Gallery LVS Ventures to Hong Kong for its First Showing at Art Central 2016
This week, Gallery LVS takes the short trip from Seoul to Hong Kong for Art Central 2016. For their first year in the fair, the gallery brings along work from four artists who helped put it on the map. Their booth features works by Korean artists Won Kun Jun, Taejin Seong, and Hyo-Jeong Park and by German artist Axel Krause. Though each of these artists has a distinct vision, their work is unified by attention to craft and detail.
Color is a driving force for both Jun and Seong. Jun’s small-scale paintings exemplify his subtle, refined use of color. While his abstract fields of modulated pigment are spare and serene, they stem from a labor-intensive method in which he layers up to 30 thin coats of paint onto canvas—a process that can take up to a year. Seong, by contrast, deploys color with force. His carved and painted wooden panels pop with seemingly every color. The high-energy scenes unite the aesthetics of comic books and traditional woodblock prints.
Conversely, muted tones characterize the works of Krause and Park, who emphasize form. Krause’s paintings demonstrate his interest in narrative ambiguity and an ability to imbue understated scenes with anticipation and tension. In one, a woman stands alone at a window, its panes thrown open to reveal a waterfront view. The woman gazes out at the open water, which seems to hold a secret.
Park, the lone sculptor of the group, works with traditional materials such as wood and jade to craft meditative objects and installations. In one assemblage set upon a small wooden shelf, she places a carved marble bottle on its side, affixed with bits of lapis lazuli and topped with a jade flower. Casual yet refined, the arrangement easily adds to the richness of works on display.
Gallery LVS’s booth is on display at Art Central 2016, Hong Kong, Mar. 23–26, 2016.