Installation view of 《Contemplative Space, Artist Note Ⅱ》 © Whanki Museum

Whanki Museum presents its 2018 special exhibition 《Contemplative Space, Artist Note II》 with the aim of fostering a society that communicates through art and creating a framework for empathy through artistic energy.

The exhibition begins with an exploration of the physical spaces in which artistic creation takes place and the spaces of contemplation that stimulate the creative impulse, proposing the theme of communion through a “field of contemplation” where the breath of the artists and the complex stories behind their works overlap.

Centered on the artistic world of Kim Whanki, a first-generation abstract artist who led the avant-garde of Korean art, the exhibition brings together six artists: Gwon Osang, who proposes new modes of contemplation by shaping his view of the world into a sensuous sculptural language grounded in “sculptural inquiry”; Kim Kunju, who visualizes reflections on the balance between what is visible and what lies beneath through an exploration of materiality; Eunhyung Kim, who reinterprets lived experience through traditional ink techniques and brings it onto the surface in freely unfolding narratives; Lee Jinju, who constructs an intimate private world beyond time and space by symbolically embedding memories of the past into her pictorial surfaces; and Jung Jae Chul, who proposes a creative time of shared communication through continuous reflection and active thought at the boundary between life and art.

Through a range of visual practices including painting, installation, sculpture, and media, these six artists retrace the creative processes reflected in their works and vividly convey the artists’ stories embedded in the time of those processes. 《Contemplative Space, Artist Note II》, in which the participating artists’ creative thoughts are realized through diverse visual languages, becomes a space for artistic empathy and dialogue.

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