Jury’s Statement

That which slowly compresses and consolidates with the passage of time goes through two main types of development: either the disparate elements fuse into a complete whole and thereby reveal a new existence, or they fail close the many gaps between each pair, and solidify into a bizarre and unusual shape. The works of these three artists definitely have the characteristics of the former. That is probably why they, while enduring their own creative process, have continued to melt separated elements, dismantle them, and once again merging them into one. Park Joo-yeon has in earlier work dealt with social ties and the relationship between institutions and individuals. She has shown through her object pieces the elements that an individual facing the world is forced to take on with, in the framework imposed by the world. Park seems to possess a brilliant capacity for expressing absurd situations and hardships in communication through various cultural objects. Her words start out as absurdities but eventually overcome them, concluding by offering alternatives for the world. On the other hand, Lee So-jung’s work takes the opposite perspective in that elements seeming to exist through rationality end up turning into an absurd shape. In her paintings, diverse shapes seem to emerge and multiply at random, as if by their own will, but there are clues of an existing order that regulates their movement. The circumstances where autonomy and control coexist like this are similar to various phenomena taking place in our world. As a result, Lee’s work gains persuasive power. Jaye Rhee’s earlier work that substituted foreign and exotic images with nostalgia seems to have developed towards an expansion of the range of materials and more flexibility in crossing from genre to genre. Rhee already knows not only how to incorporate in her works even the most trivial situations of her own life, but also how to express them in the most proper way from the perspective of visual arts. She even uses herself as material, adding weight to the voice of her work, and reveals the hidden side of all things that exist in the world, reminding us of realities not thought of before. These three artists have already expanded the foundation of the Korean fine arts circle, and have the ability to continue to do so. What they have in common is their ability to present different ideas by uniting them into a complete whole that reveals something altogether new. They will exhibit in New York the potential and future contemporary Korean art and prove the talent of Korea’s arts to the global arts community. I wish all of them good luck.

_ Jinseok Seo

For the 2nd Doosan Yonkang Arts Award for Fine Art, the final candidates consisted of nine individuals and one team of three, all of whom were born between 1971 and 1984; the recipients range from those who established their own self-contained art world early on to those have just begun their artistic quest. This is in contrast to how the nine finalists for the award’s first year comprised of contemporaries born between 1971 and 1974. Therefore, a brief discussion took place on whether such differences should factor into the panel’s evaluation. One judge suggested that we consider the extent to which the opportunity to participate in the awarded artist residency program in New York City provided by the Yonkang Foundation would benefit the artist. In the end, however, the only main criterion used to make the final decision of three recipients was the “excellence of their artwork.” We agreed to avoid presuming what secondary variables would also be relevant in our evaluation. There was little difference in opinion among the panel of three judges, and the recipients were selected after a sequential panel discussion. All three recipients: Park Joo-yeon (b. 1972), Jaye Rhee (b. 1973), and Lee So-jung (b. 1979) are women. Recalling how the three recipients of the first award were also all women, this phenomenon could be interpreted as an extended slump for male artists that began in 2010. Both Park and Rhee are similar in age to the first year’s recipients, while Lee can be said to belong to the next generation. Wandering within the world of Korean contemporary art makes one notice the age distribution of promising young artists. There has always seemed to be a shortage of artists born between the late 1970s and early 1980s, but this time was different. Of the finalists for the 2nd Doosan Yonkang Arts Award for Fine Art, one was born in 1978, two in 1979, one each in 1980, 1982, and 1984. So, through the years, a slow and silent generational shift was in fact taking place all along. What is important to an artist of the new generation is an opportunity to create and exhibit their work. The Doosan Yonkang Arts Awards provide recipients with prize money and an opportunity to participate in a residency program in a studio in New York City (along with funding for the creation of artwork) as well as hold a solo exhibition. Due to the constructive nature of the award, from its first year, many have compared it to the renowned Hermes Foundation Missulsang. I hope that we can continue to operate this annual arts award system with fairness, so that it becomes recognized throughout the world as a major contributor to the advancement of Korean contemporary art.  While Park Joo-yeon follows the conventions of exploring “the other” that has risen as a result of the tradition of post-colonialism, she is also somewhat detached from ethnographic research or issues of race politics. Her works differ in terms of methodology from a post-colonialist critique of society that does not go beyond a one-dimensional awareness of “finding and revealing what is hidden.” She finds a point where a cultural knot has formed in the development of a global situation, and recombines its dynamics to stage a critical situation, but this is one of her strengths because the method is not contrived and creates a poetic atmosphere. Jaye Rhee has experimented with concepts and models that are usually put in parentheses in daily life through video performance and performances of simple forms that emanate a do-it-yourself sensibility. After the era of contemporary artists pursuing the creation of videos reminiscent of the high-definition screens of commercial movies came the 21st century where numerous artists began to develop works in the style of Video Povera. Such video artists of the new generation are characterized by the performative use of their own bodies to reveal a primitive dimension of new media. One critic has referred to this as “the YouTube aesthetic.” Rhee’s art agrees with such trends of the times, but it is unique in that it has verified with humor the existence of a dimension of a “formative dark matter” that cannot be substituted with language in existing symbolic systems (in many cases, a symbol of a familiar vernacular). Lee So-jung has been attempting to create an order within her abstract paintings, rendered in traditional ink painting style to capture an imaginary world of a growing monster. Lee found creative energy in extremely private experiences and desires, such as autistic testimony on one’s medical history and sexual lust that includes self-injury and castration impulse and has been absorbed in studying herself, through the grammar of the vernacular (accompanies by quotation marks), and developing rhetoric. This stage in her art, however, did not last long and soon she metamorphosed her typical nonverbal form of description like scission and recombination of body parts, from personal narrative to a game of pseudo-social painting. Her excellence as a “traditional ink painter who makes sense conceptually” lies in her logical yet illogical methodology of creating a new painting from her previous work, and her ability to juxtapose the new work with the original as an exhibition. I hope that the three recipients of the Second Doosan Yonkang Arts Awards for Fine Art display an unprecedented aesthetic accomplishment in their solo exhibitions planned to be held in 2013 to celebrate this occasion.

_ Geunjun Lim

 Now in its second year, the latest annual Doosan Yonkang Arts Awards for Fine Art were presented to three artists who were selected through a process identical to the previous year. During this process, an initial group of candidates is recommended by referees, then put through a preliminary round of evaluations that is further narrowed down to nine finalists, from which the three recipients are selected. When I first encountered the final candidates, three thoughts came to mind. First, compared to the previous year when most of the final candidates were born in the early 1970s, this year’s candidates were more diverse in terms of age, having been born between 1971 and 1980. Second, they also used a more diverse combination of media ranging from oil painting, ink-and-wash painting, and photography, to audio and video. It was especially interesting how there was a great increase in the number of candidates who used video as part of their work. And third, just as last year, none of the new artists were obscure to the point where I had never heard their name before, and even those in their early 30s had already held exhibitions and proved their talent. Perhaps it was because all three judges had already thought about the direction and characteristics of this award beginning last year, the process of evaluation seemed much easier to resolve our differences of opinion and reach a consensus. And as it happens, the three recipients of this year’s fine arts award are once again all women. In her art, Park Joo-yeon has continuously tried to explain the composition of social conflict between the weak and the strong that exists in many variations such as the individual vs. the society (the system), local vs. global, and fringe vs. mainstream cultures. From her first solo exhibition, which included a video art installation that documented an old woman called Ann Smith who had lived in a disused car for 30 years, to the work consisting of performances by those of Irish nationality temporarily staying in Korea as English teachers, and video of the life of a day laborer, Park maintains an overall thematic consistency. But she has also shown continuous development on multiple levels with each new work, which is why I believe that the residency program in New York City given as part of her award will be greatly meaningful. Whenever I see one of Lee So-jung’s odd ink-and-wash paintings, I am impressed by how she adheres to her unique modes of creation, and yet also manages to fuel her work with an explosive energy. Extremely stimulating and sensual, yet at the same time structured as if by a cold and calculating mind, Lee’s works convinces one that with the right external stimulation she has great potential to transform her art into an entirely new appearance. This opportunity to work and hold an exhibition in a new environment will hopefully serve as a positive stimulation to Lee who is still in her early 30s. The greatest appeal of Jaye Rhee’s art is probably the existence of an emotivity conjured by the exposure of an unadorned human body, trivial and simple, humble even, at first glance, based on a straightforward and honest sense of humor. Another aspect that makes one anticipate further development of her art in the future is that Rhee has a strong aesthetic sense as well as a certain level of popular appeal.  As it is only the second year for this award, it is somewhat early to discuss its future, but I cautiously predict that this award will set as its direction to become an arts award that provides opportunities to talented 30-something artists, who have already begun establishing their own world of art to enrich their personal aesthetics. While this is also true for their exhibitions in New York and Seoul, the location and living conditions of their artist residences in the center of Chelsea, Manhattan, provided for them as part of this award are more than anything a highly attractive opportunity. I sincerely hope that the final three recipients will make the best of their award and use it as a precious opportunity to enhance their art world to the next level and the next, by hearing, seeing, and exchanging more in their new home.

_Yunah Jung