Galerie Steph and AndrewShire Gallery are proud to present a solo exhibition of new works by noted Korean artist Cheong Kwang Ho. The Treachery of Sculptures marks Cheong’s first solo presentation in Singapore. His previous and only presentation of work in Singapore was in a group exhibition titled Transcendence: Modernity and Beyond in Korean Art at the Singapore Art Museum in 2008.

Cheong solders together thin copper wires in excruciating detail to create delicate transparent forms with the weightlessness unexpected of sculptures. Lacking the sense of mass conventionally attributed to sculptural works, Cheong is dedicated to birthing objects he calls “non-sculptural sculptures”. Consisting of almost nothing, his is a remarkable aesthetic that emphasizes emptiness. Cheong rejects horror vacui – fear of empty space – that lies at the base of Western sculpture and which subsequently produced the idea that human creations must have bulk.

The threads of copper wire depicting simple motifs, such as pots, flowers, fishes and leaves, almost resemble soft pencil strokes thus giving the sculptures the appearance of three-dimensional drawings in air. Yet, the spacious volumes they occupy deny that illusion. It is this contradictory nature of his work that leads the viewer to an unprecedented spatial experience, revealing to us a dimension we are unaccustomed to.

If the essential role of art is to offer a new experience, Cheong’s sculptures are masterpieces that remain faithful to this definition of art.

About the Artist:

Cheong was born in 1959, Daejeon. He attained a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the College of Fine Arts, Seoul National University, and completed his Master of Fine Arts at its graduate school.

He has exhibited extensively with numerous galleries in Korea and abroad, such as New York, Paris, Amsterdam, Munich, Melbourne, Tokyo, Dubai and Basel. His works are also held in various public collections in Korea, including the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Gwacheon; Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul; Busan Museum of Modern Art, Busan; Daejeon Museum of Art, Daejeon; Daelim Contemporary Art Museum, Seoul; Jebiwool Art Museum, Gwacheon; Leeum Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul; and Gyeonggi Museum of Art, Ansan.

Image: © Cheong Kwang Ho, Galerie Steph