디지털 시대 요동치는 인간을 화폭에 담다

Artist Kim Yong-hwen (62) showcased a personal exhibition titled 'Proxima' at gallery JJJ in Seoul's Gangnam-gu, Shin-sa-dong. The centerpiece of the exhibition, 'P26015-Frequency', is a painstakingly crafted oil painting that required hours of meticulous work and countless layers of paint. The artist spent days coating the brush with multiple colors, then meticulously applying them to the canvas in a single stroke, leaving the background as blank space.

This technique was adopted to capture the essence of the work, as the artist stated, "Once I drew a stroke, I did not want to work on anything else. The line and the surrounding space were too perfect."

The exhibition explored the relationship between science and art in the digital age, with Kim Yong-hwen's works representing a series called 'Electronic Nostalgia' and the new 'Frequency' series. These 20 works featured intricate representations of electronic waves and the micro-rumble of their energy, demonstrating the artist's ability to express the sensory and perceptual world of humans in the midst of a digital paradigm shift.

The paintings were constructed like silhouettes of virtual landscapes on a computer screen, revealing dynamic movements and rhythmic flows, as well as abrupt discontinuities. They conveyed the artist's subtle physical tremors and movements through precise brushstrokes and fine traces. The exhibition presented a collection of intimate abstract paintings that expressed the artist's unique sensibility using analog techniques, highlighting the digital age's stark color abstraction and meticulous handcrafting. The show ran until October 3rd.