March 6 through April 30 2014, Gallery SHCHUKIN is presenting the works of artist Chae Sung-Pil. The exhibition entitled Nameless Land, which is the precursor to the Korea season show slated to be staged in France in 2015, acquaints visitors with one of the foremost representatives of Asian art. Chae Sung-Pil’s paintings, abstract landscapes, wherein the West intersects with the tradition of Oriental landscape painting, are limned using a method that fuses antique and contemporary painting technique; it is a sort of anthem to nature and the five elements that make it up, imbued with earthly, physical, and poetic force.
Earth, the subject and basis of Chae Sung-Pil’s large-format paintings, reminds him of his childhood years and his motherland, South Korea, and takes on a special meaning for him. His paintings bring to mind various spaces, the product of merging one’s innermost visions and landscapes, which could exist in reality. His oeuvre, a subtle and poetic narrative of the beginning of the world, makes you ponder on this remarkable paradox – painterly depiction of earth in its cosmic dimension.
The exhibition relates a creative process that incorporates earth, ink, and water, one that is subject to the will of chance. From his frequent trips around the world Chae Sung-Pil brings unique, in terms of texture and pigments, samples of earth, which become the basis of his paintings. Each painting is put together in accordance with a complex and accurate method. The artist clears the earth of admixtures, dilutes it with water until he arrives at a homogeneous mass, filters it, mixes it with fish oil, and puts it on the canvas lying on the floor, to which he then applies random strokes with a brush. The brightness of colors is accentuated through silver, broken down into a powder, and ink.
Thus, Nameless Land reflects the manifoldness and omnitude of the cosmos.