H.K. Kwon

Artist H.K. Kwon presents his solo exhibition with new works based on the Promenade series. It is his show after an elapse of three years. Promenade means “taking a walk.” Why are the exhibits called Promenade? There is a reason for that. The portion of promenade in his daily life has grown big. Recently, he renovated his setting for creative work by relocating his studio. He changed the rhythm of his life. He walks to and from his home in Seodaemun to his studio at the foot of Namsan Mountain. Walking is supposed to be a part of people’s daily life. In today’s world, however, taking a walk around a city has become nothing usual.

Kwon’s works have changed, that is, “changes in progress.” The foundation of his sculptures is no different from before, but the method of cultivating the canvas is different. First, he creates a base freely in black or white on the canvas. When aiming for some paper smudging effect, he would apply poppy oil to moisturize the support. The background painting is neither simply underpainting nor even a rough sketch being carefully in advance. It is just a “trace of brushstroke,” a handwriting that relies on automatism. He then creates an expression of the canvas on the background. He repeatedly draws a certain trajectory neatly from top to bottom with a finger or knife. Paint sometimes overlaps by accident, leaving a texture with different thicknesses. Putting a new expression on top of the pre-drawn color on the background is “drawing” and “erasing” at the same time. The process of clumping and overlapping, creation and extinction is directly linked to composition, color, thickness, density, and texture. Finally, the canvas reveals “thousand faces.”