Hyungkoo Lee
Face Trace
11 October–23 November 2012
Gallery Skape
32-23 Hannam-Dong
Yongsan-Gu, Seoul, Korea
Hours: Tue–Fri, 10–7pm; Sat–Sun, 10–6pm
T +82 2 747 4675
F +82 2 747 4676
Gallery Skape is pleased to present the solo exhibition Face Trace of Hyungkoo Lee, the artist who represented the Korean pavilion of Venice Biennial in 2007. Based on the research of physiognomy, Hyungkoo Lee’s new body of work entitled Face Trace is exhibited for the first time in two years.
The artist captures his own various facial expressions and intentionally fragments into several parts. By reassembling them according to the studies of physiognomy, he composes totally different figures. Face Trace is created by overlapping skull structures of several human races and different parts of artist’s multiple facial expressions. This process follows the method of facial reconstruction used in forensic science.
Positioning himself as the absolutist of creation, being a creator and a creation at the same time, he created virtual figures originated from the reality; referring to the real images to create new images is the process often used in his art making. Although, such transformed figures seem as real people who could exist in the reality.
This series Face Trace where the sense of gravity and seriousness is wisely modulated transcends the border between incompleteness and completion. Also it offers the sense of humor and wit that generally lies on Hyungkoo Lee’s art world.
Hyungkoo Lee was born in Pohang, Korea in 1969. He received his BFA from Hongik University, South Korea and his MFA from Yale University, Connecticut, USA.
Lee represented Korea at the 2007 Venice Biennale, where he showed a series of sculptural works that imagined the skeletons underneath famous cartoon characters such as Bugs Bunny and Wile E. Coyote. The same body of work was shown at a solo exhibition at Basel Natural History Museum, Switzerland in 2008. Lee has participated in numerous groups exhibitions, including ones at the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, South Korea (2004); Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy (2006); the National Art Museum of China, Beijing (2007); Espace Louis Vuitton, Paris (2008); Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno, Valencia, Spain (2009); CU Art Museum, Colorado, USA (2012); and at the Wellcome Collection, London (2012). Lee lives and works in Seoul, Korea.
Gallery Skape, with aim of appreciating multiformity and perceiving the landscape of today’s art scene, had opened its doors in September 2004. Actively promoting contemporary Korean artist since its establishment, the Gallery has been quickly positioned as a platform of the ‘newness’ within Korean art scene. Furthermore, by its distinctive taste of contemporary art, Gallery Skape has become a forefront of discovering and promoting Korean artists.
The Gallery has enlarged the frontier by introducing the Korean artists in the international art scene. Gallery’s efforts to present Korean contemporary art have been translated to the collaboration with worldwide art institutions, as well as its annual participation at Art Amsterdam since 2007 and at Tokyo Art Fair in 2009, 2012 and at Hong Kong Art Fair in 2012.
Gallery Skape is progressively gaining international recognition along with the most promising contemporary artists in Korea. Developing and forming an international network, Skape aims to be an active stage of the contemporary art scene.
Press Contact:
Yunkyong Kim, Curator
T +82 2 747 4675 / kyk [at] skape.co.kr
