Since 2005, ONE AND J. Gallery has been steadily working to introduce Korean art and creators to major overseas art scenes and to help Korean-based art creators enter the international stage. ONE AND J. Gallery, which will participate as the main section gallery in Expo Chicago 2024 to be held at Navy Pier from March 12 to 14, 2024, will feature artists who are continuing meaningful activities in the Korean contemporary art world. Introducing the three members: Jong Oh, Ahnnlee Lee, and Soyoung Chung.
Jong Oh (b.1981) begins his work by first closely examining a space; then, he focuses his attention on not just the architectural features of the space but also the minute traces of how the space has been used. In this way, he communicates with space. As an artist concerned with the reverberation of sound within a space, Jong Oh has stated that he senses the low 'reverberations' of any space he works in. Just as a small reverberation gently gathers into a larger echo, Jong Oh's sculptures and installation works reverberate together within the space of the gallery. The visitor's experience of these three-dimensional geometric works made from simple materials such as thread, wooden and steel rods, pencil lines, and chains is influenced by a variety of variables, including the visitor's gaze and movements, invisible factors such as light and gravity, as well as the interactions between the one-dimensional lines and two-dimensional planes of the various works. Through the manipulation of these elements, Jong Oh experiments with the various dimensions and perspectives of the space.
In particular, the Line Sculpture series presented at Expo Chicago 2024 emphasized sculptural elements more than the existing works that were invisible and had strong drawing elements. When the artist expresses space with geometric elements of points, lines, and planes, the characteristic of this series is that he uses beads as 'dots.' Although the change in the color and shadow of beads depending on the light is important to him, it is also the artist's way of working that places restrictions on the use of beads. Creating something by accepting and adjusting conditions within certain constraints is Oh's way of working.
Jong Oh received his B.F.A in Sculpture from Hongik University and M.F.A in Fine Arts from School of Visual Arts, New York. He has held solo exhibitions at DOOSAN Gallery New York, New York (2021); Marc Straus Gallery, New York (2021); Sabrina Amrani Gallery, Madrid (2019); Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul (2018); UCONN Contemporary Art Galleries, Connecticut (2016) and others. Participated in numerous group shows including those held at the GALLERY 2, Seoul (2021); Song Eun Art Space, Seoul (2020), Art Sonje Center, Seoul (2018); Hudson Valley MOCA, New York (2017); Trinity Museum, New York (2013) and many more. He was selected the Song Eun Art Awards Finalist in 2021 and also participated in the artist-in-residence program of DOOSAN Residency, New York (2021) and many more.
Ahnnlee Lee (b. 1985), who majored in plastic arts, crosses between painting and installation work. Sometimes, inspiration is expressed through performances such as writing or reciting poetry. He enjoys the world made up of small events, the whole they create, and a common destiny, as well as the transformed mechanisms within his own inner world. His exhibition gives us the feeling of being in the artist's studio. It is inevitable because, first of all, he uses a variety of media, including two-dimensional drawings, clay, sculptures such as mobiles, three-dimensional objects, sound, writing, installation, and performance. While examining the site, the artist takes control of the entire space by utilizing or highlighting the specific characteristics of the location, such as small cracks in the wall, peeling paint, the rough texture of bricks or cement, nail marks, and holes. However, that 'control' is the result of the artist's liking and intimacy with the space, and is closer to friendship than hierarchy. It is an attitude of treating the space gently and delicately, rather than hastily remodeling or adding something to the space.
The drawings exhibited at Expo Chicago 2024 are works that express everyday materials as plants and animals. In particular, Mirror III and The Dragon and the Stars V are the artist's first drawings using ink, and are characterized by mysterious animal shapes whose images cannot be identified. Images delicately expressed with ink and pencil on paper allow viewers to imagine various things. The black core of a pencil and blue ink meet to create new life. Sometimes it changes into an imaginary animal from childhood, sometimes it changes into complex emotions of the present that cannot be defined, and sometimes it changes and finally evolves over time.
The Liquid Stars series is a pencil drawing that expresses birds like plants. The pencil lines that began to be drawn on the paper overlapped over time and turned into a shiny, hard-looking surface like metal. When viewed up close, it is breathtakingly slippery, and when viewed from a distance, it is a gigantic shape that juts out and overwhelms. However, if you rub it with your hands, it will quickly become damaged and deformed. After passing through the black, smooth surface of this mass and the soft, peeled side, the eye turns to the open gap inside. These paintings, which the artist painted over a period of as little as a few months or as long as several years, once again indicate empty spaces through accumulated layers of graphite.
Ahnnlee Lee received his DNAP and DNSAP degrees from Beaux-Arts de Paris in France. He has held solo exhibitions at Drawing Space SAALGOO, Seoul (2018); Drawing Space SAALGOO, Seoul (2016) and a duo exhibition at ONE AND J. Gallery, Seoul (2023). Participated in group exhibitions including Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art, Gyeonggi (2023); Frieze No.9 Cork Street, London (2023); Wumin Art Center, Cheongju (2022); Lee Kang Ha Art Museum, Gwangju (2022); ONE AND J. Gallery, Seoul (2022); Space So, Seoul (2021); HITE Collection, Seoul (2020); Jeju Museum of Contemporary Art, Jeju (2018); Seongbuk Creation Center, Seoul (2017) and others.
Soyoung Chung (b. 1979) have been produced while pondering philosophical questions about time that the myriad materials surrounding our lives have passed through. Chung said she found a stone one day, and it inspired her to imagine the time of the Earth. Her interest spontaneously reached beneath the Earth's surface (geology) she stood on and above it (geopolitics). Erosion and deposition serves as keys to understanding the universal history of creation and annihilation. It was when her imagination extended from soil to continents, from horizon to borders, from cities to islands, to become new weaving stories of individual, historical, natural memories. Chung has recently expanded her vision into oceanic spacetime (oceanography), where there would probably be no human soul, no human being, ever. From a human's point of view, imagining the hadal zone amounts to calling for a spacetime in another dimension, just as moving into the universe, toward infinity. The artist put forward a long-time consideration reflecting on geological movement and oceanic epoch to face them as they are.
Among the works presented to Expo Chicago 2024, the Condensation series symbolizes the marks that form on the floor as dew forms on the surface of a cup of water when placed at room temperature, providing a glimpse into the artist's imagination and observation skills found in everyday life. This also serves to go back in time and remind us of the existence of water from a new perspective.
The Mirrors for Mirok series is a work in which silver mirror material is painted on the glass surface using chemicals such as silver nitrate and ammonia solution, and was produced with inspiration from the novels of independence activist and novelist Lee Mirok. Amnok River's multi-layered temporality, place, and personal history are contained in a stained mirror. Like the rolling waves, the mirror, which does not fully reflect my appearance and is stained here and there, confuses the boundaries between past, present, and future.
Soyoung Chung has DNSAP degree from École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris, France. She has held solo exhibitions at 021 Gallery, Seoul (2023); CR Collective, Seoul (2022); ONE AND J. Gallery, Seoul (2021); OCI Museum of Art, Seoul (2011); Kumho Museum of Art, Seoul (2007) and many more. Participated in selected group exhibitions at APMA (Amorepacific Museum of art), Seoul (2022); Gyeongnam Art Museum, Changwon (2022); Songeun Art Space, Seoul (2021); Delfina Foundation, London (2019); Total Museum of Art, Seoul (2018); Doosan Art Gallery, Seoul (2018) and others. Also, she participated in the artist-in-residence programs of National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Residency Changdong, Seoul Art Space Geumcheon, Seoul Germany, England, France and others as a tenant artist.
11–14 April 2024
Navy Pier
600 E Grand Ave, Chicago,
IL 60611, United States
ONE AND J. Gallery represents these artists: