TEFAF Maastricht 2024: BOOTH 488

VIP Preview: 7 – 8 MARCH
Public: 9 – 14 MARCH

The Page Gallery is delighted to present a group presentation of 6 Korean artists - Yeesookyung, Choi Myoung Young, Park Suk Won, Chong Gon Byun, Na Jeom Soo, Chung Suejin - for TEFAF Maastricht 2024.

These artists, each recently showcased by The Page Gallery, exemplify the gallery's dedication to nurturing cultural discourse and expanding the horizons of artistic expression. The presentation features a compelling series from each artist that collectively demonstrates the richness and diversity of contemporary Korean art.

The booth presentation will feature Yeesookyung's (b.1963) signature sculpture series, Translated Vase, and her painting series, Flame. Highlights will also include works by Choi Myoung Young (b.1941) and Park Suk Won (b.1942), the founding members of the Korea Avant-Garde Association (A.G., 1969-1975), the pivotal group in modern and contemporary Korean art. For contemporary sculptures, the booth will feature Chong Gon Byun's (b.1948) hyperrealist assemblages built from discarded objects and Na Jeom Soo's (b.1969) raw-textured wood sculptures. The presentation will include Chung Suejin's (b.1969) multi-dimensional visual language paintings.

One of Korea’s leading contemporary artists, Yeesookyung has presented a variety of reinterpretation works of traditional and contemporary art while still connected to daily life and blurring the boundaries of different media. Her work is included in museum collections worldwide, including The British Museum; London, UK; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, USA; Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul; Salama Bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation, Abu Dhabi, UAE; M+ Museum, Hong Kong; Mystetskyi Arsenal, Kyiv, Ukraine; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA; National Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea, Gwacheon; Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul; ARCO Collection, IFEMA, Madrid, Spain and Bristol Museum, Bristol, UK. 

Yeesookyung’s best-known series, the Translated Vase series, consists of sculptures reconstructed from discarded ceramic fragments. When skillful ceramic masters reproduce traditional Korean ceramics, they discard vases with minor defects to keep the rarity and value of the surviving masterpieces.

Yeesookyung’s Flame series shares a core value of Buddhism, the “Enlightenment.” Through her practice, she strives to reach a place of enlightenment like a monk while asking about the significance of a flame. Primarily working on Korean mulberry paper using cinnabar, grounded from red rock minerals and applied with a fine brush, cinnabar is commonly used in Korea, Japan, and China, mainly for talismans or Buddhist paintings; she strives to reach the state of “Enlightenment.”

Choi Myoung Young, one of the pioneering forces of Dansaekhwa (monochrome painting) in Korea, holds a central position in Korean art history. Since the 1970s, Choi Myoung Young has taken various approaches within the Conditional Planes series by differentiating the tools – fingerprints, roller, and stitching awl – textures, and techniques involved. The term “conditional” refers to a physical boundary that he sets up with the size of his work or the movement of his outstretched arms.

Choi Myoung Young has held group exhibitions at Perrotin, Paris, France (2016), and Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, Japan (2017). His works are included in the collections of the Museum of Modern Contemporary Art (MMCA), Seoul, Korea; Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea; Leeum Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea and The National Art Center Tokyo, Japan. 

Park Suk Won holds a central position in the history of Korean contemporary sculpture. As a part of a founding member of the Korean Avant-Garde Group (AG), he participated in the 5th Paris Biennale (1966) and the 10th Sao Paulo Biennale (1969). He has held numerous solo exhibitions at prestigious international and domestic museums and galleries, such as the Musée d’art Moderne de la Ville de Paris and the Museum of Modern Contemporary Art (MMCA), Seoul, Korea.

The Accumulationseries is an outcome of repetition, re-assembly, and amassing. Minimizing human external force on materials, he expands the theory to two-dimensional work, placing Korean traditional paper, Hanji, vertically and horizontally on linen-fabricated canvas. Through repetition and re-assembly, he once again underlines the value of the pure properties of materials while expanding his philosophy to two-dimensional paintings, sculpting within the canvas.  

Byun Chong Gon – a New York-based Korean artist, who initiated his artistic career in New York after fleeing from the political oppression of the Korean government – takes an unorthodox approach to politics, text, fashion, and religion through art. With an assemblage of discarded objects, he hybridizes iconic images from art history and culture, taking these elements to his personal narratives. He suggests a new perspective on contemplation through juxtaposing irrelevant objects and exploring the multifarious connections of the physical and spiritual world.

Chong Gon Byun has held solo exhibitions internationally, including in New York, Paris, Tokyo, and Korea. His works are in the collections of the Albany Museum of Art, Georgia, USA; Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio, USA; Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, USA; and The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea. His documentary, Byun: Objet Trouve, directed by Marie Rose, was screened at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 2012. 

Na Jeom Soo is a sculptor redefining the properties of nature in a minimalistic, raw-textured sculptural form, which is the outcome of philosophical theories associated with the life cycle and nature. Without applying any meaning, he lets them speak for themselves as a part of the space they are placed in. By leaving a trace of his work process, he attempts to interact with viewers, suggesting an unconventional point of view. With an interest in human values and matters, he paves the way for non-materialism that distances itself from consumerism.      

His works are in the collections of Chang Ucchin Museum of Art, Gyeonggi-do, Korea; National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA), Seoul, Korea; Pohang Museum of Steel Art, Pohang, Korea.

Chung Suejin’s painting can be easily misunderstood as an expression of allegory; it is an outcome of research and studies that she has invested to create her visual language. A collective of techniques, compositions, forms, and colors build up a scene that involves icons that are portrayed in detail, eccentric composition and languages that do not exist in the world. Chung Suejin does not imply or deliver a message of symbolism through her works. Those unrealistic features that fill her canvas do not stand for any specific terms; yet, they allure and suggest the viewers consider these visuals abstract art forms. Her intention is to share a visual language that does not evoke any sentiment.

Chung Suejin has held solo exhibitions domestically and internationally. She is now based at New York and Seoul. Her works are included in the collections of Korea Art & Cultural Education Service, Seoul, Korea; Doosan Yonkang Foundation Doosan Art Center, Seoul, Korea; Seonhwa Art and Culture Foundation, Seoul, Korea; and National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea.