Newman Huo

AFTER living in Shenzhen for three months, South Korean painter Yoon Nam-woong is staging a one-man exhibition in Guan Shanyue Art Museum, which will run through March 24.

Yoon arrived in Shenzhen at the beginning of the year as the first visiting foreign resident artist under the Guan Shanyue Art Museum’s international residency program.

The exhibition features 30 works, including abstract ink paintings and installations the artist has created during his three-month stay here.

“What I really care about is not how Chinese audiences will respond to my work, but whether I have successfully expressed my peculiar feelings and perceptions towards this newly rising city with the medium of ink painting,” Yoon said in an interview Tuesday.

Born in the southern province of Jeon-la-nam-do in South Korea in 1963, Yoon graduated with a bachelor’s degree in ink painting from Jeon Nam University in 1988.

He obtained a master’s degree in Chinese ink painting from the Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts in Liaoning Province in 1999 after three years’ studying under renowned Chinese painter Wang Shenglie.

“Although the money Guan Shanyue Art Museum offered for its international residency program is not very high, I decided to come over because I would have the opportunity to communicate and collaborate with the Chinese artists here,” Yoon said.

This is the first time the South Korean artist has been to Shenzhen. During his stay, he says his favorite place is the Lotus Hill, which is close to Guan Shanyue Art Museum.

He takes a walk in the park almost every day and likes everything there. “As I observe, all things in the park have their own lives because everything there is growing and moving all the time,” he said. “This has confirmed for me that traditional Chinese ink painting is not dead and I must express those things full of life in my own works,” he said.

“The landscapes we see today are no longer the same as Chinese painters from the Tang Dynasty (618-906) through the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912) saw in their times,” he said.

“Our feelings and perceptions are different as well, so we must seek new forms to express the spirit of our own time,” he said.

In one installation on display, Yoon hangs seven bottles from the ceiling of the exhibition hall. These bottles are bound with Chinese rice paper hanging down to seven bowls on the floor. Among the seven bottles, five are filled with ink, so the ink leaks down on the rice paper. From two bowls filled with ink, ink is drawn up the rice paper.

“Through this work, I want to show both ink and Chinese rice paper have their own lives,” Yoon said.

In one ink painting, Yoon draws two fish in strong contrast: One is white on a black background while the other is black on a white background.

“With the white fish turning black, my audiences should be able to feel the alienation of a living being from nature that has resulted from the change of time,” he said.

In his ink paintings on display, Yoon also boldly employs commercial designs or Chinese characters for fast food, karaoke, and coffee houses.

Living in Shenzhen, Yoon said he feels the strong impact of rapid urbanization the city has gone through over the past three decades in his creations.

“Although China has a long history with its brilliant culture and customs, the invasion of commercialism and consumerism is inevitable with the rapid process of urbanization today,” Yoon said.

“Taking the lead in China, Shenzhen has finished the process of urbanization in only about 30 years, while it had taken South Korea more than 50 years,” he said.

“Commercialism and consumerism have become part of our daily lives in big cities today, so why should I avoid expressing them in my artworks?”

Dates: Through March 24

Hours: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Closed Monday

Venue: Guan Shanyue Art Museum (关山月美术馆)

Add: 6026 Hongli Road, Futian District (福田区红荔路6026号)

Buses: 10, 14, 25, 34, 105, 111, 215, 228, 238, 322, 350, 371

Metro: Shao Nian Gong Station (Children's Palace Station, 少年宫站), Exit B

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