London Korean Links

Covering things Korean in London and beyond since 2006

Moon Jin-wook in Bearspace group show: Come Dine with Me

Recent Goldsmiths MFA graduate Moon Jin-wook is participating in a group show at BEARSAPCE in Deptford:

Come Dine with Me

Raf Zawistowski, Daisy Hogan, Jin Wook Moon and Mr. & Mrs. Philip Cath
BEARSPACE | 152 Deptford High Street | London SE8 3PQ | www.bearspace.co.uk
Opening Hours: Wednesday – Saturday, 10am – 6pm
27 September – 26 October 2013

Moon Jin-wook installation

In response to Bob & Roberta Smith’s theme for Deptford X, ART MAKES PEOPLE POWERFUL! BEARSPACE presents four recently graduated artists, already creating a stir within the powers of the fine art world, but also on the cusp of accessing their own power within and through their art and how to use this power to affect and be effective in their practice. All four artists have graduated in the last three years, Raf Zawistowski from Wimbledon School of Art, daisy Hogan from Camberwell College of Art and Jin Wook Moon & Mr & Mrs Phillip Cath from Goldsmiths College.

Their works are all ‘powerful’ in their own right’ using the format of painting, sculpture and film to impart their labour intensive works with heavy subject matter, including politics, religion, sex and death. This dinner party faux pas are gloriously celebrated, through portraits of Christ, faceless models in graphic scenes and the tension between politics and religion through Britain’s ongoing intervention in the middle east. The result is just that, a dinner party conversation with the loudest most opinionated guests in history.

Raf Zawistowski works with oil paint and wax on linen and canvas and his work evokes emotion through landscape and portraiture painting. His artwork deals with notions of beauty and ugliness and the significance of the portrayal of the human figure. Raf gives importance to the figure or landscape by using day-glow colours to signify a once had importance. He uses his catholic upbringing and renaissance studies to play with the catholic religion in his work to add meaning to his paintings. His artwork is bright and vibrant and is beautiful and ugly through his use of impasto and encaustic paint application. Zawistowski’s artwork must be seen in the flesh to experience the full power his artwork possesses. In 2012 Zawistowski exhibited his first solo exhibition and Charles Saatchi bought the entire collection before the private view.

Jin Wook Moon first came to London to study for his Masters in Fine Art at Goldsmiths College. On arriving from his native South Korea, he realised that language was a problem for him and as such had difficulty expressing his views, or anything about his work. As such he turned to his art for communication, using the type face ‘Wing Bats’ to communicate. This bright installation of objects replicates the popular, nonsense font/language and allows Moon to play with the language of art as a concept in its own right.

Daisy Hogan treats here sculptural works like theatre sets where the viewer is invited to escape through different channels to reach virtual worlds. Her piece “…….” Sets a dinner party theme, which plays out eternally as though you are trapped in a feasting ritual not able to leave. In this way the dream of escapism and pleasure becomes nightmarish. Each scene sets creates a miniature tableaux into an attractive subject, scenario or place, as though our aspirations are the matter that enters us into a new terrifying world.

Mr. and Mrs. Philip Cath use sculptural, performative and installational processes to make paintings, which are monumental, theatrical and often autobiographical. Indebted to the primacy of the material object, the work operates within a vanitas tradition to explore ideas of orthodoxy, taste, privilege and historicity. Every aspect of the paintings is enacted, installed and fabricated within the studio – at full scale – before being painted faithfully from life. The works therefore form a material document of their collaboration and research. Mrs. Cath was born in Portland, Oregon in 1973 and studied Interdisciplinary Arts at San Francisco State University. Mr. Cath was born in England in 1974 and studied History at Oxford University. In 2013 Mr. & Mrs. Philip Cath completed their respective MFAs in Fine Art at Goldsmiths. They were married in San Francisco and currently live and work in London with their two sons.

This exhibition is curated by BEARSPACE director Julia Alvarez who trawls the degree shows looking for unique, directional works to promote and celebrate at the gallery and through projects and art fairs. Come Dine With Me, represents some of the themes and thinking that emerging artists at the cusp of development are engaging with.

Links:

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.