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Shinuk Suh in Invisible Balance, at Daniel Benjamin Gallery

Following on from their Figurative NOW group show, Daniel Benjamin Gallery present another exhibition including a Korean artist:

Invisible Balance

Shinuk Suh, Daniel Cordas
17 February – 16 March 2019
Daniel Benjamin Gallery | 120 Kensington Park Road | London W11 2PW | db-gallery.com
Gallery hours: Tues – Sat 10am – 6pm

Invisible Balance poster

Daniel Benjamin Gallery is pleased to present Invisible Balance, a two-person exhibition featuring works by Shinuk Suh and Daniel Cordas.

Shinuk Suh is a South Korean visual artist whose practice commands a narrative heavily influenced by the artist’s upbringing and growth. Suh was raised in a strict Christian family and spent his childhood in a nation in the midst of exponential economic growth and tinged by the remnants of a military regime. In this exhibition, the artist will feature works focused on the themes of the interior equilibrium, tragedy through comedy and the notion of an object being more real than reality.

Suh’s works convey that there exists an interior equilibrium within all of us. He perceives himself as being composed of a many different pieces, always seeking to be perfectly balanced in order to maintain his whole. He writes, “The titles that I have had over my lifetime (son of a pastor, theology student, hotel management student, military police officer, fairy tale illustrator, foreigner living in London, young Asian) are elements that have formed me, and are at the same time elements that confuse my identity to this very day”. Every object in his work is representative of the different selves, and the equilibrium is a manifestation one’s differing personalities, obstacles and characterisations that form a perfectly balanced finished sculpture of the self. The invisible balance refers to the metaphorical balancing act itself and the intangible things that are being balanced. These ideas are exemplified in works such as Complexity (2017) and Invisible Balance (2017). While Better Luck Next Time (2018) tells the story of one who was not strong enough to sustain the balancing act and has instead been crushed under the pressure of competing selves. In I Don’t Want to do the Laundry (2018) the playfulness of the laundry, the colours, sounds and quirky materials used almost conceal a deeper discomfort – that of the selves gyrating uncontrollably. Suh explains, “The cartoonish imagination examined in my work suggests a deliberate avoidance of the untruthfulness and absurdity of the real world, and yet at the same time, is very much focused on expressing how difficult it can be to distinguish between comedy and tragedy in such a world…by portraying reality in an exaggerated and ridiculous way”. Finally, in works such as Where has the Sugar come From? (2017), Suh explores the question “how real is reality?”. Next to the real objects, he abuts a TV screen with sharper, more vivid images than are visible in reality and in comparison to the real objects. Now the images seen on the screen have become more real than the reality. Along that same line, Study for Schizophrenia (2018) shows the arbitrary movements of self-animated socks playing with the viewer’s sense of pareidolia and investigating mental issues.

Shinuk Suh: Invisible Balance, 2017
Shinuk Suh: Invisible Balance, 2017 Acrylic on mdf, glass bottle, steel, planed timbers, acrylic panel

Taking from the same inspiration, Daniel Cordas uses his iconic medium of painted shoes to investigate the personal balance between what is perceived as art and what are customized objects. Using shoes as moldable material, the artist investigates the relationship in between our external image and our internal thoughts. Cordas is one of the most renowned young artists working with this unique medium. For this exhibition Cordas will present a selection of new works that will create a dialogue with Suh’s installations, blurring the lines between different artistic approaches.

Shinuk Suh is pursuing an MFA in Sculpture from Slade School of Fine Art, University College of London. He holds a BA (Hons) Fine Art from Central Saint Martins. Recent group exhibitions include Slade MA/MFA Interim show 2018, Slade School of Fine Art, London; Low Entertainment, Arch 5, London; The Solo award group exhibition of shortlisted artists 2018, The Cello Factory, London; Sex! Human Construction & Human Connection, The Crypt Gallery, London; Call That Art, Old Parcels Office, Scarborough; All sorts, Degree Art Gallery, London. Suh currently lives and works in London.

Daniel Cordas holds a degree in Business & Management from University of the West of England. He graduated from The John Lyon School in Fine Art in 2011. Cordas has collaborated with major brands and companies such as Axel Arigato, Adidas, Canon, Harrods, Hypebeast, Jimmy Choo, Red Bull and The Landmark, Hong Kong. He has also created hand-painted bespoke sneakers for Floyd Mayweather, Stormzy and Chipmunk. Cordas currently lives and works in London.

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

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