Ha Chong-Hyun at Palazzetto Tito

Kukje Art and Culture Foundation presents a solo exhibition of work by Ha Chong-Hyun, on view at Palazzetto Tito in Venice. The show, curated by Sunjung Kim, features over 20 of Chong-Hyun’s works from the past six decades and will comprise five sections: the 1967-1968 Naissance series which addresses traditional elements of Korean art and White Paper on Urban Planning series which addresses urbanization; the early Conjunction series and the early 1970s Informel works produced during Ha’s involvement with the Korean Avant-Garde Association; the progression of his Conjunction series from the 1990s to the 2010s; the Post-Conjunction series from 2008 to 2012; and works after 2020, including pieces produced for the show. Chong-Hyun has devoted his career to exploring materials and their properties, pushing oil paint through the back of coarse canvas to the front for two-dimensional works and using non-traditional materials such as barbed wire, plaster, timber, newspaper, and the burlap used for food aid after the Korean War for three-dimensional works. This refined aesthetic vocabulary is one informed by the bleak spirit of that time, as is exemplified by Chong-Hyun’s burning of canvas surfaces with fire so as to achieve his distinctive dark tones.