SEN CHUNG

Choi&Lager Seoul presents Formed the Universe by Korean artist Sen Chung as part of the yearly collaborative group exhibition by the four international galleries at 42 Palpan-gil, showcasing the artist’s newly developed works.

Against the monochromatic background, float the geometric figures in ambiguity. Rectangles of various colours and sizes are loosely tied with a suggestion of a line, whilst other geometric objects collide and interact. Not bound by clear borders, the figures seem to blend into the nebulous backdrop as though incomplete, and the resulting paintings are thus transient rather than finished. Such ambiguous and incomplete imagery are described by the artist himself as ‘the sediment of meditation or a lump of thought’.

Sen Chung’s works differ from the minimalist paintings that often emphasise the geometry itself, and rather focus on capturing the emotional and spiritual landscape. It therefore follows that when taking in his paintings, that point of analysis should not be tethered to the external world, but its antipodal inner realm. In the faded, near transparent background, one might catch a glimpse of that world. Within it exists the state of nonexistence-amorphous and unclassified. This uncertainty is an intended absence designed to encourage further meditation on one’s innermost thoughts and feelings.

Formed the Universe exhibits the artist’s continued exploration of the said inner realm and ambiguity. About the exhibition, Sen Chung states—‘Painting as a medium can deploy anew an entire world, and although it may seem somewhat metaphysical and hard to define, I strive to portray the thoughts and emotions that float within existence. A painting contains within the borders its own universe, completely separate and abstract.’ It is within this universe, that the artist posits his own answer to depicting something so ambiguous as a thought or a feeling within the boundaries of painting.