Johyun Gallery (Haeundae) is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Kang Kang Hoon, a seminal artist in the lineage of Korean hyperrealists. His series of large-scale portraits present characters with surprising detail and realism using vibrant and photo-realistic colors. Last exhibited with Johyun Gallery in 2019, Kang returns with original works that explore new objects beyond his previously portraiture-exclusive ouevre.
Cotton and mother
The cotton flower in floriography (language of flowers) symbolizes good luck, the afterlife, purity, and motherly love. The dried and opened cotton boll struck a wistful chord with the artist who not so long ago was bereft of his mother. Cotton’s soft white tufts reminded him of her hair. The coarse dried boll resembled her palms which had sacrificed selflessly and given much without reservation. The cotton flower buds and blossoms, but only after the flower is gone the seed pod bursts open to reveal the white cotton. The days of beauty and blossom are short, like mother’s years given almost entirely to her children. In loving nostalgia and in rueful penance, the cotton pods were burst unto the canvas.
Kang Kang Hoon first portrayed his daughter in 2016. It was a father’s desire to keep cherished memoirs of a beloved child, an offspring of his who will live past his own potential and into the next generation. Nostalgia for Mother signified by the cotton pod and Daughter portrayed as her cherished self on canvas, Kang’s latest exhibition is more personal and expressive than usual - a generational family portrait of sorts. His main portrait <After Sunset>features his daughter with a branch of cotton pods over her head, crowned like a wreath of blossoms. From somewhere outside the frame, a pane of light shines on the cotton pods and glances upon her temple, casting shadow below the cheekbones and the far side of her face. As the inextinguishable shine and refuge of his mother’s life set to dusk, the last remaining light illuminates the next generation.
New materials and creative processes
Kang presents two types of works this exhibition: smaller paintings with only cotton buds and large scale portraits with cotton bolls. The creative process behind the large-scale portraits begins with taking photographs of the artist’s daughter. He focuses on capturing her various facial expressions. He then photographs the wreath-like bundle of cotton bud branches from various angles, to position it in-frame with the portrait’s focal figure. Once photography is complete with hundreds of shots, he sifts through it all numerous times to pick the A-roll and puts together a specific composition to paint. This photograph-based composition replaces the compositional sketch (esquisse), and the artist transfers this composition directly unto the canvas via sketch. Contrary to the expectation of a meticulously composed canvas, the approach is emotional and swayed by Kang’s in-the-moment sensibilities.
Kang’s works have consistently been large-scale portraits, so this recent branching out to paint a specific object other than a person has been a major challenge. The artist painted the smaller cotton pod-only works before the larger portrait works, in hopes of developing a connection with the significant and solemn object underpinning the exhibition itself. Painting the cotton pods into the portrait with consistent harmony demanded a great deal of care and caution. Balancing the weight of underlying ideas and the composition on canvas required a particular attention.
More than real
The painterly expression of cotton pushes beyond technical hyperrealism while acquiring a visceral and figurative sensibility which transcends the genre. This is evident in the details. The outer edge of the white downy cotton buds tremble in the breeze, while the stem and the dry husks at their base were painted with solidly layered matière. The parched leaves on the stem are detailed with understated techniques. The deeper shadows have been omitted entirely in the dark. As important as the visceral textures were colors. The artist’s previous works signatured the use of vivid colors to clarify the underlying narrative and add a layer of playfulness. Yet the colors in his latest works clarify only what they are: cotton bolls. Even the portrait lacks the finely detailed skin texture and pores that they previously had. Detailed instead were the overall sense of balance, achieved in fine-tuning the color saturation on the shadow over the face, matching the overall mood of the painting. For Kang, his reality is no longer paramount to realism. In his reality, Kang’s concern is with how he can reach deeper emotional mutuality with the audience. Ever bolder and resolute in his brushstrokes, details have been weighted and taken off the canvas, measured by the scales of his inner quiet and reality.
The playfulness of Kang's works are more than musings. It is through play that we grow and recognize the ways of nature and culture, what it means to be mature in it, and what good paintings may do in the context of it all. King Yeongjo, the 21st monarch of the Joseon Dynasty, was looking for a queen when he asked, “what is the most beautiful flower?” Most answers were of roses and peonies, but Queen Kim Jeongsun answered that cotton flowers were the most beautiful, for their fibers offered warmth to the King’s subjects. It was the answer that the king was looking for. Kang Kang Hoon’s latest works seek a similar shift in the understanding of what is pleasing and what is real, for what is more touching than a warm embrace for the desolated, and what is more real than comfort for the suffering?
