Sculpture and Installation art

OK, that’s a bit of an exaggeration. He is now missing one foot, exposing the metal armature which has been keeping the soapy statue in one piece. And the left foreleg of his horse looks like it is not long for this world. On the way to see Krys Lee in the global literary salon [...]

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Shin Meekyoung at Couriers of Taste, Danson House

by Philip Gowman 13 April 2013
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Bexleyheath seems to be the place right now to view interesting art in a pleasing country house setting. Just down the road in the DA5 postcode is Lee Hyung-koo at Hall Place and Gardens. And in Danson House DA6, which the Bexley Heritage Trust describes as “a beautifully restored Georgian villa where sumptuous interiors tell [...]

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Hyungkoo Lee at Bexley Heritage Trust: BEASTLY HALL – A place where artists and creatures collide

by Philip Gowman 5 April 2013
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Hyungkoo Lee at Bexley Heritage Trust BEASTLY HALL – A place where artists and creatures collide 28 March – 1 September 2013 Celebrate 60 years of our historic Queen’s Beasts topiaries by escaping into a world of fantastical creatures. Meet a carnival of unlikely monsters and unnatural beings in the new exhibition, Beastly Hall. Featuring [...]

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Gwon Osang: Postmodern Times — at HADA Contemporary

by Philip Gowman 4 April 2013
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This is probably April’s (and maybe May’s) exhibition of the month: a mini-retrospective of Gwon Osang’s work. Gwon is a fairly regular artist in the London gallery scene – his work has been shown in London since 2006 and maybe earlier. Perhaps the most high-profile showing was at Korean Eye 2010 in the Saatchi Gallery. [...]

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Exhibition visit: Hur Shan — new, playful, and portable revelations at Gazelli Art House

by Philip Gowman 3 April 2013
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“You said my work wasn’t very portable,” smiled Hur Shan as we chatted at the opening evening of his two man show at Gazelli Art House. “Well, take a look!” It was true. I had said precisely that in my notice of the current exhibition, The Tainted, at Gazelli Art House in Dover Street. In [...]

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The Tainted: new work by Shan Hur and Aron Demetz at Gazelli Art House

by Philip Gowman 24 March 2013
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Much of Hur Shan’s work is extremely site-specific and not very portable, so it’s well worth going to a gallery to see his work whenever you can. There’s an opportunity coming up this week, lasting for a couple of months, off Piccadilly. The Tainted: New Works by Shan Hur and Aron Demetz Dates: 28th March [...]

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Two months after installation, Shin Meekyoung’s soapy Duke of Cumberland is still looking good

by Philip Gowman 23 September 2012
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Two months after installation, Shin Meekyoung’s soapy Duke of Cumberland is still looking good, with not much evidence of erosion yet (this picture was taken on 22 September 2012). I wonder how it will survive a rainy autumn.

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Photos from All Eyes on Korea at the Thames Festival 2012

by Philip Gowman 9 September 2012
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We didn’t manage to see all of the All Eyes on Korea Thames Festival events, but here’s a flavour of some of them… 1. The Kukkiwon Taekwondo demonstration team practising on the evening before the Festival. They wowed the audience on Saturday with an encore featuring PSY’s Gangnam Style. 2. CJ’s new restaurant, Bibigo, was [...]

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Contemporary K-art in front of Tate Modern at the Thames Festival

by Philip Gowman 5 September 2012
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More details of the K-art stream in the wide-ranging Korean participation in the Thames Festival. And while you’re paying a visit, don’t forget to pop in to the Tate Modern itself, where Sung Hwan Kim has an amazing installation in the East Tank. ‘All Eyes on Korea’: Contemporary Korean Art and Family Workshops Saturday, 8th [...]

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Exhibition visit: Kim Beom’s School of Inversion

by Philip Gowman 30 August 2012
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Kim Beom is known for his videos of very serious Korean TV newsreaders, their newscasts chopped into a thousand pieces and spliced back together word by word to create nonsense stories. Londoners were introduced to his work back in 2006 as part of the Asia House group show Through the Looking Glass and Untitled (News) [...]

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From tomorrow evening, this plinth will no longer be empty

by Philip Gowman 22 July 2012
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From tomorrow, this plinth in a square just off Oxford Street will no longer be empty. To find out why, read this article, or visit http://writteninsoap.com/

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Michael Karikis captures the other-wordly sound of the haenyo

by Philip Gowman 22 July 2012
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Mikhail Karikis’s Sea Women project, installed in the Wapping Hydraulic Power Station for six weeks up to 7 July, comprised two separate but connected works. The less remarkable part was some video footage of the haenyo at work. In subject matter this was nothing that has not been seen before in other documentary films – [...]

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Sung Hwan Kim in the Tate Modern Tanks

by Philip Gowman 19 July 2012
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Tate Modern, one of London’s most popular visitor attractions, has expanded its exhibition space by opening up some giant underground tanks which used to store oil when the building was still Bankside Power Station. ‘These underground chambers are simply extraordinary spaces,’ says the Guardian newspaper. To celebrate their opening, the Tate commissioned a new work [...]

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The Butcher of Culloden is brought to life in soap

by Philip Gowman 16 July 2012
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This is an idea I like. Many of you may have seen Meekyoung Shin’s soap sculptures before — she had a huge solo show at the Haunch of Venison last year. One of her themes is examining how her soap sculptures erode over time, and in the past she has worked on her “Toilet Project” [...]

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Kim Beom: The School of Inversion at the Hayward Gallery

by Philip Gowman 10 July 2012
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While the KCC holds a two-month long exhibition in Grand Buildings, a parallel exhibition is at the Hayward Gallery Project Space, also as part of All Eyes on Korea, the 100 day festival of Korean culture linked to the Olympics: Kim Beom: The School of Inversion Hayward Project Space, Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre 17 July [...]

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Exhibition visit: Dae Hun Kwon — Chalna, at Rachmaninoff’s Smith/Arnatt

by Eunjung Shin 4 July 2012
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When I entered the gallery from the busy street in Hackney I found another world where time just paused and all noise stopped. Several human figures were frozen still. The only warmth I could feel was from the sunlight coming through the opaque gallery windows. The rough, old, wooden floor added to the untouched and [...]

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Lee Jaehyo solo show celebrates HADA Contemporary’s new gallery space

by Philip Gowman 29 April 2012
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HADA Contemporary has until now been sharing space with the Albemarle Gallery. To celebrate the opening of their new gallery space in Vyner Street (21 Vyner Street, London, E2 9DG) there is a solo show by Lee Jae-hyo. Lee Jaehyo Solo Exhibition : Beautiful Dialogue HADA | VYNER STREET 3 – 30 MAY 2012 “I [...]

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2012 Travel Diary 2: Suh Do-ho “Home within Home” at the Leeum

by Philip Gowman 27 April 2012
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24 March 2012. The Leeum Samsung Museum of Art, a short walk from Hangangjin subway station (Line 6), is currently hosting what is claimed to be their first ever solo show there by a living Korean artist. Suh Do-ho has been a prominent international artist for over 10 years – since appearing for South Korea [...]

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Fell on Good Soil: Hyesoo You at Gallery du Monde

by Philip Gowman 13 April 2012
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News of a solo show by Hyesoo You, whose work was included in this year’s Sasapari exhibition. The gallery is in the basement of a Hackney creperie. Have a snack while you’re there. Fell on Good Soil Hyesoo You 6 – 26 April 2012 Gallery du Monde, 51 Chatsworth Road, London E5 0LH [Map] Monday-Sunday [...]

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Hur Shan in Bodhi, at Gazelli Art House

by Philip Gowman 14 March 2012
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Hur Shan has a busy couple of months. Group exhibitions at the Bargehouse, in South-east London and Paris. And also in London’s prime gallery area off Piccadilly. In this particular group show, we will see Hur having a bit of fun with the audience: small bronze sculptures, painted to look like everyday objects, will be [...]

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Lee Yong-baek honours Paik Nam June at Venice Biennale

by Philip Gowman 11 November 2011
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There’s an awful amount of twaddle on display in the country pavilions at the Venice Biennale. Probably the greatest amount of tosh was to be found in the Australian pavilion, which included a free-standing notice-board cast in resin, and where an empty plinth entitled Venus rising from the Waves was heard to elicit the understandable [...]

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