artist interview

Gallery chosun presents by artist Ahn Sang-hoon from July 3 to July 17, 2018. Ahn Sang-hoon studied at Münster, Germany, and later worked in Germany, including Münster, Berlin, and Austburg. Since moving into the Incheon Art platform last year, he has been searching for a way to make abstract paintings in Korea. The exhibition shows the work that has been done in Korea since returning to Korea in 2016. Ahn Sang-hoon will use his unique color sense and construction within surface to stimulate the imagination of the audience.
Last year's Incheon Art Platform Exhibition, was an opportunity to ask about what's the 'good' in painting and also about the 'painting'. The artist seems to be saying to the people who are looking for 'good' paintings that they don't have to by drawing a line over the phrase 'good'. The exhibition intended to show that the painting lasts for a very short time, which is represented by particular painting floating a little from the wall instead of being hung on it. The artist seems to make the audience think about what 'good' painting is, and eventually what is 'painting' is about. 
Every exhibition is temporary and disappears. The canvas paintings, if not permanent, may seem to guarantee some time, actually disappear too as the exhibition ends. There is no way to know where and when to see the paintings again. The artist is well aware of the fate of painting. Therefore, he predicted that the material would disappear from the ground through plastic and very fragile methods(). What we know about paintings is so fragile just like that. There are paintings exist outside of the canvas. And there are paintings inside the canvas. The artist does not consider the edge of the canvas to be the edge of the painting. In this exhibition too, the author assumes that the scope of his imagination extends beyond the edges. 
Ahn Sang-hoon who uses painting as a media, works while simultaneously dealing with abstract paintings that have become a genre. Ahn Sang-hoon recognized the abstract paintings, the post-modernism, the material quality of the brush, and the psychological value of the painting. Still he doesn't wants these words about abstract paintings to come forward to painting itself and asks about what is 'good' in painting. Therefore, Ahn Sang-hoon is a artist who is concerned about the rhetorical expression that is being using to understand paintings. 
The painting titles consist of a familiar yet strange combination of phrases and words, like the title of the exhibition. This is also the artist's intention to share a large portion of the work with the audience. Each title, which is randomly chosen from Google Search, but at the same time is based on existing information, only conveys vague shades of meaning and leads the audience to be curious. You may have seen the title "Untitled" which is usually attached to abstract paintings. That leads us to ask, why do we check the title of the picture? Why do you feel so lost in front of the title "Untitled"? When you don't know what to look for from a painting, you may expect to get some hints from the title. The artist uses the title to deflect the things outside the picture that we think we need when we're trying to understand a painting. There have been many questions and pessimism about paintings, or abstract paintings. Still, Ahn Sang-hoon works between inside and outside of the paintings saying, 'There is paintings here, still, nevertheless'

Press release courtesy Gallery Chosun.