Osang Gwon

May 6 – June 5, 2010

Opening Reception: Thursday, May 6, 6-8 pm

DOOSAN Gallery New York is pleased to present four sculptures by South Korean-born artist Osang Gwon. The exhibition will open on Thursday, May 6^th at DOOSAN Gallery New York, 533 West 25^th Street, New York.

The exhibition features four works from Gwon’s Deodorant Type series dated from 1999 to 2010. This quantity of works may seem small, but these works tell a brief history of how Gwon’s style evolved since he started this series.

Gwon began creating the Deodorant Type series of lightweight photo-sculptures in 1998, and this has made him recognizable around the world. When he first started this series as an art student in a sculpture program in Seoul, it was an unusual turn for him to change then typical materials in the sculpture department from a heavy duty medium−a stone or a metal−to a lightweight material, such as Styrofoam, through a two-dimensional twist: photographs. It was not only a methodical transition in terms of materials, but also the traversing of two different artistic genres, photography and sculpture. His later series, such as The Flat and The Sculpture, are also part of his continuous practice of blurring and scrutinizing the very essence of materiality in art.

Deodorant Type was developed when Gwon discovered a failed advertisement for a deodorant product launched in Asia, as many Asians do not have perspiration problems, although deodorant is widely used in Western culture. For him, a deodorant product is aimed to cover a scent and to change it into a different odor. He once said, “It implies not showing the exact thing, but transforming it.” Observing the process of Deodorant Type is re-acknowledging the way we see things in life every day. Gwon takes multiple shots of a person or an object from every angle, practically tearing the subject apart in each picture under a microscope; he then recreates the subject in a three-dimensional sculpture. What one actually perceives might only capture a single aspect or a certain moment of the subject. In this sense, each photograph represents a single perception of the subject by taking different angles of the person or object; then, Gwon gathers these photographs into shapes for viewers to interpret, as if reifying the subject back to life as a slightly aloof entity.

Osang Gwon was born in 1974 in Seoul, Korea. He received his B.F.A. and M.F.A. in sculpture from Hongik University in Seoul. He has had numerous solo exhibitions at Arario in New York (2009), China (2007) and Korea (2005); Manchester Art Gallery in UK (2008); Andrew Shire Gallery and 4-F Gallery in LA (2005). His work has also included in many group Exhibition worldwide including: National Museum of Contemporary Art, Gwacheon (2009); the Center for Contemporary Culture Strozzina, Florence (2009); the Burger Collection, Berlin (2009); Avanthay Contemporary, Zurich (2008); The National Museum of Fine Arts, Buenos Aires (2008); Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester (2008); National Art of Museum China, Beijing (2007); Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Santiago (2007); Union Gallery, London (2006); Charlottenborg Udstillingbygning, Copenhagen (2005); Galleria d’arte moderna, Bologna (2004); The Japan Foundation Asia Center, Tokyo (2004); FOAM, Amsterdam (2003); Museum of Art Saitama, Saitama (2002); Sungkok Museum, Seoul (2000-2001); Seoul Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art, Seoul (2001); Art Sonje Center, Seoul (1999). Gwon lives and works in Seoul, Korea.

Gwon’s works are included in part of the exhibition at the New York Photo Festival, Use Me, Abuse Me, curated by Erik Kessels, at DUMBO in Brooklyn, New York from May 12 – 16, 2010.