Curation Note
Alpha Contemporary is proud to present 「Remembering or Fading Away : Eun-hyea Choi, Naosuke Wada, Haruki Ueda」from Jun 15th to July 3rd, 2024.
Argentine novelist Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) said, “Immortality remains in the memories of others or in the works we leave behind. ” Here, he was talking about literary works, but this applies not only to literary works, but also to visually formalized works such as paintings, sculptures, and ceramics.
What is remembered by others and what is left behind in works continues to exist. This exhibition introduces three artists from Japan and South Korea who collect momentary memories and time, transform them into their works and create new memories.
Eun-hyea Choi（Korean b.1983) 's works consist of stitched up fragments of time and visualized figurative experiences that are somewhere between physical experiences and trails of memories. As endless movements are born from time and space as axes, they are translated as layers of colors and abstract forms. She explores a world without limits through the abstraction of the physical world.
The scenes accumulated through experience are expressed in a personal and narrative way through ‘the movement in the mind’, that is imaginary movement. In this work, new movements that are continuously created through a combination of visible and invisible things are expressed. Movements from this time to that time is not distinct in the flow of time and the image is perceived with which allows it to detect midpoints placed on subtle boundaries through unclear forms and colors. The sky blue in the unclear time overlooked through the window of the airplane, the ambiguous pattern in the form of light in the gaze through the movement of the moment are the examples, and these are reconstructed into a multi layered space after being combined with inner perspective or memories.
Her works are represented in the collections of Seoul Museum of Art, Ilshin Foundation, Osan Museum of Art, Bank of Korea in Korea,
and Forman’s Smokehouse Gallery in the U.K.
Naosuke Wada（Japanese b.1983）creates works with themes of light and spatiality, referring to the classical technique of glazing, which involves applying multiple layers of thinly dissolved paint. Using a highly transparent medium, he constructs multiple layers of color and shape, creating a screen with the depth of color layers. Like drifting ice floes, the colors sway as they react to the light shining on the screen. He provides a viewing experience through the expression of light that changes depending on the angle at which the light enters and the viewing angle. The memories of light collected on Wada's screens are not confined to past memories, but continue to exist, being created as new memories.
Wada completed the master's course in painting at the Graduate School of Fine Arts at Kyoto University of Art and Design (currently Kyoto University of Art and Design), and has exhibited both domestically and internationally.
Haruki Ueda (Japanese b.1987) depicts the memories of the light that has passed in everyday moments, such as the scenery she encounters every day, the atmosphere of the forest she walks every week, and the stories she heard from others. These memories are expressed as a texture at an ambiguous boundary point, depending on the way she see light due to her severe nearsightedness. In Ueda's paintings, the quietly changing textures of nature and everyday scenery are depicted as vibrations in the heart, and are remembered.
Ueda is from Nara Prefecture and currently has an atelier in Nara Prefecture where he works. 2008 Graduated from Joshibi University of Art and Design, majoring in oil painting. Received the Face2023 Excellence Award (2022), Selected for the 3rd Makurazaki International Art Award Exhibition (2022), HB FILE COMPETITION vol.32 Kimiko Sekito Special Award (2022), HB FILE COMPETITION vol.31 Kumi Suzuki Special Award (2021) and ehe Haruhi Painting Triennale (2021) and etc.
Please enjoy the different ways in which the memories of light are captured by three Japanese and Korean artists of the same generation.
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