Since it was a big fair, the style and media of the artwork varied. There were paintings, sketching, scene art, sculpture, computer art, photography and installation art. All the artworks were placed in different hotel room. It was a visual enjoyment to appreciate the high standard art pieces in luxury hotel rooms.
First room I went to filled with works of Korean contemporary artists.
^ These two works were completed by Kim Jae III. They are imitation marbles painted with acrylic. The texture and form are like honeycomb, so interesting!
^ These works "Accompany" were done by Maeng, Gi-Ho. The material used were mixed media on silk screen. It has strong oriental appearance, for example the cherry blossom on the background, the poem and the signature was written on the top right corner. I thought it was imitating the tradition oriental art, but when I looked closer, the characters in the paintings was ''formed' 'by different graphics from the Pokemon! These paintings have mixed the traditional art culture and the modern manga culture together.
Western artworks by famous artists
^ Apart from the Korean contemporary art, some western contemporary artworks were featured in the same room. Including drawings from Picasso, Roy Lictenstein and Andy Warhol. Although those were only some minor works by them, they costed A LOT!
Later, I visited another room with more paintings and drawings.
^ These three works were done by Kang Hyo-jin. They looked like some graphic works, but NO, they were oil-painted. I love the surreal style of the artist. He shows the disinterested play of thoughts in his works.
This "My Pet" series (2011) was drawn by KIM So-hee. It is a good sarcasm against human domination in the planet and provoked thoughts - will there be a real "dog days are over"?
< ^ Audrey Hepburn is waiting for you in the hotel room...oh no, it's Gregory Peck.
Audrey Hepburn v Gregory Peck (2010) by KIM Dong-yoo, oil on canvas.
Lenticular Art
In another room, there were some awesome lenticular artworks by Bae Joonsung. They were my favourite artworks in the whole art fair. The technology of lenticular has been widely used in advertisement, but it was my first time to see lenticualr artworks. In the series of The Costume of Painter, he painted on transparent acrylic films. Through different angle to view the paintings, you can either see dressed Asian females or nudes appear in some old masterpieces. The series shows how Bae Joonsung contextualized the original old paintings and his creativity. I really like his idea of creating chemistry between Asian females and the classical paintings. When the character is well-dressed, you can see the completed paintings with other characters involved. But when you look in another angle and she becomes naked, every character is gone. In the paintings, The Asian females somehow look like they are living in the fantasy. The series rises the communication with old paintings and contemporary art and encounters harmony between East and West. It has unique style with special lenticular technique and deep meanings.
Phantom in the Painting, J.S. Sargent family jk (2012)
Another highlight from the Art Fair would be a Korean artist Chan-hyo Bao's artwork. His series of Existing in Costume (2009),c-print was very impressive. From the photos below, you may think he just used Photoshop to "swap" his face into some middle age paintings and made them as his works. In fact, those were original photographs with the artist himself featured in the works. He imitated the settings, decorations, makeup and costume from some old paintings to create the works. All his works are humorous with his male face featured in ancient female characters.
Existing in Costume (2009)
Other rooms
^ Reborn by Akatin, toso clay. This artwork is humorous and somehow reminds me of a quote "Impossible is nothing."
^ A Japanese artist 石田克 's artwork. He used ink to create very rough and misery images. They have very strong stokes and contrast. He was in the Art Fair on that day and he explained the artwork on the right implied someone was being flushed.
^ These two are very innovative artwork.
My thoughts
It was a great opportunity to visit this Art Fair, I was really glad I asked for the ticket. I did not expect too much before the visit since I was not familiar with many Asian artists. This visit totally widened my horizon of contemporary Asian art. There are a lot of leading and amazing contemporary artists in Asia and their works are getting in the global market. In this visit I also saw a lot of artworks in different media and forms. The mix of technology, media and creativity become a new trend in contemporary and I am so fascinated with the diversity of art. I would love to visit the Asian Hotel Art Fair again next year!
References:
http://www.albemarlegallery.com/artists/bae-joonsung
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenticular_printing
http://www.arcadja.com/auctions/en/bae_joonsung/artist/278910/
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