Full description from the venue
Light has always held an important place in Korean art as a subject of sensory experience. It is not only a physical phenomenon that reveals the world with clarity, but also an invisible language that connects nature and humanity, memory and emotion. In traditional Korean painting, light was expressed not through dramatic contrasts, but as a subtle energy permeating the spaces between objects and their surroundings. It also appeared as the changing face of nature over the passage of time. This exhibition, Light Resting in the Grain, brings together the artistic practices of Kim DuckYong · Byun YongKook, two artists who have expanded this distinctly Korean sensibility of light into the language of contemporary painting.
For Kim DuckYong, light is a record of moments held within nature. Grounded in the traditional materials of wood and mother-of-pearl, he builds upon the canvas the distinctive aesthetic of Korean spaces and landscapes. Borrowed scenery (chagyeong 借景), the shimmering reflections of light on water, and endlessly flowing waves transcend mere representation in his works, becoming landscapes imbued with time and memory. The unique properties of mother-of-pearl, which changes its colors and forms as it catches the light, echo the ever-changing nature of the natural world. Its shimmering surface, shifting with the movement of the viewer, creates a landscape that seems to come alive.
By contrast, the light explored by Byun YongKook is closer to an inner landscape than to the world outside. Through repetitive brushstrokes and the gradual accumulation of layers of color, the artist creates a sense of depth and luminosity within the pictorial surface. His Garden of Light and Mirror of Light series do not seek to reproduce a particular place. Rather, they create contemplative spaces where viewers are invited to encounter their own inner selves through the sensory experience of light. Within the richly layered surfaces of his paintings, colors move between light and darkness, giving rise to a quiet and subtle resonance.
If Kim DuckYong’s light is discovered within nature, Byun YongKook’s light emerges from within the mind. One artist captures fleeting moments of the external world, while the other reveals time accumulated within the inner self. Yet their practices ultimately converge at a single point: the “light that lingers,” a light rooted in a distinctly Korean sensibility.
Light Resting in the Grain offers a space to contemplate the contemporary state of Korean aesthetics through the two artists’ distinct worlds of light. Beginning in nature, light takes on new life upon the surface of the canvas, before once again seeping into the senses and memories of the viewer.