Chun Misun
Education
B.F.A College of Fine Art Choung-Ju University
M.F.A Department of Fine Art, sejong University.Seoul
Solo Exhibitions
2016 10th SECHOART_ONE Gallery Seoul, Korea
2016 9th JK Gallery, IlSan, Korea
2015 8th Able Gallery, Invited Exhibition, Seoul
2014 7th HwaBong Gallery, Invited Exhibition, Seoul
2013 6th Gallery woolim, Seoul
2009 5th United Nations, New York
2005 4th Space Beam, Incheon
2000 3rd Cheshire Town Hall, U.S.A
1998 1st Baik Song Gallery, Seoul
1998 2nd SHINSEGAE Gallery, Incheon
Art Fairs
2019 Affordable Art Fair Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2019 Affordable Art Fair Battersea Park, London, UK
2019 Art Expo Malaysia, MECC, Malaysia
2019 Affordable Art Fair Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
2019 Affordable Art Fair Hampstead, Hampstead, UK
2019 Affordable Art Fair Brussels, Brussels, Belgium
2019 London Art Fair, London, UK
2018 Context Miami, Miami, USA
2018 Affordable Art Fair Battersea Park, London, UK
2018 Art Expo, New York, USA
2018 Context NY, New York, USA
2018 Art Expo, Las Vegas, USA
2017 Affordable Art Fair Battersea Park, London, UK
2017 Affordable Art Fair New York, New York, USA
2017 Art Up, Parc Expo Rouen, Avenue des Canadiens, France
2017 LA Art Show, Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles, USA
2016 ST-ART Fair, Strasbourg, France
2016 AAF Seoul, Seoul, Korea
2016 Art Market Hamptons, Bridgehampton Museum, USA
2016 Art HAMPTONS, Bridgehamton, USA
2016 Memorial open 1year, JCUBE MUSEUM, China
2016 LA ART SHOW 2016, LA Convention center, USA
2016 MENTOR MENTEE, HAN WON MUSEUM OF ART Seoul, Korea
2016 Affordable Art Fair Milan, Milan, ltaly
2016 Madef Design Living Fair, In, Korea
2016 Art Gyeongju, Gyeongju, Korea
2016 Affordable Art Fair Milano, Milano, Italia
2016 LA ART SHOW 2016, Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles, USA
2015 Affordable Art Fair Singapore, F1 Pit Building, Singapore
2015 Korea International Art Fair (KIAF), COEX, Seoul, Korea
2015 Affordable Art Fair Seoul, Dongdaemun Design Plaza, Seoul, Korea
2015 Affordable Art Fair Britain, London, UK
2014 Korea International Art Fair (KIAF), COEX, Seoul, Korea
2014 The 32nd Korea Galleries Art Fair, COEX, Seoul, Korea
2013 Korea International Art Fair (KIAF), COEX, Seoul, Korea
Robert C. Morgan
Among contemporary painters, there are many points of view as to how the space within a painting should be represented. For some, there is the representational perspective involving figures, landscapes, and objects. For others there is the abstract point of view in which concrete shapes are shown without a specific reference to the external visual world. One might consider the space within a Van Gogh painting as being different from that of Mondrian. Although both painters were Dutch, each had a vision of space vastly different from the other. Each artist was original in the manner he chose to describe space.
Occasionally one may discover a painter who combines both abstract and representational forms as seen in the work of the Swiss artist Paul Klee. In the recent work of the Korean painter Misun Chun, an even more unusual situation comes to the foreground of our attention. In Chun’s paintings, we discover that several diverse representational forms exist within an abstract space. Some may understand this paradox as a purely formal concern, while others may see it in a more complex, paradoxical way. Chun’s paintings raise the question – both perceptual and philosophical – as to how the space within a painting is able to shift our attention from one area to another and yet still remain the same space.
In her artist’s statement, Misun Chun proclaims: “Empty space is filled with longing and fullness for me.” Indeed, this appears true. Her canvases are empty except for the presence of one or two chairs with an occasional owl that serves as a Korean symbol of wealth, honor, and wisdom. Rarely do we find a painting by Chun in which the chair has stuffing. There is one that comes in mind in which an owl is perched on the armrest. Most often, the design of the chairs she depicts are lean and sparse. In each case, they are supremely crafted, elegant, hardback chairs, covered in formal décor. The decorum suggests the kind of floral motifs found in the Arts and Crafts movement in nineteenth century London. Her paintings, entitled “Accompany,” have a graphic consistency, a linear quality that suggests a clean open space that evokes a stark environmental interior.
The earlier paintings appear in black and white while the more recent works contain touches of brilliant dry color that gives the decorum of her settings a special grace. Seen in reproduction, one could easily mistake these acrylic paintings for dry point etchings. The placement of the chairs is keen and insightful. For example, two of her paintings display the backs of
chairs set at the bottom edge of the space. The repetitive designs on these backs are carefully executed so as to provide a convincing consistency likely to be found in expensive fabrics. Occasionally ferns or other plant life emerges outside of the fabric design as in a painting of one of the chair backs where the plants continue symmetrically on either side. In another, there are two identically wooden chairs – one black, the other white – both without fabric. Each of the chairs poised at opposite ends of the picture plane have birds and plants, one an owl, the other, perhaps, a parakeet.
Ms. Chun believes her paintings carry a wealth of emotions. We might assume the expressive contact of her work is highly reduced both in terms of the space between the chairs as well as within the articulated design elements. Finally the plant life and birds, specifically the repeated presence of the owl, offer a reflective allegory of everyday life.
Chun’s chair designs vary. While some appear purposefully refined and modern, others attest to a more classical veneer. In either case, we might concur that the manner in which they are placed determines the angle of vision by which they are seen. How we see them is determined by the accuracy of their proportions measured by the space in which they reside. In summary, Misun Chun’s paintings give us the sense of living in an interior space that has a precise emotional counterpart. The intentional fulfillment
within these paintings offers a fanciful scenario replete with the wondrous aura of charm.
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Robert C. Morgan is an art historian and a painter. Author of several books in several languages, he is a regular contributor to hyperallergic.com and artcritical.com in New York City. He currently teaches in the Graduate Department of Fine Arts at Pratt Institute. In 2005, Dr. Morgan became a Fulbright Senior Scholar and lectured throughout the Republic of Korea.
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