Seoul, September 30 – October 6, 2015, http://www.galerie-gaia.net/
A painting exhibition I discovered by chance, right at the beginning of the main tourist-crowded Insadong Street. The strong colors and contrasts reminded me of Henri Matisse or other fauvists, but I had a hard time relating it to the here and now. The subject matter – interiors of churches and cathedrals – seemed very classical and referential: These spaces are laden with symbolism and historical meaning, but I could not decipher what was being referenced here. The paintings were very much traditional paintings and the technique did not provide any hint regarding the conceptual direction taken either. The painter was a Korean-American, but I did not manage to google any background information about her. So in the end I was left clueless. Either I could take the works at face value, and conclude that they are an early modernism-loving attempt echoing times gone by, directed at conservative collectors who like colorful works, or I could conclude that I simply don’t know what is going on there, because no context (in English, that is) has been provided.
