The Wind, The Stone, The Sky

THE WIND, THE STONE, THE SKY

Young Sup Han, Blue Sea, 2017, ink and acrylic on hanji paper, 25.5 x 39.5 inches

Po Kim, Sylvia Wald, Young Sup Han, Young Hie Nam

YOUNG SUP HAN b. 1941

“I use my special rubbing technique to describe the scene rather than hand illustrating it.”

Young Sup Han creates paintings inspired by the intricate moments and nuances that occur in nature. Han interprets his observations through a unique approach using the Korean traditional “Takbon” technique, a rubbing process of ink and acrylic paint on paper, which has been a part of his practice since the 1970s.

Challenging the boundaries of traditional Korean mulberry paper, hanji, Han employs the “Takbon” rubbing process over materials such as stones, twigs, perilla leaves and corn stems to create abstract patterns of bold, linear strokes that fill the entire surface with dynamic movement. The use of unconventional media, as well as the pressure and speed of his technique, create diverse textures that capture the beauty of the small, almost imperceptible changes found in nature.

The large scale of Han’s paintings reflects the artist’s desire for the works to not only dominate the view spatially, but also to produce sensations of shock and awe, as if directly faced with the sublime vastness of nature.

Young Sup Han, The Evening Baltic Ocean No. 7001, 2007, ink on hanji paper, 90.5 x 210.5 inches

THE WIND, THE STONE, THE SKY Featuring works by: PO KIM SYLVIA WALD YOUNG SUP HAN YOUNG HIE NAM Curated by Odelette Cho

April 11th - June 6th, 2019 Opening Reception: Thursday, April 11th, 6:00 - 8:00 PM RSVP for reception and events: rsvp@waldandkimgallery.org In collaboration with the

Donghwa Cultural Foundation

Find @waldkimgallery at

PO KIM b. 1917

“Long ago, my life was not very peaceful. So I wanted to forget the pain, and only paint fantasies, things of beauty, things that were devoid of suffering...so I guess you could say that by creating pictures of a fantasy world, I was escaping reality.”

Nature played an important role in Po Kim's life and served as a key source of inspiration that can be seen throughout his entire body of work. An artist who continuously explored a variety of styles and mediums, Kim’s transformations in his practice reflect a progressive journey away from the pain and turmoil in his youth and towards the idyllic safe haven and peaceful inspiration he found in nature.

Having painted in a gestural abstract manner for more than 20 years, Po Kim set down the brush for nearly a decade in the 1970s to focus on drawing highly-detailed, minimalist still-lifes in colored pencil. Afterwards, he returned to painting, with monumental figurative canvases brimming with a sense of the abundance of nature and a yearning for a pastoral idyll.

His canvases from the 1980s onwards are filled with naively outlined figures of humans and other creatures peacefully coexisting with one another amongst landscapes with hills, bodies of water, palm trees and lush forests. Many of the works from this period distinctly convey a sense of hope and joyous celebration of life within an uncorrupted arcadian paradise.

Po Kim, Untitled, 2009, collage and acrylic on canvas, 72 x 96 inches

SYLVIA WALD b. 1915

“One of the happiest times of my life was when I worked out-of-doors. It’s not something I think about, but I’m sure that it’s the influence of trees and branches, which are endlessly provocative. You learn a lot looking at these things.”

Having lived through the Great Depression and World War II, Sylvia Wald found reconnecting with nature as a source of hope and inspiration, both in her life and in her artistic practice. From their rooftop garden in Manhattan to their lakeside house in Westchester County, New York, she continuously re-discovered nature’s beauty, surrounding herself and her husband, Po Kim, with an abundance of plants and tropical birds.

Organic forms pervade throughout her prints and sculptures. Her pioneering silkscreen method employing thick paint to create impasto effects in her prints produced a variety of textures and abstract forms reminiscent of natural elements. Her plaster and wire assemblages from the 1960s onwards incorporated found objects such as branches, twigs, stones, leaves, feathers, and fish bones.

Sylvia Wald, Partly Sunny, Windy and Cold, 1971, screenprint in five colors on white Japan paper, 18.75 x 19.5 inches

Wald constructed her sculptures through an intuitive process of adding and subtracting organic elements, thus incorporating the natural process of decomposition as an artistic device within the works. By allowing the assemblages to take on their own evolutionary process through the addition of time, the works reflect a tactile sense of the fundamental authenticity of nature.

YOUNG SUP HAN b. 1941

“I use my special rubbing technique to describe the scene rather than hand illustrating it.”

Young Sup Han creates paintings inspired by the intricate moments and nuances that occur in nature. Han interprets his observations through a unique approach using the Korean traditional “Takbon” technique, a rubbing process of ink and acrylic paint on paper, which has been a part of his practice since the 1970s.

Challenging the boundaries of traditional Korean mulberry paper, hanji, Han employs the “Takbon” rubbing process over materials such as stones, twigs, perilla leaves and corn stems to create abstract patterns of bold, linear strokes that fill the entire surface with dynamic movement. The use of unconventional media, as well as the pressure and speed of his technique, create diverse textures that capture the beauty of the small, almost imperceptible changes found in nature.

The large scale of Han’s paintings reflects the artist’s desire for the works to not only dominate the view spatially, but also to produce sensations of shock and awe, as if directly faced with the sublime vastness of nature.

Young Sup Han, The Evening Baltic Ocean No. 7001, 2007, ink on hanji paper, 90.5 x 210.5 inches

YOUNG HIE NAM b. 1943

THE WIND, THE STONE, THE SKY “When I was young, I used to live in a traditional Korean house where traditional paper was plastered on the walls. It was only natural that I chose to work with traditional paper as an artist.”

Featuring works by:

PO KIM Having lived in a traditional Korean house throughout her childhood, Young Hie Nam has had a personal connection to hanji paper from a young age. In her works, WALDmulberry paper to explore its associations to Nam exclusively usesSYLVIA the handmade nature and her childhood recollections.

YOUNG SUP HAN

Through a process YOUNG of folding,HIE cutting, dyeing, and coloring the paper, Nam creates NAM compositions of geometric forms and simple planes of color that resemble the traditional Korean art form of Bojagi, cloths used for gift wrapping, to represent past generations of KoreanCurated women. by During her painting Odelette Cho process, Nam layers ink and pigment with natural materials such as yellow soil and red clay, allowing herApril to 11th - June 6th, 2019 control the amount Opening of light Reception: that pene- Thursday, April 11th, 6:00 - 8:00 PM tratesforthrough andand events: rsvp@waldandkimgallery.org RSVP reception within the paper.

In collaboration with the

Subtle details from Donghwa Cultural Foundation everyday life and nature—the roughness of rocks with moss and the rusted metal of an iron pot—inform her use of color and Find @waldkimgallery at texture, conveying the delicate and meditative traits inherent to this ancient medium.

Young Hie Nam, A Trip to an Island, 2015, mixed media on hanji paper 63.5 x 51.25 inches

THE WIND, THE STONE, THE SKY