Become a Butterfly: Yun-Mo Ahn with Jacques Jarrige and Autistic Friends

Yun-Mo Ahn

with Jacques Jarrige and Autistic Friends

Yun-Mo Ahn

with Jacques Jarrige and Autistic Friends

Yun-Mo Ahn & Jacques Jarrige with Autistic Friends A series of workshops, displays and exhibitions organized in 2013 by Yun-Mo Ahn and in 2014 by Valerie Goodman, director of Valerie Goodman Gallery

Yun-Mo Ahn

with Jacques Jarrige and Autistic Friends

We wish to thank Whitney Loy, Dan Venezuela and The McCarton Foundation for their invaluable support and securing the creation of butterflies by thousands of children on the spectrum all over the tri-state area at schools and workshops as well as organizing the exhibition at the Port Authority of NY and NJ during Autism month and at the Partnership gallery of the Queens Museum in May. The McCarton Foundation recognizes the incredible ability that exists within people on the autistic spectrum. Empowering through education, the McCarton Foundation helps young people on the spectrum realize their full potential and celebrates their extraordinary talents.

Audrey Leeds, curator, for her vision, support and for giving us the opportunity to exhibit the project at the Art Gallery at the Rockefeller State Park Preserve in Pleasantville, NY in May-June 2014 Michelle Lopez and the Queens Museum for their support, workshop and display at the Partnership Gallery Francesca Rosenbeg, Lara Schweller and the Create Ability program of the Museum of Modern Art for their support and workshops Introduction by Claudia Steinberg Quotes by Laurent Charreyron Published by Valerie Goodman Gallery Photography: by Karin Kohlberg in the US, Claire le Douaron in France, Yun-Mo Ahn and Hyun –Sung Kim in Korea and Bali Design: Jay Yao (Jose Campos III) Betur.com co-assistants Julian Occena & Sean Copyright Š2014 by Valerie Goodman Gallery. Valerie Goodman Gallery wishes to retain sole copyright to its contribution to this book

Contents

Project Summary

by Claudia Steinberg 1

Creating the Butterflies 9

Exhibitions 29

Yun-Mo Ahn and Jacques Jarrige Significant Dates and Exhibits 57

Project Summary

by Claudia Steinberg

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Project Summary

by Claudia Steinberg

In 2013, Valerie Goodman - director and owner of the Valerie Goodman Gallery in Manhattan - was introduced to Yun-Mo Ahn and his project Become a Butterfly which has been giving a growing number of children on the autistic spectrum the opportunity to share their thoughts, their feelings, and their talents. Among the mostly European designers of her gallery, the Korean artist and his young collaborators stood out, but Valerie Goodman was instantly convinced of the transformative power of Yun-Mo Ahn's ambitious enterprise.

In March of 2014, butterflies took over her Upper East Side space that is normally reserved for refined pieces of the design avant-garde. Since that first exhibition of the Butterfly Project in the United States, Valerie Goodman has proudly helped to introduce Yun-Mo Ahn's concept of unlocking the creative skills of children on the spectrum to ever expanding audiences: while the original participants were all Korean and Indonesian, now children

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from the tri-state-area also have the opportunity to express themselves through art. The French sculptor and designer Jacques Jarrige has proved support with his evocative screen and other sculptures for the butterflies to land on, and the McCarton Foundation - one of the country's most important organizations devoted to recognizing the abilities of children and young adults with autism has lent its educational expertise and organizational skills to numerous Butterfly workshops. More are planned in the future.

Yun-Mo Ahn has been working with autistic children in his home country for more than six years. Having lived and studied in New York in the 1990's, he suffered the difficulties of communication in a foreign language first hand. Based on this disconcerting experience, Yun-Mo Ahn embarked on the exploration of painting and sculpture as a universal language.

Back in Korea, he began working with a small group of developmentally challenged children and soon became fascinated by their colorful and unexpectedly sophisticated creations, which spoke of rich interior worlds. With his first six collaborators, this passionate humanist went on a walking and exhibition tour through Korea. The attention the project received surpassed all expectations.

Hoping for even wider reverberations, Yun-Mo

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Ahn chose the butterfly effect known from physics as the phenomenon of a tiny flutter having a far reaching impact as his inspiration and theme: he gave the children cardboard butterfly templates as their canvas, and it is the very uniformity of the shape that brings out the astonishing variety of pictorial expression - the emotionally charged pieces range from the brilliantly ornamental to the figurative and deeply autobiographical. Yun-Mo Ahn has encouraged unrestricted expression, but he applies his compositional skills to bestow elegant order to the often exuberant imagery.

In 2013, Yun-Mo Ahn met Jacques Jarrige who has had four exhibitions at Valerie Goodman Gallery - in Paris. The two artists recognized each other immediately as kindred spirits: for more than two decades, Jarrige has been sharing his vocabulary and making art with patients of a psychiatric hospital. Not only that: just as his Korean colleague, he feels equally enriched by their often surprising approach to creating an object. Indeed, his collaborators have greatly influenced his sensitive and carefully sculpted pieces.

Palpable in the works of both artists is a great tenderness and an infinite respect for the direct expressions of their unusual collaborators. Jacques Jarrige's signature screen has now become a companion to the butterflies - they rest on its finely

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crafted frame like on the branches of a tree. As visual communicators, both artists know that mental and emotional conditions beyond the mainstream can be viewed in terms of a language barrier.

Our shows and workshops have demonstrated that art can serve as an instrument to overcome these obstacles.

We are encouraged by the great feedback to our Become a Butterfly exhibitions, workshops and window displays at the Art Gallery of the Rockefeller State Park Preserve in Pleasantville, NY, the Valerie Goodman Gallery, the Partnership Gallery at the Queens Museum, the Museum of Modern Art's Create Ability Gallery, the windows at the Port Authority Bus terminal, the Mc Carton School and many school programs in the tri-state area .

Become a Butterfly represents a 10-year commitment to raise awareness about autism and mental illness and all the creativity that lies hidden underneath those labels. The project will involve many more venues all over the world – We are confident that by 2024, the message of inclusiveness will have been carried on fluttering wings to the furthest reaches of the planet.

Follow us at www.becomeabutterfly.org

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Creating the Butterflies

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Bali 17

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McCarton Foundation

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Queens Museum

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Exhibitions

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Lotte Gallery, Il-San South Korea

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Queens Museum, NY

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The Port Authority of NY & NJ

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The Art Gallery at the Rockefeller State Park Preserve

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Valerie Goodman Gallery

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Yun-Mo Ahn and Jacques Jarrige Significant Dates and Exhibits

“While the circumstances are different, the Dancing Screen from the JARRIGE team, and the Butterflies from the YUN-MO AHN team manage to communicate the essence of the human condition with a visual language that speaks to all.

It talks to the feeling of uncertainty in each of us and thus deeply resonates. “ Laurent Charreyron

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Yun-Mo Ahn

www.yun-moahn.com

1962 1991

1986

Born, Yong Wol, Kang Won Do, Korea Graduated The City University of New York at Lehman College (MFA) Graduated Hong Ik University (BFA)

Selected Solo Exhibitions 61 from 1990-2013 (New York, Monaco, Seoul…)

2013 2012

2010 2009 2009

2008 2003 2000

Book talks / Letrepot Gallery, Monaco, Europe Owl Island / YUN-MO AHN ART GARAGE, Jeju Museum of Contemporary Art The Year of Tiger / Kong Gan Gallery, Busan Book & Imagination / Gail Art Museum Taking a Stroll with Book / Jeju Museum of Contemporary Art Coffeeholic / Sun Gallery, Sun Art Center Jungle / Savina Art Museum Coffee & Imagination / Garam Art Gallery … etc

Selected Projects and Collaborations 2014

Yun-Mo Ahn world tour Become A Butterfly with Jacques Jarrige Valerie Goodman Gallery, Art Gallery at the Rockefeller State Park Preserve, Partnership Gallery of the Queens Museum, CreateAbility gallery at The Museum of Modern Art, NY, Windows at Port Authority of New York and New Jersey

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2013 Become a Butterfly with autistic friends,: Lotte

Gallery, Il San, Korea 2013 Become a Butterfly Annika Liden Center, Indonesia 2013 Man to Man Project with Autistic Friend /

Yun-Mo Ahn & In-Ho Kay Dual Exhibition 2013 Yun-Mo Ahn Paper Cup Project / Latteking Co. Collaboration 2011-12 Yun-Mo Ahn Nationwide Tour Project with 6

developmental disabilities Friends 2009-10 Book Nationwide Tour Project 2008 Village Wall Painting around Wol Sung atomic

Power Station/ National Art Museum Selected Art Fair & Group Shows (US, Hong Kong, Japan, NZ, Singapore..)

2012 Auction / Telethon, Monaco 2012 Small Painting / Seoul Auction 2012 Art Asia 2012 / Coex, Seoul 2010 2010 Asia Top Gallery Art Fair / Hyatt,

Hong Kong 2004-12 KIAF / COEX, Seoul 2005-12 Korea Galleries Art Fair / Coex, Bexco,

Seoul, Busan 2009 ARTO Busan Art Fair / Centerm, Busan 2008 Art Asia Miami Art Fair / Florida, USA 2008 Auction / K Auction, Seoul

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Jacques Jarrige

www.jacquesjarrige.com 1962 Born in Paris Selected Solo Exhibitions:

2013

2013

2012 2012 2010 2009 2006 2002 1998 1993 1991 1989

Valerie Goodman Gallery, NY The Searching Line book release Sebastian Barquet Gallery. NY curated by Valerie Goodman Aqua Art fair, Miami Valerie Goodman Gallery, NY Meanders Valerie Goodman Gallery, NY Clouds Galerie Thierry Marchand, Paris Galerie Cat Berro, Paris Galerie Frédéric de Luca. Paris Hôtel de ville de Paris Salle Saint Jean, Paris Galerie En attendant les Barbares, Paris Galerie En attendant les Barbares, Paris Entrepôts de Bercy, Paris

Group Exhibitions 2005 FNAC 1991

les guichets de l’ enfance Musée de la Poste 2004 Musée d’Orléans 1994 le cintre Hamburg, Germany Museum of

Decorative Arts 2005 Meubles d’Artistes Musée de Châteauroux

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National Collections 2002 2004 2005

Mobilier national Musée d’Orléans FNAC

Collaborations 2014

Yun-Mo Ahn’s world tour Become A Butterfly Valerie Goodman Gallery, Art Gallery at the Rockefeller State Park Preserve, Partnership Gallery of the Queens Museum, CreateAbility gallery at The Museum of Modern Art, NY, Windows at Port Authority of New York and New Jersey

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"Over the years YUN-MO AHN and JACQUES JARRIGE have been lending their artistic vocabulary to their collaborators so they can express themselves.

Some have enhanced the gesture with a disconcerting layer: a mix of fragility and vulnerability. One similar in essence to the immaterial flight of a butterfly: fragile, ephemeral and free."

Laurent Charreyron

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Valerie Goodman Gallery 315 East 91st Street, New York, NY, 10128 +1 212 348 2968 www.valeriegoodmangallery.com