelve new works, the exhibition transforms the gallery’s enclosed white cube
into a phantasmagoric and private sanctum. Through this spatial intervention,
Lee summons layered personas of the self, shaped by accumulated inner records
and memories of place.
The deep
crimson walls, painted in Carmine—a vivid red pigment historically extracted
from cochineal beetles—serve as a device that transcends a mere exhibition
backdrop to physically manifest the artist's intimate interiority.
Installation view of 《Love of this Age》 ©Johyun Gallery
Within this visceral space, painting expands beyond the flat
surface to become an experiential stage. The objects depicted are all personal
items the artist has owned and used. These objets stand as evidence of the time
that has passed through the artist's life, forming sedimented layers of
memories where different eras and places overlap.
Reconstructing the artist's past memories, this exhibition
simultaneously prefigures future structural changes. Previously, the figure was
fixed center-canvas, but has now shifted—or rather, exited the screen—gaining
posture and movement in the dynamic unfolding of the composition.
Installation view of 《Love of this Age》 ©Johyun Gallery
In works without backgrounds, a single figure or object
functions as the subject and center, directly presenting the emotion of the
moment. Conversely, in works with backgrounds, figures, objects, and colors all
operate as equal narrative agents, weaving complex stories across the entire
screen.
The artist invites the audience to approach the work sensually,
intuitively, and instinctively rather than via calculated interpretation, which
she deems excessive for her work. To think and experience the sensory whole
created by the atmosphere of color, light, shadow, and space—that is the method
of viewing appropriate for this exhibition.
