MY SHOES ARE A BIT MORE COLORFUL: 안상훈
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Press Release Text
Gallery Chosun will be hosting Ahn Sanghoon’s solo exhibition from July 3 to July 17, 2018. Ahn studied in Münster, Germany, and worked mainly in Münster, Berlin, and Augsburg. Since joining the Incheon Art Platform last year, he has been exploring new directions in abstract painting. This exhibition presents the works he created in Korea after returning in 2016. He plans to show paintings that spark the viewer’s imagination through his strong sense of colour and skillful use of space.
Last year, Ahn’s exhibition at Incheon Art Platform raised questions about what makes a painting “good” and what a painting is in the first place. By drawing a line through the word “good” in the exhibition title, he seemed to tell viewers that they do not need to seek a “good” painting. Instead of hanging works directly on the wall, he showed paintings that floated slightly away from it and existed only for a short moment. He encouraged viewers to think about the idea of a “good” painting and then to think further about the nature of painting itself.
All exhibitions exist for a short time and then disappear. A painting on canvas may seem to last, at least for a while, but it also disappears the moment the exhibition ends. No one knows where or how it will appear again. The artist understands this fate of a painting. This is why he used a fragile material (plastic sheet) and a fragile method (simple drawing). From the start, he signaled that the work would fade. What we know about painting is just as fragile. A painting can exist outside the canvas, and it can exist inside the canvas. The artist does not see the canvas edge as the limit of the work. In this exhibition, he again leaves room for the image to extend beyond the frame.
While working in the well-established field of abstract art, Ahn also reflects on abstraction itself and on painting as a medium. He is aware of the terms often tied to abstract painting such as abstraction, postmodernism, non-representation, the material quality of brushwork, and spiritual value. Yet he seems to prefer that these labels do not come before the work. He questions the material form of painting, the temporary nature of an exhibition, and what can still be called “good”. In this sense, he is an artist who uses painting to reflect on the language attached to painting.
The titles of Ahn Sanghoon’s works, like his exhibition titles, use familiar yet unexpected words and phrases. This is his way of sharing more of the work with the viewer. Each title is created through a random but information-based search, and it offers only a faint hint. It is meant to spark curiosity. Audiences often encounter titles like “Untitled” in abstract painting. But why do we look at titles at all? And why do we feel lost when we see “Untitled”? It may be because we hope for a small clue when we are not sure what to look for in a painting. The artist uses titles to gently sidestep the usual expectations that come from outside the work itself.
Many questions and doubts have been raised about painting, especially abstract painting. Moving between what is inside the picture and what is outside it, Ahn Sanghoon reminds us that despite everything, the painting is still here.
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