Johyun Gallery, Busan will be holding a solo exhibition of Chung Chang-Sup. This exhibition will be Chung Chang-Sup’s 4th solo exhibition in Johyun Gallery starting from his first solo exhibition in 1994, and is an exhibition that has not been held domestically for 5 years since his retrospective exhibition at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in 2010. Being able to have works of Chung Chang-Sup which pursues the sheer identity of Korean contemporary art, and to have works of Chung Chang-Sup from different point in time in one place will truly indulge one with a meaningful experience.

Chung Chang-Sup was persistent in his inquiry with the combination of heterogeneous elements such as the traditional and the modern, the east and the west, the intangible and the tangible, where distinct opposite objects meet a mutual concurrence. Chung Chang-Sup has emptied himself, living a life of namelessness and silence to draw from the innate vitality of Tak, which is a main component of Hanji paper. The use of Tak seeds life to his work and establishes a distinct art world. Oddly enough, the artist calls Hanji paper (韓紙) as cold paper (寒紙) which can be considered as a homonym once spoken in Korean. The reason for doing so comes from his opinion that winter is the perfect season to make Hanji paper. His tenacious research, creation and affection for Hanji paper brought him to become known as “The Tak Artist” as well as “The pioneer in Hanji paper works”. Differing from the traditional means of ‘drawing Tak’ as they say in Korea, Chung Chang-Sup alternates from using oil, ink, and paint to let the his breath and temperature permeate through his work. He repeats particular hand gestures and motions to express his persona. Depending on the time that the Tak was soaked in water, it changes the brightness and the saturation of colour. Through this process there has been endless exploration on how colour can be expressed through such medium. By the time water has completely soaked through the Tak and cause it to lose all its strength, Chung Chang-Sup claims that the material reaches a state where its characteristic quality can be expressed ot the fullest. 

From the early 1950’s to the early 1970’s Chung Chang-Sup’s work conveyed states of current affairs of the time as well as the state of people’s minds. He often utilised oil paints with hues of red and blue to build an impression of a thick texture, which was most often a typical characteristic of his work. It was during the mid 1970’s when Chung Chang-Sup first met “Tak” in search for a different material (He did not enjoy the glutinous texture of oil paint). But in his early series “Return”, Hanji Paper was used as something to paint on, unlike his more recent works, where he draws forth from the characteristics of its property. At first, his preliminary stage consisted of exploring and experimenting different methods such as letting the ink get soaked on the canvas or flicking ink upon it. Subsequently he began to discard his tools, and started to express his work through the properties of the paper itself.

From 1980, the objects of his work began to lose form completely, even causing the frames of the canvas to lose their structure. Such process continued until the composition of “Tak” became one with the canvas. Initially his work was composed of single colours that elicit senses of solidarity and inexpressiveness, with predominant colours of light brown and beige with tinges of yellow. His follow up series <Meditation> displayed much clearer and apparent squares compared to the works from the 1980’s, with the appearance of more solid colours. Compared to his early series, his work became softer and more frequent with colours that contradict the intrinsic colour of Tak. In the 1990’s nearing to the year 2000, the squares from his series <Meditation> became deeper and the contrasting elements of Tak became more distinct. The properties of Tak became more firm and refined as time went by, internalising into a transparent state which reinforced the overlying leitmotif of the artist.

As a return from a long absence of his domestic exhibition, Johyun gallery will display 30 pieces of Chung Chang-Sup’s work with a combination of pieces from the <Tak> series of the 1980’s and of the <Meditation> series that followed through from the 1990’s to the year 2000. With the artist's careful nurture of tapping and shaping the light brown Tak with his hands, it exposes the Tak’s true property in all its grandeur. With the light intensified onto such works that bear the nature woven colours of Korea, Chung Chang-Sup’s art piece monopolises themselves in the white exhibition hall. Its tranquil but vigorous illustration makes their colours stand out, offering a subdued scent and look. Through this exhibition, we hope to show the artist’s consistent pursuit of dualities in heterogeneous elements. With an overflow of so many different mediums and colours in art, Tak brims with the simplicity of nature and Korean aesthetic beauty and the muted blank space charms the eyes that beholds them. Straying from western rationalism, his work appertains to oriental intuition that expresses Korean traditional sentiments and beauty which allows us insight into Korean contemporary art, as well as being a prominent foundation of it. One could say that his work holds an extensive magnitude of history in Korean contemporary art.