‘Contemporary Korean Art: New Tradition' Helen A Harrison – Director of Jackson-Krasner House
. . .Cross -fertilization has been going on for some time, and has a Western counterpart in the long history of borrowing from Eastern arts and crafts. In fact, because modernism thoroughly assimilates many aspects of Asian esthetics, it is often hard to tell who is adapting what form whom.. . .The symbolism of Jeayeon Hong’s paintings invokes shrines tablets or reliquaries shaped like boats designed for a spiritual journey. The textured acrylic paint in strong red, blue and gold may be nontraditional, but Mr. Hong’s imagery is descended from a lineage of Asian abstract motifs, like the almond-shaped mandorla, intended to stimulate contemplation. Art may be considered a vehicle of transcendence in Eastern and Western esthetics alike, and Mr. Hong has blended aspects of both cultures to achieve that end.
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Jeayeon Hong (b. 1947) is the artist whose works are on minimal art and action painting. From mid 1980s, the Vast Nature has been started to take as the major theme of his art works. From late 1990s to present, after experiencing an enlightenment during the course of work, he produces works based on the aesthetics of small decisions of everyday life which flows towards "emptiness" and "nothing", and he is committed in carrying the topic to his works.
Jeayeon Hong took key positions in Korean art market and played as an active influencer to artists. The positions are the Vice-President of Korean Fine Arts Association, President of Koeran Contemporary Printmakers Association, etc. He is also the professor of Kyunggi University of Fine Arts and develoted his whole life in growing young artists.
Held more than 45 solo and 800 group exhibitions in domestic and overseas. He is an active painter as his journey continues with fully scheduled exhibitions throughout 2022 and year 2023.
His works are collected by top museums such as British Museum of Art, Seoul Museum of Art, AMAC Museum of Art in France, Kwandu Museum of Find Art in Taiwan and a lot others.
