Kwang-Young Chun was born in 1944 in Korea where he continues to live and work. He received a BFA from Hong-IK University in Korea and earned his MFA at the Philadelphia College of Art.
In the mid-1990s Chun broke with convention and abandoned his brush and canvas in favour of the traditional Korean mulberry paper. His artworks from this time have been constructed with hundreds of three-dimensional Styrofoam triangles wrapped in handmade, text-covered mulberry paper with each piece tied together with twisted ‘threads’ of the paper. By using the mulberry paper, a significant piece of early Korean material culture, Chun accentuates his affection for the heritage of his homeland and yet the theme of many of his works is decidedly global: “In 2004,” he said in an interview, “my work started to look more like lunar landscapes and dry desert as I wanted to express my anger and criticism toward modern society and how it is destroying environment.” While the natural materials used by Chun might suggest a traditional grounding, the arrangement of the shapes, or “aggregations” as the series is known, tend towards the contemporary.
Over his impressive 40 year career as an artist, Chun has received significant critical acclaim as well as a number of awards. Most recently he was awarded “Artist of the Year 2001” from the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Korea. Landau Contemporary at Galerie Dominion is pleased to introduce this fascinating, renowned artist to our current collection.
