KANG MYONGHI

The father-son founders of Villepin, Dominique and Arthur de Villepin whose friendship with the artist goes back three decades are privileged to witness her return to Seoul—an event laden with profound significance. Having spent many years traveling around the world, this exhibition marks a reconnection of the artist with her Korean and Asian heritage, thus rekindling her intrinsic ties to the land of her birth.

As Myonghi revisits her heritage, her art takes on a new resonance. It’s a resurgence, a celebration of her identity as a Korean artist, and a testament to the enduring influence of her homeland.

Kang Myonghi was the first Korean female artist to exhibit in top art museums and international institutions. She had a solo exhibition at Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris in 1986 and has also shown at the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Seoul (1989), Beijing National Art Museum (2005), Ningbo Museum of Art (2007), Shanghai Museum of Art (2007), and Beijing Art Museum of Imperial City in China (2011). In 1981, she and her husband Setaik Yim were the founders of the Musée de Séoul in Seoul, the first Museum of Art in South Korea. The artist also participated in the exhibition and symposium Devant, le futur, as part of the World Expo held in Daejeon, South Korea in 1993. More recently, she had a solo exhibition in Qingdao for the grand opening of the TAG museum in 2023, in tandem with Antony Gormley’s exhibition.

Myonghi is a rare painter, committed to exploring limits, in a time of unprecedented change. She has ventured to the parts of the world, from the Gobi Desert to the glaciers of Patagonia, in search of a primordial time, of the origins of our times. Myonghi’s latest compositions bear witness to the vibrant tapestry of her cultural heritage, resonating with the vivid colors and intricate brushwork that evoke the landscapes, traditions, and spirituality indigenous to Korea and Asia. Myonghi’s artistic evolution has remained an exploration of nature’s enigmatic depths, skillfully navigating the delicate intersection of the spiritual and the corporeal, akin to the eternal interplay between heaven and earth. She restores nature’s mystery, records its momentum as she transcribes in each of her works. Her oeuvre, spanning from early works to her most recent abstractions, remains steeped in poetic introspection and philosophical inquiry, unveiling a portal into the mystical dimensions inherent to humanity.