Transparent Reflections
Sung-Ha An
Jun 25 - Jul 25, 2009
NEW YORK - Gana Art New York is pleased to present a joint exhibition of two Korean artists Sung-Ha An and Jenny Cho.
Transparent Reflections
Sung-Ha An
Sung-Ha An: On view from June 25- July 25, the show will consist of ten still-life works on canvas. This will be the artist's debut solo exhibition in the U.S.
Sung-Ha An's still-life oil paintings seem to capture quiet moments in time that highlight the unexpected beauty of small, everyday objects. Guilty indulgences such as candy and cigarettes are portrayed in a seemingly hyper-realistic fashion. Yet there is a distinct sense of fantasy and illusion that pervades her work. An adds another layer onto this duality by venturing into an exploration of the good and the bad. Although candy and cigarettes are generally regarded as trivial and perhaps even sinful items, they provide pleasure and comfort because of the very nature of their unhealthy contents.
While concretely portraying the shapes of vibrantly colored candy and cigarettes, An conveys their latent abstractness through the reflection, refraction and varied transparency of the glass bowls in which they are encased. By merging the real with the illusory, An skillfully maintains her objects within the confines of painting, while deftly avoiding perfect representation. Using several painstakingly applied layers and blurring techniques, An refers to the popularity of hyperrealism and pop art in Korea, critiquing the rushed production of art during market booms. She strives to transcend mere representation by tapping into our deeper emotional connections to these mundane objects and what they have come to symbolize.
An attributes much of her inspiration to close-up scenes in movies, where the viewer's attention is drawn to important details that may otherwise easily be overlooked. In fact, her paintings call into question the very definition of significance. An's work bridges both photography and painting, with a dual appeal that is at once realistic and idealized. As with the camera lens, certain areas of the still-life are blurred while others are brought into razor-sharp focus. We soon realize that with An's work, what initially appears to be a mere representation of simple objects is laden with a deeper and multi-faceted meaning.