LOS ANGELES — Two simultaneous solo painting exhibitions exhibited at the Helen J Gallery provide spaces for calm and introspective reflection. Both shows require slow, close, in-person research and serve as a reminder of how drastic this experience can be in a culture of urgency and sensory overload.
For his work in In the calm like a mirror, Korean painter Kim Mikyung uses a sparse geometric language of vertical or horizontal bars, overlapping rectangles, and lines. The edges and sides of the paintings allude to the artist’s process of slowly darkening the darker, more saturated colors under several coats of progressively lighter paint that has been sanded and burnished. Because the resulting multi-layered surfaces are matte, they trap light so that it bounces through the multiple layers before returning to the viewer, giving the paintings a deep, luminous glow. Sanding also results in subtle variations in these off-white fields, as in “Summer Rain No. 2” (2022), where the cooler white rectangle in the middle of the canvas reveals variations in temperature and space, as as your eyes adapt. to painting.
Three square works from the artist series skin of time are hung in a triptych for the show. In these pieces, the layering of rectangular shapes is more pronounced, and the slight relief along their edges catches the light as the viewer’s gaze moves across the paintings. Each of these paintings also contains a horizontal colored pencil stroke. A fine line of fluorescent yellow pencil runs across the surface of the central painting, “Peau du temps (2022-5)” (2022). The strong vibrancy of this yellow resonates amidst the muted grays of the paint, and it’s a real surprise to realize that it was hiding in plain sight. In “White on white (2022-5)” (2022), three horizontal graphite lines lie on different planes: one on the surface, one buried under a few layers of paint and one barely perceptible, creating a feeling of almost infinite depth. . . Small details like this seem monumental in Kim Mikyung’s sparsely populated world of painting.
Where Kim Mikyung’s process suggests an obsessive burial in the self, Kim Hyung-dae gazes upward and outward into the sky. Now in his eighties, Kim Hyung-dae was one of the youngest artists in the dansaekhwa group that emerged in post-war Korea, where he still lives and works. His approach to painting, although rooted in the styles and techniques of his elder dansaekhwa artists, stands out for its use of bright colors and direct references to the outside world. Well titled Five-colored lightthe show is a continuation of five decades of Kim Hyung-dae Halo series. The halo has long been seen in various folk traditions and religions as a premonition of future events, a herald of significant events, or a sign from the spiritual world, and this sense of quiet wonder pervades these works of art.
The way light bounces off and between the texture of the paint, which has been mixed to an icing-like consistency and applied in vertical or horizontal stripes with custom rake-like tools, combined with the optical contrast between the different colors, creates a stunning shimmering effect, mimicking how light might be seen in specific atmospheric conditions that would create halo effects. A particularly successful example is “Halo 17-0920” (2017), in which pinks and blues blend optically to create a buzzing visual effect. In a more recent work, “Halo 22-0309” (2022), the artist creates an almost prismatic effect by replacing the mostly monochromatic backgrounds of faded works with horizontal bars of different colors. Because our binocular vision allows us to read slight differences in surface texture and depth, these effects are impossible to capture with a flattened digital image created by a monocular camera.
With these two exhibitions hanging in adjoining rooms in the same gallery, it’s only natural to examine how they work together. Kim Mikyung’s paintings draw the viewer into close and careful inspection of their surfaces. His process is subtractive, slowly obscuring contrasts and layers of paint through a long process of sanding and burnishing. The resulting surfaces bear the ghostly vestiges of the labor-intensive process and yet project a refined grace, never feeling overworked. They ask the eyes to take a few minutes to adjust before revealing the rich contrasts and discoveries within each piece.
Kim Hyung-dae, on the other hand, has a more additive process, relying on optical blending and casting shadows on thick paste paint to achieve a rich visual experience. They are best appreciated from a distance, with a relaxed eye that allows the elements of the painting to blend visually. The application of paint is more direct and literal to the surface – the viewer can follow along to read the varying levels of pressure the artist used by dragging his rake-like tool across the canvas. These paintings refuse to be properly read by the quick, scanning gaze with which we have been conditioned to consume images through the oversaturation of digital content via social media and gallery emails. They require the viewer to be present, both literally and figuratively, before fully revealing themselves.
After spending time looking at these paintings, armed with the level of awareness and attention to detail that work in these two exhibitions demands of the viewer, I found myself noticing things about the gallery space that I didn’t have before. Looking at these paintings, viewers become acutely aware of the relationships between material, color, form, and image. These artists remind us of the importance and power of a slow, deliberate, in-person gaze by rewarding us with quiet moments of beauty, discovery, and even inner clarity.
Kim Mikyung: In stillness like a mirror And Kim Hyung-dae: Five Color Light continue at Helen J Gallery (929 Cole Ave, Hollywood, Los Angeles) through April 1. The exhibitions were organized by the gallery.
