This is the first Jun Seok Min's solo exhibition in Korea. Except 3 kinds of music box in 2006, most of works are made after 2010, and these are all about movements. Audiences can touch them freely to feel amusement movement gives, and photographs, video works will be displayed together to help better understanding for changes of each movement and form. His first exhibition in Seoul will be expected to show new way of contemporary jewelries. 

Direct. Persistent. Fine.
When I was a student I loved everything about art; spending weekends traveling to museums and my nights reading and talking about my favorite designers and periods. Now it’s my job to consume, think about, and engage students in a discourse of making, and I am considerably less enthusiastic about what I see. Nothing fundamental has changed in the creative marketplace, it’s just that I’ve seen a lot more of it (and from a great many more points of view) than when I was 21. I am much more discriminating about what I look at, interact with, and allow into my evolving definition of what is meaningful and worthy of my attention.
A lot of contemporary art requires the detailed knowledge of its maker (or the fictional landscape they’ve created.) While Jun’s bracelets, rings, and other objects certainly reflect his personality they don’t demand that we invest our time researching Jun or his philosophy in order to enter the work. Jun’s work is direct and, while it can be somewhat complicated, isn’t obfuscated by elements that cloud our ability to understand and appreciate their function and form. They are form, material, and motion (real and implied.)
With the exception of certain ‘active’ styles, process is something that is opaque to a viewer/ wearer. The how, the when, and in which order is something that is of primary interest to the biographer or the curator. As one of Jun’s colleagues, I am fortunate in this respect because I’ve watched much of this work take shape. I’ve seen the forms collapse on themselves, the materials fail to meet Jun’s expectations, and the mechanisms as they transformed from sketches and models into these sophisticated compositions.
In the crafts there are at least two dominant trends: technical skill substituting for original, compelling ideas - or conceptual frameworks so dominant that the matter and method of execution is at best a secondary consideration. Here Jun’s work is at its most balanced and exemplary - playful, geometric ideas confidently rendered in fine materials. But it’s not just his apt forming technique, curiosity married to encyclopedic knowledge of materials, or his great care in fit and finishing every detail - it is the application of his skill in these objects that works. Jun’s objects mark a (shiny) path well away from those of his peers.

Phil Renato, August 2011
Associate Professor, Program Chair
Allesee Metals/Jewelry Design Program
Kendall College of Art and Design of Ferris State University