Installation view of 《Discarded Host》 © ARARIO GALLERY
ARARIO GALLERY SEOUL presents 《Discarded Host》, a solo exhibition by Kang
Cheolgyu (b. 1990), on view through June 20.
Kang has developed a body of work that
transforms lived reality into an imagined painterly realm, drawing from
personal experience and psychological sensations rooted in the inner self.
Rather than directly depicting specific events, he concentrates on the moment
when emotions and memories crystallize into visual form, composing
psychological scenes in which anxiety, tension, and unfamiliar sensations
quietly persist.
By projecting the self onto figures and
narratives situated within fictional environments, his paintings engage in an
indirect confrontation with identity, constructing a visual narrative that
reflects an ongoing process of personal transformation.
Installation view of 《Discarded Host》 © ARARIO GALLERY
Composed of new paintings, this exhibition
highlights a perceptual shift evident in Kang’s recent practice. The works move
away from understanding the self as a fixed and unified entity, instead
proposing it as a fluid condition shaped by intertwined perceptions,
sensations, emotions, and recollections.
The exhibition follows how this conceptual
transition emerges through evolving pictorial motifs, revealing that symbolic
images—previously appearing through fragmentation and cohesion, distortion and
continuity—are not markers of internal deficiency but outcomes of multiple
modes of perception operating simultaneously.
