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Gwon Osang: Postmodern Times — at HADA Contemporary

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.

GWON OSANG: POSTMODERN TIMES

4 APRIL – 31 MAY 2013
HADA Contemporary, 21 Vyner Street, London, E2 9DG

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HADA Contemporary is pleased to announce the solo exhibition by Gwon Osang (b.1974, South Korea) presenting his three series Deodorant Type, The Flat and The Sculpture bringing the genealogy of his artistic practice into perspective.

Gwon Osang’s artistic oeuvre has been driven by his aspiration towards the exploration of the concept of sculpture pushing its traditional boundary as an artistic medium. Through closely interconnected three different series, he keenly aims to depict and testify on the temporality and futility of the contemporary lives and society through sculpting postmodern sculptures.

From Gwon Osang's Deodorant Type series
From Gwon Osang’s Deodorant Type series

In his celebrated Deodorant Type series, Gwon effortlessly creates sculptural three-dimensionality through weightless two-dimensional photographs. From the fascination of the commonality between photographic negatives and the plaster molds, he converts the weightness, volume and density of traditional sculptures from marble and bronze with the fragile lightness of photography. The title, Deodorant Type references on the deceptive and misperceptual mechanism of the product as it conceals the odour without eliminating the fundamental cause. Similarly, his photo-sculptures portrait lifelike figures from reassembled photography captured from living models, cease to represent what is being represented devoid of its true essence yet transforming them into another beings.

The Flat series originates from the artist’s question on ‘still life.’ From his belief that any freestanding objects can be a sculpture, he adheres wires onto magazine advertisement cut-outs and photographs his flat sculptures into a frame. To question the validity of it as a sculpture is futile, yet the importance remains on his efforts to broaden the possibilities of the medium by constant oscillation between two dimensionality and three dimensionality – the act of conversion from a conversion which in part coincides with the deconstructive nature of postmodern society.

In The Sculpture series, Gwon reilluminates traditional mode of sculpting to reflect his ongoing investigation to procreate sculptures that inevitable reflects contemporary lives. The history of sculpture and industrial designs were significantly founded upon to study of human bodies. As Rodin pursued his belief on the aesthetical possibilities of fragmented body such as ‘torso,’ Gwon focuses on the contemporary industrial design such as high-end automobiles and motorbikes that exemplify the height of commercial society as pure artistic materials. The use of images and information accessible only via internet – virtual reality – without thorough observation or physical engagement also highlights the notion to create an object which reflects the current.

Gwon Osang (b. 1974) received MFA and BFA in sculpture at Hongik University, Seoul, Korea. He exhibited internationally as Seoul Museum of Art, Leeum Samsung Museum of Art Seoul, PLATAEU Seoul, Saatchi Gallery London, Manchester Art Gallery, National Museum of Fine Arts Buenos Aires, Arken Museum for Modern Art Copenhagen, The National Portrait Gallery Canberra, The National Art Museum of China, Singapore Art Museum. He participated in various residency programmes as National Art Studio Changdong and collaborated with artists as Keane and fashion and sports brands as Vogue and Nike.

HADA CONTEMPORARY
21 Vyner Street
London E2 9DG
+44 (0)20 8983 7700
[email protected]
www.hadacontemporary.com

GALLERY OPENING HOURS
Wednesday – Friday : 11am to 6pm
Saturday – Sunday : 11am to 4pm
Or by appointment

(automatically generated) Read LKL’s review of this event here.

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