Moon Beom
Impossible Realm
November 21 - December 21, 2019
Impossible Realm
Press Release
Impossible Realm is Moon Beom’s seventh solo exhibition of paintings at Kim Foster Gallery. Resisting classification, Moon’s artwork ably transforms both the traditional and the post modern. Impossible Realm is a selection of paintings done over the past twenty years by this Korean based artist.
Moon begins with a monochrome surface using an acrylic pigment. He then applies small dabs of color using oil stick, pushing the oil pigment with his hand into a kind of hyperrealist foliage in an ambiguous time and space. While minimalism has always played a role in Moon Beom’s work, the balance between the monochrome and the minimal aspects of these paintings with the often naturalistic forms suggests some hybrid association with traditional landscape painting of his homeland. Yet despite a visual resemblance, Moon Beom’s work is inspired by the artist’s contemplation on the gesture of painting. The scenes depicted on the canvas are mere traces of oil pigment applied by the artist’s hands at different speed and pressure. Through endless repetition of this process, the artist examines a dynamic relationship between the canvas and his inner nature. Moon’s primary artistic interest is not concerned with expressing or representing reality, but with transferring his physical and emotional constitution to the painting itself. The force and velocity of his movements in relation to the canvas become the elements of the language of the work.
As the realm of landscape becomes much more broad, extending its scope beyond the representation of visible reality, Moon Beom’s syncopated, complex treatment of movement yields a distinct visual structure of exquisite particulars and explosive force where art and nature fluidly exist.
Biography
LACMA, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA has acquired Possible Worlds #9021, 2014 by Moon Beom for their Korean Art Department.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2019 / 2013 / 2010 / 2007 / 2005 / 2003 / 2001 Kim Foster Gallery, New York
2011 Simon Gallery, Seoul
2007/2004 PKM Gallery,Seoul
2002 Shin Gallery,Seoul
1999 Kukje Galery,Seoul
1997 / 1996 / 1994 Shilla Gallery,Teagu
1996 / 1994 Gallery Bhak,Seoul
1994 Seohwa Gallery,Seoul
1993 Icon Gallery,Seoul
1991 Jean Gallery,Seoul
1989 Soo Gallery,Seoul
1987 Fine Art Center,Seoul
Kwanhoon Gallery,Seoul
1982 Total Gallery,Seoul
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SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2018 Human/Nature, Wayne State University, Elaine Jacob Gallery, Detroit, MI
2016 Come In From The Cold, Kim Foster Gallery, New York, NY
2015 Contemporary Sansuha, Pearl Lamm Galleries, Hong Kong
Color Value, Kim Foster Gallery, New York
2014 CONTEXT Art Miami, Miami
Sequential Abstraction Kim Foster Gallery, New York
L’Avventura Kim Foster Gallery, New York
2013 SUPER/NATURAL Contemporary Korean Art, Christie’s Private Sale, New York
(Not) Water, Kim Foster Gallery, New York
2012 Korean Eye, Saatchi Gallery, London
(Im)Possible Landscape, Plateau / Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul. (2012-2013)
SeMA GOLD 2012: Hidden track, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul
2011 Out of the Blue, Strolh Gallery, Chautaqua Institute, New York
Embracing the Void, HADA Contemporary, London
Post Nature, WooMin Art Center, Chung Joo
2010 invisible windows, yfo Gallery,Teagu
2009 DrawingPainting, Kim Foster Gallery, New York
Foregrounded, PKM Gallery, Seoul
Ethics, Kunstdoc Gallery, Seoul
Anamnesis and Exptrapolation, PKM Gallery, Beijing
2008 Bienal Internacional de Arte Contemporaneo de Sevilla, Sevilla
Art39 basel, Basel
2007 Percept/Scape-Concept/Scape,Gallery Lux,Seoul
Inagural Exhibition, Museum of Art, Seoul National Univ., Seoul
Hommage 100, Korea Art Center, Pusan
2006 Simply Beautiful, Centre PasquArt, Biel, Switzerland
Camera Work, Seoul City Museum of Art, Seoul
Viewing Object, Seoul City Museum of Art, Seoul
2005 The Diversity Show, Credit Suiss First Boston, Curated by Betty Levin, New York
Cool & Warm,Sunggok Museum of Art,Seoul
Echo Beyond the Time,Ewha Univ.Museum,Seoul
Le Flux, Gallery Lumen,Paris
2004 Painting That Paints Themselves, Kresge Art Museum, East Lansing, MI.
2003 Inagural Exhibition, Samadhi-Contemplation, Chelsea Art Museum, New York
2002 Inaugural Exhibition of Seoul City Museum of Art, Seoul
Kwangju Biennale, Liberty Park, Kwangju
dis/location, 291 Gallery, Taegu
2001 Rebirth of Painting, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Kwacheon
2000 Kwangju Biennale, City Museum of Art, Kwangju
Art and Order, Noh Gallery
Traces, CAIS Gallery
1999 Nature, Parkyusook Gallery, Seoul
Works on Paper, Seowha Gallery, Seoul
Three Friends, Gallery Simon, Seoul
Seoul 80 – Sweet Lips, CAIS Gallery, Seoul
1999 Logos & Pathos, Kwanhoon Gallery, Seoul
1998 Spiritual-scapes, Generous Miracles Gallery, New York
1997 Namjune Paik,Moon Beom,Hyunki Park,Kwangyoung Chun, Kim Foster Gallery, New York
1996 Window Gallery Project,Hyundai Gallery, Seoul
Anachrome,Seowha Gallery, Seoul
Install-Scape, Teagu Center of Culture, Teagu
1995 Seoul 80 – Intertextuality,Speed, Gaain Gallery, Seoul
Information&Reality-KoreanContemporaryArt, FruitmarketGallery, Edinburgh
Fusing Cement in Art, Sunggok Museum of Art, Seoul
1993 Contemporary-Communication Art, Gallery Bahk, Seoul
1992 Informel apres Informel, Chosunilbo Gallery, Seoul
Seoul 80 – Ten Years After, Seowha Gallery, Seoul
1991 Korean Contemporary Art, Sonje Museum of Art Kyungju
1990 Artists of Nineties, City Museum of Art, Seoul
1989 Kim Yongik,Moon Beom,Hong Myungsup, Space Gallery, Seoul
1988 Korean Contemporary Painting, Nat’l Museum of History, Taipei
1987 Tail of Elephant, Kanagawa Gallery, Yokohama
1986 Korean Art-Old and New, City Hall, Kyoto
1985 Seoul-16 Artists,Kwanhoon Gallery,Seoul
1984 Korean Art Now,City Museum of Art,Taipei
1983 Contemporary Paper Works-Korea & Japan, City Museum of Art, Kyoto
New Paper Works from Korea, Spring Gallery, Taipei
Three Korean Artists in L.A., Artcore Gallery, Los Angeles
1982 After Logicalness, Soo Gallery, Taegu
Common Sense,Susceptibility,Symptom, Kwanhoon Gallery, Seoul
1981 32e Salon de Jeune Peintre & Expression, Grand Palais, Paris
Seoul 80 – Objecthood, Space Gallery, Seoul
Seoul 80 – Work by Screen, Dongduk Gallery, Seoul
Seoul 80 – Report on Masters’, Space Gallery, Seoul
1980 Seoul 80 – Work with Photo, Space Gallery, Seoul
1979 Performance,’The Thing which to see’, Naengchun Valley, Taegu
1978 Performance,’See & Look’, Naktong River, Taegu
FELLOWSHIP PROGRAMS
1995 Vermont Studio Center(Johnson,VT.), sponsored by Freeman Foundation
1992 The Millay Colony for the Arts(Austerlitz,NY.), sponsored by Mid-America Art Alliance and USIA
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, LA, CA
AmorePacific Museum of Art, Seoul
National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul
Samsung Museum Leeum, Seoul
Sonje Museum of Art, Kyungju
Seoul City Museum of Art, Seoul
Daejeon City Museum of Art, Daejeon
Kyunggido Museum of Art, Ansan
Sunggok Museum of Art, Seoul
Kumho Museum of Art, Seoul
Posco Center, Seoul
STAR Tower, Seoul
Tower Palace, Seoul
Hilton Hotel, Seoul
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
2013 Korean Art: The Power of Now, co-published TransGlobe Publishing and Thames & Hudson
2012 Korean Contemporary Art, published by Prestel Verlag, Munich, London. New York
2010 Huffington Post Exhibition Spotlight, Nov. USA
2010 Asian Art News, Robert C. Morgan, Dec., USA
2008 Art in America, Jonathan Goodman,March,U.S.A.
2007 Wolganmisool, Jin HwiYeon,Aug.,Korea
2004 Wolganmisool, Kang SooMee, May, Korea
PKM gallery Catalogue,
“Mysteries of Representation”, essay by Richard Vine, Mar., Korea
2003 Art Press, Robert C. Morgan, Oct., France
2002 Wolganmisool, Seong WanGyung, Nov., Korea
Tema Celeste Contemporary Art, Robert C.Morgan, Feb., Italy
2001 Art in America, Richard Vine, Dec., U.S.A.
ARTFORUM, Barry Schwabsky, May, U.S.A.
1999 Kukje Gallery Catalogue, Park KyungMe, May, Korea
Wolganmisool,Song MiSook,Apr.Korea
Misoolsegye,Jung HunYee,Jun.,Korea
1998 Flash Art,Grady T.Turner,Jan./Feb.,Italy
NY Arts Magazine,Robert C. Morgan,Jan./Feb.,U.S.A.
1997 Time Out New York, Martha Schwendener,Aug.,U.S.A.
SPACE, Jung HunYee, Jan., Korea
1996 Gallery Shilla, catalogue, Yoo Pil-Ja, Dec., Korea
1995 Wolganmisool,K im HongHee, Aug., Korea
Art Vivant, Lee YongWoo, vol.39, Korea
1994 Gana Art, Kim HyunDo, Dec., Korea
Wolganmisool, Song MiSook, Oct., Korea
SPACE, Lee YongWoo ,Apr., Korea
1993 Wolganmisool, Park JungKi, Apr., Korea
1993 Gana Art, Lee YongWoo, Mar./Apr., Korea
Icon Gallery,Catalogue, Yoon NanJi, Mar., Korea
1991 Jin Art Gallery,Catalogue, Lee YongWoo, Nov., Korea