CHOI&LAGER gallery is pleased to announce its first solo exhibition by Hyunjhin Baik in Germany. Hyunjhin Baik is a multi-talented artist who knows no restriction to his own varied creativity: succeeding in diverse artistic fields, from poetry to experimental musical research and performance, to visual arts literally drawing reference to well-known phrases of contemporary expression. His painting is an abstract expression of dynamic relationships between different elements from his artistic practice. The subject of his paintings can be seen as a form of portrait, borrowing its existence from the people he meets in the city of Seoul.

When his inspiration takes hold, it systematically requires a certain form of execution. The faces are not mere ‘faces,’ but rather a composition of necessary brushstrokes and colours the artist is compelled to add to his canvas. The artist is no longer master of his work but the spokesperson, constantly straining to hear what his inspiration commands. He is fully devoted to the sole purpose of seizing the essence of a work that demands its own categorical existence. The overlapping colours and brushstrokes somehow surpass the artist’s intentions. They dictate their own existence.

Hyunjhin Baik was born in 1972 and currently works and lives in Seoul, South Korea. His work was introduced in Europe for the first time in 2005 throughout a public exhibition project Pilot followed by a group exhibition in 2006 at Galleria Civica in Modena. His recent solo exhibition took place at project space Pool in 2012. Also in the same year, he had a solo show at Doosan gallery in Seoul.