Curation Note
Alpha Contemporary is proud to present 「Elegant Observer and Challenger : Masanori Maeda and Myoung-goo HA」from November 16 to December 7, 2024.
This exhibition focuses on the perspective of the artists as both an observer and a challenger.
Artists can be seen as observers who observe their society with a sharp perspective. They can also be regarded as challengers who constantly attempt to free themselves from existing systems and frameworks.
They observe and reinterpret daily or social habits and concepts from different angles, attempting new challenges without being bound by existing notions.
Myoung-goo HA（Korean b.1983）is introducing a series of pocket squares have been created since he studied at the Royal Academy of Arts (London, UK) .
The series is a pottery that combines the distortions and aspirations of British society as seen by a foreigner, excluding functionality.
In the gentleman's country of England, there are various conventions and formality regarding suits. However, the fact that the handkerchief in the suit pocket can be enjoyed in a free style was very impressive to the artist. After that, he started to make the pocket square series. This represents Ha's avant-garde attempt at artisanal perfection. He freely deconstructed the shapes of traditionally made vessels, prick the surface with a needle.
After that, Ha works on the "Tokkebi" series, which is one of the shamanistic beliefs in Korea, passed down through the Korean people since ancient times and embodying the way of life and sensibilities of that era. In recent years, he has also been working on the "Haniwa" series, which embodies the social aspects of ancient Japanese society.
We hope you encounter an aspect of the artist who, through the "Pocket Square Series," which became the starting point for capturing the memories of specific regions and eras as a social observer, offers a new perspective on society as an "elegant observer."
Masanori Maeda（Japanese b. 1964）paints abstract works using traditional Japanese painting techniques also engaging with the context of Western art.
His color fields have a tense relationship, yet distance from their conflict and distinction. They allows one to forget relative oppositions such as life and death, joy and pain, breaking free from dualistic thinking, leading to silence or nothingness. This boundary of nothingness provides a new perspective.
Additionally, he creates minimalist works that embody the act of painting and the act of not painting in Japanese art, based on the abstraction of Hasegawa Tōhaku's "Pine Forest Screen," the emotional lines drawn using natural brushes, and the sense of tension.
Please take a close look at the works of Maeda, a "graceful challenger" who is working on a unique "abstract painting" using traditional Japanese materials and Eastern philosophies.
■𝗘𝘅𝗵𝗶𝗯𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗢𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄
・Duration｜Nov 16 - Dec 7 2024
・Operation Hour ｜ Tue.-Sat. 12:00 - 18:00, Tue : Appointment only by 6 pm t
・Venue｜Alpha Contemporary
・Admission｜Free
・Inquiry｜infoalphacontemporary@gmail.com
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