Expressions of an artist: A painting exhibition by Kyong Mee Choi
By JENNY SOUTHLYNN
The show is polished and elegant. The paintings mineral hues shimmer one beneath the other, as mesmerizing as a reflecting pool. The accompanying musical compositions play in perfect harmony with the works, completing the immersive meditative effect.
The paintings and original music are by Korean born, Kyong Mee Choi. The artist is currently a visiting lecturer in composition-theory at the University of Illinois. Accomplished in her field, Choi won second prize at VI CIMESP 2005, Concurso International de Musica Electoracustica de Sao Paulo, and was awarded the ASCAP/SEAMUS Student Composition Commission 1st prize. In the fall of 2006, she will be joining the music faculty at Roosevelt University in Chicago.
The music is a perfect audio expression of the artists visual works and includes piano solos, organ and cello duos, electroacoustic music, ensemble and multimedia pieces. Some titles include, Reminiscences, a piano solo; Kandinsky, multimedia; and TAO, voice piano and electroacoustic music.
Choi is a self taught painter, who says the visual art greatly enriched her musical endeavors.
These are very smart works. Not only are they exquisitely rendered, with careful attention to every detail, they speak softly while revealing volumes in both subtly and depth.
Each painting, according to the artist, begins with acrylic or glue drips, poured paint that creates pools in gently raised surfaces. The shapes contribute to a sense of movement. Each soft biomorphic form floating on the surface can be imagined and re-imagined by each viewer, like cloud pictures in the sky.
The paintings are both biological and archeological in nature, unified by colors from the earth, replete with bits of cultural refuse-- small pieces of woven rope curved in gentle arcs, circular metal objects, bits of string, twigs and stones. These abstract works invoke Paul Klee, the whimsical forms repeating in motifs that cluster and separate, activating parts of the otherwise placid surface.
Each canvas is lovingly attended to by the hand of a skilled craftsman; every square inch carefully rendered, burnished in layers and layers of subtle color. The palette reflects the minerals of Mother earth, rich pigments in gray, copper, maroon, silver and gold. The layering saturates the canvas creating atmospheric effects that are at times ephemeral and at others, alien. One must drink these paintings in, absorbing them through every pore. Viewing is as experiential as it is visual.
The overall gestalt of this show is contemplative, a meditation on the juxtaposition of nature vs. culture, steeped in a sense of wonder. The attention to detail, the mastery of her technique and flawless control, lends to a sense of quiet inquiry and a feeling of serenity.
Rarely is the adage, "less is more," more apropos. The works are paired down to base elements, essentials that embody a conjunction of opposites, complexity and simplicity.
Thee paintings seem to reside in a dynamic moment, what Aristotle called potential. Here a thing resides on the brink of discovery, its essence simultaneously concealed and revealed, the moment before revelation. In this powerful moment we can imagine elements of the past, the dynamics of the present and the mysteries of the future.
Other Showing Times: May 11, and 13 at 5-7 pm
High Cross Studio at 1101 N. High Cross Rd., Urbana.
|
