Cho Jung Hwan: Concrete Island

Chapter II is pleased to announce Concrete Island, a solo exhibition of works by Cho Jung Hwan, from 12th July to 17th August 2024 in the Yeonnam-dong space, Seoul, Korea. Having delivered his autobiographical thoughts on life in the situation of urban sprawl, Cho presents a series of narratives about a structural conflict between a metropolitan and its citizens and the flow of a collective ideology dominant over them, intensively investigated while attending Chapter II Residency in 2023-24.

 

The meaning and linguistic origin of ‘Visual Language’ is a subject of critique, having a profound implication and a wide range of usages depending on sectors, being as multi-layered as to be the central theme of an in-depth dissertation. At the same time, due to the flexibility and inclusivity of the term, it has become conventional since it is abused in press releases and advertisements of art exhibitions. This expression frequently appears in contemporary art since a functional relation occurs between such dynamics as artists and viewers, production and appreciation and creation and critique in the field like the other art genres. The optical organs in charge of the interaction between those relationships and how information about artworks delivered by them is dealt with and stored within a system of thinking are often assumed to have similarities to the function and mechanism of language.

 

Paintings of Cho Jung Hwan show tendencies of ‘Reportage’. They depict the inside look of how he lives as a painter in a big city. Above all, the paintings unveil the social hierarchy and the suspended fundamental freedom realized more certainly during the pandemic when guidelines and restrictions requested individuals to obey for the safety of their community reached their maximum. In this context, the title—‘Concrete Island’ is appropriate to represent the subjects of paintings produced by Cho in Busan, his hometown, before and after the pandemic, and in Seoul during the residency period.

The grey constructions in the background of figures appear like what tombstones often found in his prior works have progressed and intensified. These images were a metaphor for the finale of a tedious life cycle in his previous paintings, whereas, in the new series, they substitute for buildings and apartments occupying a city and symbolic structures dividing the social classes. His empirical conclusion, in which the described city lifestyle is a given circumstance rather than a consequence of choices, and there is hardly a way out left, reveals its heavy lesson conveyed in the word of the title, ‘Island’.    

 

As though he controlled his palette according to a particular rule set by him, the scope of colours used includes only reddish yellow, black and a scant blue tone. The most frequently applied red and yellow are lopsided to portray the sunset sky and the bonfire flames in front of skeleton-looking characters in his works. Cho manages to deftly handle these limited colours, typically representing the impression of exhalation and expansion, to establish the constricted and withdrawn ambience. The sky, seemingly bursting in a red spectrum, encourages the audience to relate the multiple implications of sundown with the life of city dwellers; the bonfires and vestige of light painted sometimes in the lower part of a canvas indicate the topmost of restricted freedom, spaces and capitals each individual in a city can possess. 

 

Considering that one of the genre traits of figurative painting is an empathetic understanding of a relatively broad number of people and intriguing numerous visualizations, the Visual Language of Cho Jung Hwan is straightforward and intense. The thoroughly planned composition and colours and the characters who seem to be his alter ego are the outcomes of the attempts to transcend and specify the complicated emotions he occasionally had through his practice.

 

Cho Jung Hwan (b.1982) received a BFA in Architecture at Dong-eui University, a BFA in Painting at Pusan National University and an MFA in Painting at Hongik University. His solo exhibitions were held at France Art Space (2019), Gallery Lee (2015) and Gallery Mungcle (2015). Cho also participated in several group exhibitions at leading art establishments, such as Busan Modern and Contemporary History Museum (2023), Shinchon Arts Space (2023), Chapter II (2023), Busan Museum of Art (2023), Fukuoka Asian Art Museum (2020) and DOT Museum (2020).