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I_lands. Yoojoo Kim + Judith Trepp
26 Aug. – 26 Sep. 2023, Lechbinska Gallery
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Judith Trepp: Painting as an Interplay of Matter and Space
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Trepp's painting explores the expressive potential of colour as a synthesis of matter and space - a process that begins with the slightest application of acrylic, oil, tempera, or ink, on handmade cotton paper and linen. Through careful observation of liquid media on these stable, yet unpredictable surfaces, Trepp allows a certain alchemy to take its course, studying the reactions that occur as one comes into contact with the other, giving rise to new colours, textures, and topographies. Trepp then intervenes in this cycle to divert or amplify their effects, producing ever more subtle alloys and appended forms: paper works marked by creases and folds (reminiscent of fabric), and linen caked in dense, granular deposits (stiffened into seemingly rigid sheets) - both drawing our attention towards the radical transformation of colour materials when becoming spatial, while unable to grasp just what was formed by hand or by chance.
After graduating from Bard College, New York, in 1967, Judith Trepp was one of the earliest residents of the Westbeth Artists Community, the first government-sponsored artist residency programme in the United States. She moved to Switzerland in 1970, living between Switzerland and Italy from 1975 to 1982, and between Switzerland and the United States from 1989 to 2018. Trepp has written art criticism for the International Herald Tribune and worked as a correspondent for ARTnews. Alongside important solo and group exhibitions such as “Beyond line” (2011) at the Provincetown Art Museum (PAAM), she has featured in numerous international fairs including the London Art Fair, Kunst Zurich, Art Miami, Art Chicago, KIAF Seoul, Arte Fiera Bologna, and Art Cologne. From November 2012 to March 2013, Trepp participated in the prestigious residency programme at La Cité International des Arts in Paris, sponsored by the Swiss Artists Association (VISARTE).
Judith Trepp, Nr.2021-01-04, tempera and pigment on linen, 58 x 130 cm, 2021
reminiscent of skin. Yoojoo Kim
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Kim’s work focuses on the unpredictable and moving aspects of the encounter between different materials; a condition she likens to our interpersonal relationships, which are for her equally transitory and unfixable. Kim’s ‘Nexus’ series consists of organically shaped objects that take their basic form from the Chinese character "Man” (ren人). Each of these cast, lightweight ceramics reimagines the character through some facet of the human body, variously alluding to clusters of cells, skeletal bone structure or body parts touching one another, while their elaborately detailed surfaces appear almost alive. They appear sometimes smooth and soft, sometimes hard and rough, like human skin. Kim’s starting point for these works was a short poem by the well-known Korean writer Hyeon-jong Jeong, which reads: “Among people lies an island. I want to go to this island” - a metaphor that Kim extends by aligning interpersonal relationships and encounters (that she defines as a process of approach and rejection) with the organic interplay of nature. This proposition finds perhaps its most refined expression thus far in Kim’s recent ‘Migration(s)’ series of ceramic constructions, in which two different types of clay are free to join, or fall apart, subject to both chemical and mechanical processes, that depend on the juxtaposition of a heavy chamotte modelling clay core, with a porcelain surface mixed with coloured stain. The time-consuming process of creating the surface texture (once again reminiscent of skin), is a result of interaction with the support material, and leads to a different and unrepeatable outcome.
A graduate of the prestigious Seoul National University, ceramicist and photographer Yoojoo Kim received her BFA in Ceramic Art, and MFA in Ceramics. Her solo exhibitions include “The Present” at Raam Gallery (Seoul, 2004), as well as numerous important group exhibitions and international fairs including the Gyeonggi International Ceramic Biennale (Yeoju, Korea, 2007), ‘Contemporary Korean Ceramics’ at Dublin Craft Trail (Dublin, Ireland, 2014), the 47th IAC member’s Exhibition at Disseny Hub (Barcelona, Spain, 2016), and the Grand Anniversary Exhibition ‘Contemporary Ceramic Art of the World’ at Marianne Heller Gallery (Heidelberg, Germany, 2018).
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Yoojoo Kim, Migration, clay, porcelain slip, 50 x 25 cm, 2022
OPENING HOURS: 26. Aug. – 26. Sep.
Wed./Thu. 15-19 h
Fri./Sat. 12-18 h
or by appointment
Tel. 041 43 243 7106
Events:
Sun. 27. Aug.: Brunch with Artists, 11 a.m.
Fri. 1. Sep.: Lecture on Materiality by Natasha Fischer-Vaidya. 6 p.m.
Thu. 7. Sep.: Members get together with Asia Society 6:30-8 p.m.
Fri. 15. Sep.: Tour for RUNDUMKERAMIK, guided by Yujin Kim 6 p.m.
Fri. 22. Sep: Finissage, 18:00-20:00