GALLERY 2

13 Sep 2007 — 13 Oct 2007

Byunghoon Kim's page

Byunghoon Kim
Divine Trees

Gallery 2 presents Kim Byunghoon’s solo exhibition, an artist whose work captures everyday urban forms. As if writing in a journal, Kim has consistently chronicled street scenes, trees and sunlight, and plant stems and leaves, recently expanding the sphere of his themes in his own photographic way. In this exhibition, he presents about 20 black-and-white photographs featuring the type of divine trees he captured while traveling all over the country including the Jeolla-do and Gangwon-do provinces over a period of several years.

Questioning human relations in a city and its structure, the artist has focused primarily on observing trees that have shared our joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure and have made many people aware of the wisdom and meaning of life, transcending space and time. The trees he captures include street trees from our common surroundings, trees designed for appreciation, old and well-known trees located at a Dangsan, i.e. the site inhabited by the village guardian spirit, and trees in a deep mountain.

In his photographs, all the background scenes are abridged and wooden poles suggested by several vigorous lines provoke an extremely Oriental painting-like atmosphere. Kim’s work, rendered by lending poetic beauty to the diverse expressions of trees, appears as a mere landscape, but takes on the form of a portrait conveying ceaseless conversations and communication between the artist and nature (or objects). This exhibition is intended to present Kim Byunghoon’s recent pieces that represent his perception and delicate sensitivity in a dark, gloomy, dim, yet transparent atmosphere. Here, we may discover a new aspect of contemporary Korean photography in the dynamic flow of the Korean art scene.