View of Mind in Matter, PKM Gallery, 2022.

PKM Gallery presents Mind in Matter, a solo exhibition of ChangSup Chung (1927-2011), who was a first-generation master, led the Korean contemporary art, and a representative artist of the Dansaekhwa movement, from August 25th through October 15th. In times where interest in Korean art in the international art scene is growing more than ever before, this exhibition aims to shed new light on the profound artistic world and aesthetic achievements of ChangSup Chung, who fiercely pursued an authentic Korean contemporary art.

From the beginning of the 1980s, ChangSup Chung had moved on from the Informel oil paintings to concentrate on the Tak series, where tak, the main material for a traditional Korean paper (Hanji) is taken. The Tak series, created by mixing mulberry bark fiber (tak), the raw material of hanji, with water and spreading it onto the canvas surface, transparently reveal the work process and the natural passage of time. During this process, it is not the artist’s role to become the subject and treat the material as a means to produce the work, but to help reveal the imagination and characteristic/expression of the material itself. This particular attitude of Chung is different from the views of the Japanese Mono-ha artists who explored the aesthetic aspects through a phenomenological investigation into natural materials, such as wood, stone, clay, steel plate, and paper in mostly unaltered states.

The exhibition features selected works that capture the latter part of his art world, ranging from the 1980s Tak series, where tak has become his work companion/partner, to the early 2000s Meditation series, which mark the peak of his creative artistic maturity.