From 3 to 24 February 2023, THEO will hold an exhibition titled Don't Look With Those Eyes: Bizarre things by Jonguk Park and Kyumin Hwang, who were selected as a new artist support program. ​We do not stop at simply providing exhibition opportunities and experiences to artists, but through the project, we seek various ways for artists and galleries to coexist and grow together.

'**Beautiful things are always bizarre[1].'**

Assuming that the beginning of a new art trend or discourse originated from 'unfamiliarities' with cases criticised by critics or ignored by the public, a methodology called 'unfamiliarization' was derived by objectifying the series of processes and contexts accepted. The big intention and goal of this exhibition are to overcome various 'unfamiliarities' of participating artists and entries through the process of trying various objectification in a strange way, explore the possibility of open interpretable beauty, and explore the process of various identification encountered in the above way.

The participating artists are university alumni in the same region, and they are related by academic ties and region Ties (which should be avoided perhaps). Various orders and powers are at play in the 'unfamiliarities (like regional limitations, the environment that young artists face when they try to enter the art world)' we face every day, and through this exhibition, we would like to try a small solidarity that can be overcome by taking advantage of the relationships that should be avoided by local young artists. At the same time, they attempt to identify themselves and their work with the keyword synesthesia, which feels unfamiliar.

Jonguk Park (b. 1991) has continuously questioned the art world, which is educated in a limited apprenticeship format and has been working based on concerns about artistic direction and identity as an artist. If his previous works have mainly reflected his childhood, which was controlled within the frame, He would like to try moving from chaos to the cosmos out of the frame through this exhibition.

Kyumin Hwang (b. 1992) focuses on the instinctive five senses that can be felt in screens, spaces, and objects that encourage erotic imagination. While visualising the 'desire for the unreachable' through plane or three-dimensional works, he is also exploring tactile paintings that can be reached. Through this exhibition, he attempts to explore the body that has been sensed toward the body that resists and the body that is encroaching on the senses by recording the body three-dimensional or two-dimensional forms and sensing it again.

Everyone needs to objectify the familiar by looking at it as unfamiliar, and at the same time, we need an attitude to treat unfamiliar things without boundaries. A familiar or unfamiliar look at something new. In a world where nothing new is thought to exist, something new may exist closest to it. in the most unfamiliar or most familiar form. maybe both.

Chanyong CHONG (THEO Assistant director)

Press release courtesy THEO.