The gallery is pleased to pay tribute to the artist Shin Sung-Hy by showing two series of works which have never been shown and which reflect a continuous line of the spirit of his work, under new facets.
Shin Sung-Hy left us suddenly twelve years ago, taking with him his passion and commitment for his work, his natural modesty and curiosity. Along with his elders Kim Tschang-Yeul, Park Seo-Bo and Lee U Fan, he is one of Korea's greatest visual artists.
Shin Sung-Hy's work can be defined by the assembly of two gestures: deconstructing and reconstructing. Thus the lacerations made to a canvas which he then reconstructs by interweaving or knotting the lacerated elements; or two paintings cut into strips which, by alternating, constitute a third finished painting.
His work could be compared to that of the french group Support-Surface, which has transformed the notions of the stretcher, free canvases, and approaches to the support or material, whether in painting or sculpture.
Shin Sung-Hy's work, like that of many Korean artists, has its roots in a very artisanal and manual approach that he transcends into a work of art. His studio also involved the family collaboration of his wife and children (or at least one of them, to my knowledge).
The gallery is pleased to pay tribute to the artist Shin Sung-Hy by showing two series of works which have never been shown and reflect a continuous line of the spirit of his work, under new facets: paintings with pieces torn and then glued back together in a seemingly random way leaving the background transparent, and paintings where collages, material and traces of the painter's tools become confused. Faithful to his leitmotiv, he has never stopped making, destroying and reconstructing.
As Gilbert Lascault wrote in the introductory text of his monographic book Shin: "In all his works, he splits up, then reconstitutes a new whole. He divides and restores. He undoes and makes. He scatters the elements and reunites them. He renounces and is reborn.
Baudoin Lebon
