Anna Han: Somewhere Above the Ground
CHAPTER II 2021. 11. 24 - 2022. 1. 8
CHAPTER II YARD 2022. 1. 14 - 2. 26
Chapter II is delighted to present, Somewhere Above the Ground, a solo exhibition by Anna Han, from 24th November 2021 to 8th January 2022 in Yeonnam-dong, Seoul. Anna Han, who has consistently challenged her artistic limits by embracing possibilities of diverse media and investigating properties of matter, provides a great opportunity to reflect upon how the pandemic and its consequences have influenced the artist’s life traces and motivation for creation.
In terms of artistic approaches, the conventional attitude towards a space is often passive and recognizing the space as a certain boundary is common; however, Han prefers letting the space adjust itself to her intention by changing colors of walls, projecting lights and deforming sections of the given spaces. Although most exhibition titles are deliberately implicative, this exhibition’s title rather plays a supportive guidance role in response to specific images previously stamped upon our mind. At this point, Han’s multiple oval shapes of rich gradational colors finally turn out to be parts of the ever-changing sky. As an elegy for absence, longing and the imminent future circling around the present, the variation of the pastel tone canvases clarifies illusionary targets and places what the artist attempts to remind us of.
Anna Han’s new series conveying ‘the tailored sky’ is an exploration into varying colors. The walls of the exhibition space painted in pale grey imitate the texture of aluminum and the oval shape line is drawn far to each edge of a wall. This particular spatial layout seems to capture the spectators’ sight and movements in the space. The mystic color spectrum of the paintings enables them to obtain a sense of volume, and therefore they eventually summon spatiality of the sky’s unbounded expanse which contradicts the constrained atmosphere of the closed space. Han manages to replace lucid sceneries behind windows alongside seats of an airplane on a journey in which one isolates oneself from her or his familiar world in order to reach a new world into each slice of the sky manifested by hundreds of delicate brush strokes.
Anna Han has overlapped a psychological layer over physical places through the process of reinterpreting the given spaces with spontaneous inspiration occurring there or of delivering her personal condensed narrative. While Han has frequently presented installation works, she unfolds emotions and recollections of her carefree period in the paintings in this exhibition. It is worth paying attention to how she has brought about the floating effect to make the entire space harmoniously correspond to the wide range of colors of the paintings. She meticulously constructs a unique indoor scape with the sensuous color palette to shift the white cube space of Chapter II into the sky scene containing her feelings. The skyscape occupying the space suggests a dream for the sky appearing in a frustrating reality. In other words, it is a desire for ‘I’ unleashed above the clouds and hope for a promising future. Every visitor has been once a passenger who encountered the calm daybreak with a growing dream during the flight. In this context, the exhibition, Somewhere Above the Ground, quietly reveals the artist’s expectation that the viewers are able to discover and share pieces of their dormant dreams in the space.
Anna Han completed her BFA at Pratt Institute, New York and the MFA at Cranbrook Academy of Art, Michigan. After graduating from Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, Han has not only presented her works at multiple internal leading art establishments or expositions such as Wooyang Museum of Contemporary Art (2021), Museum SAN (2019), Seoul Museum of Art (2018), Gallery Baton (2017), OCI Museum of Art (2014) but also attended exhibitions in several states of North America including New York, Michigan and Maine. She was also selected by international artist residency programs in Cheongju(KR), Goyang(KR), New York(US) and Bad Ems(DE); her works are included in collections of prestigious institutions including the Seoul Museum of Art.
