Wook-kyung Choi: American Years 1960s – 1970s

Kukje Gallery presents a solo exhibition of Wook-kyung Choi (1940-1985), an artist widely celebrated for her assertive and bold abstract paintings. Wook kyung Choi: American Years 1960s-1970s showcases over 70 works that focus on her painting and collage work completed while living in the US. Spanning about 15 years of the artist’s American period from 1963 to 1978, these works represent formative years in her career during which the artist discovered her artistic identity and established her own style. The 1960s and 70swasa tumultuous period during which the schools of Dansaekhwa and the Korean Avant-garde were dominant in the Korean art scene.Through a re-examination of Wook-kyung Choi, whose disciplined and unique practice was distinguished by being independent of the historical mainstream, the exhibition aims to paradoxically reveal her artistic spirit and attitude,and provide an invaluable opportunity to reestablish her importance.

Wook-kyung Choi is commonly known as an artist whose work has affinity toAmerican Abstract Expressionism. The artist’s strong use of colors and formative composition shows,at a glance, the influence of Abstract Expressionists such as Willem de Kooning and Robert Motherwell. While she her self acknowledged the importance of the modern masters, however, Wook-kyung Choi continuously challenged to develop her own “abstract expression” through countless experiments and exploring the form and space in abstract paintings. Besides painting, this exhibition features a wide and experimental spectrum of the artist’s practice by presenting her collage and drawing. The artist’s use of collage showcases her many experiments with that form reflecting the influence of Rauschenberg’s Combine painting as well as Pop Art. The abstract lines in her black and white drawings meanwhile, bridge modernism and Oriental calligraphy and blur the boundary between the East and the West.In addition, the works illustrating the historically eventful 1960s represent the artist’s keen observation and willingness to connect her work to the socio-political issues.

Choi showed her artistic talent early and was taught by the renowned artists Kim Ki-changand Park Re-hyunfrom the age of 10. After graduating from Seoul Arts High School in 1959 and the College of Fine Arts at Seoul National University in 1963, Choi moved to the United States where she studied at the Cranbrook Academy of Art and received her MA in Fine Arts from the Brooklyn Museum School of Art. Choi taught as an Assistant Professor of Painting at Franklyn Pierce College from 1968 to 1971. In 1978she returned to Korea and taught at Yeungnam University as an Associate Professor of Painting and later at Duksung Women’s University while she continued to engage in her artistic practice. Choi’s selected solo exhibitions include Shinsegae Gallery, Seoul (1971); Roswell Museum and Art Center, New Mexico (1977); the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (1987); Ho-am Gallery, Seoul (1989); and Kukje Gallery (2005). In addition, she was included in the Annual Invitational Exhibition in Maine sponsored by the Skowhegan School Foundation (1967-68); Invitational Exhibition of Korean Contemporary Artists in Tokyo (1972); the 16th São Paulo Biennale (1981); and Korean Drawings Now at the Brooklyn Museum (1982-85). Choi’s works are in major collections including National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea; Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul; and Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Maine.