Wooson Gallery is proud to announce the first solo exhibition by Jannis Kounellis, who is one of the most influential artist in the world with his radical and highly original sculptures, performances and installations. This exhibition will be the first solo presentation by Jannis Kounellis and also the artist's first visit in Korea. He has been in residency in Daegu, Korea conceptualizing and dealing with space in-situ. This particular environment has been leading Kounellis to enter into individual, quite specific, dialogues that were always drawn from the imaginative sources of his oeuvre and strengthened by the aura of the place.
As a traveller, Kounellis has always been communicating with different cultures, ready to absorb and transform things he originally couldn't classify. Jannis Kounellis says he is a Greek man and an Italian artist and now he's here in Korea.
A major figure in contemporary art for over forty years, Jannis Kounellis played a central role in the Arte Povera (literally poor art) movement of the 1960s, redefining artistic practice with his radical and highly original sculptures, performances and installations. Kounellis has expanded the range of artistic media by incorporating into his work supposedly banal or crude everyday objects and materials like steel, coal, burlap sacks, mounds of ground coffee or coffee beans, coat racks, as well as phenomena such as fire, smoke or living animals. As early as in 1967, he had involved live birds in his installation. Two years later, he even installed 12 horses in a gallery at Rome. At that time people were greatly shocked by his avant-garde art practices, which brought tremendous impact on the concept and border of art, and set a landmark on life art. Jannis Kounellis had drawn inspirations from the dramatic elements in Caravaggio’s paintings, and became a pioneer who uses animals as media in a subversive manner. It is only after him that this kind of art began to assume a new aspect, e.g. Damien Hirst’s cattle or sheep, Maurizio Cattelan’s horses, pigeons or squirrels, etc.
He also introduced the notion of performance within works of art, something that to this day continues to inspire artists around the world. In all these works Kounellis drew from his deep knowledge of and sensitivity to cultures of the past and his own heritage, in itself a spirited discussion between collective and personal experiences.
Press release courtesy Wooson Gallery.