BOOTH 1D20
Perrotin is pleased to participate in Art Basel Hong Kong 2021 edition with two solo presentations of the prominent Korean artists Kim Chong-Hak and Lee Bae.
The essence of Kim Chong-Hak's work lies within his experience in Mount Seorak in the northern region of South Korea. In its wilderness followed by the dynamic temporal cycle and the impression of the bare nature it provided him, Kim's work displays the life of each subject as it entangles, overturns, and battles one another to boast its individual existence. The artist pours, splashes and slathers paint onto the unstretched canvas to recreate the impression of life. In his rapid, gestural marks layered with his hands and brushstrokes, Kim presents a distinct, personal experience of the world. Although the source of his inspiration is nature, particularly the native flowers that he encountered in Seorak, Kim rearranges and composes them to translate these powerful impressions into flourishing colors onto the canvas.
In Lee Bae's practices, charcoal has figured prominently since the artist first moved to Paris in the 1990s. Born in South Korea and now working between Paris, Seoul, and Cheongdo, the artist's aesthetic, materialistic and philosophical exploration into charcoal draws out new contexts and narratives that the material has on offer. Following years of contemplation, Lee attempted to translate and review the classical practices of Korean calligraphy with a contemporary perspective to explore the direction of his own work. He realized that calligraphy traveled beyond its created timeframe and shifted its meaning by projecting the viewer's cultural understanding, suggesting a new paradigm in life. Using powdered charcoal resulting from Lee's labor-intensive practices, Brushstroke is an extension of his search into his personal and artistic self, an attempt to communicate with viewers of all culture and time through gestural remarks that cannot simply be restricted as a Western nor an Eastern practice. Also on view are the artist's Issu du feu series, where the dense mass of polished charcoal shards reveals its immeasurable shades and spectrums of blackness; and the Landscape series, where compressed mass of charcoal appears to be floating or clashing into the void, emphasizing the materiality of charcoal.

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