August 20 - September 14, 2021
Sang A Han & Kigin Yang
Unfamiliar Landscape
37-39 Clinton St.
Opening Reception: Friday, August 20, 6 - 8 pm
“As we happen to happen, the world I draw is created by coincidence, just like we do. I work with meaning to create a world that blends in with me, just as you and I happen to have a relationship. Just as I comfort myself by drawing, I hope you will be comforted by my work.”
- Sang A Han
“The drawn images are combined with other drawings in accordance with the flow of the image, and gradually become a single image. In the newly formed relationship, I find another world at the beginning, which leads to the next piece, and the aforementioned process is repeated continuously.”
- Kigin Yang
New York, NY- Space776 is pleased to present a two-person exhibition featuring black and white landscapes by Sang A Han and Kigin Yang. Unfamiliar Landscape consists of Sang A Han’s Korean ink painting and doll mobile and commissioned wall drawing and collages of Kigin Yang. These two artists from Seoul, who use traditional materials to portray the landscape of her time and space, tradition is not a legacy of the past, but a current and effective formal tool. The most distinctive black color in the artists’ work consists of an ink bar and water. The color of the ink bar is contained in black, the color and texture vary widely depending on how much it is burned. Furthermore, the result of a number of variables such as the quantity of the water blended with ink, brush soaked in ink water, and the type of the support, among other variables, will not be the same even once. In front of this phenomenon constantly varying, the artists have had to experiment continually how the different combinations of variables work, such as the changes in the color and the spread and cessation of the ink without ever drying out on the curiosity.
Using Korean ink on fabric, Sang A Han paints her inner landscape in which her experiences and emotions at her major life events intertwine with fantasy. Through metaphor and imagination, Han constructs a universe where she confronts her anxiety while establishing her identity as a mother and artist—at the same time, discovering a hope within and shedding its light.
The commissioned wall collage work by Kigin Yang brings together her own meticulously executed pieces of drawing to create dynamic landscapes. Deeply focusing on the process of drawing itself, she lets her imagery unfold itself as she intuitively works through unexpected discoveries in her work. Yang works under the assumption that unstructured drawing can reveal or extend new meanings: the process of drawing becomes a continual path of discovery. The drawn images are combined with other drawings in accordance with the flow of the image and gradually become a single image. In the newly formed relationship, she finds another world at the beginning, which leads to the next piece, and the aforementioned process is repeated continuously.
SELECTED IMAGES
INSTALLATION VIEWS
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Sang A Han (b. 1987, Seoul, South Korea) is a Seoul-based painter experimenting with the mediums of black ink (Meok) on fabric. Han was included in the special exhibition with the performance <Forest of> at Cultertank in 2021. A graduate of Hongik University in Seoul. Han’s recent exhibitions include Onsu gonggan(2020); Songeun Artcube(2019); Songeun Artspace(2019); Asia Culture Center(2018), Weekend(2018).
Kigin Yang (b. 1988, Seoul, South Korea) received her B.F.A and M.F.A from Seoul National University. She has had solo and group exhibitions mostly in South Korea. She was selected as a rising artist from Gyeong-Gi Cultural Foundation(2018) and also a selected artist of Soma Art Museum Drawing Center (2017). She presented her work at Sueno 339, Space of art and she held her solo exhibition, The layers of a profound abyss at Emu Art Space (2017), Korea. Also, She had her group exhibition, Near, Far, Confused at project space Igloo in New York(2019), and currently lives and works in New York.