BURNSOO SONG

MARCH 16 – APRIL 20, 2013


OPENING RECEPTION:
SATURDAY, MARCH 16, 2013, 6 – 8 PM

GARBOUSHIAN GALLERY is pleased to present work by acclaimed Korean artist BurnSoo Song in his inaugural exhibition with the gallery. Highly esteemed internationally, Song’s visual work has been the focus of several prominent museum exhibitions in both France and Korea, and we are thrilled to be showcasing his work for the first time in the United States, an exhibition for which the artist will be present. Song has been called a “transcendentalist in the passage of time and space, a visceral man of nature attuned to the extravagant forces of the universe.” Working in a wide variety of materials including acrylic coloring on Korean handmade Mulberry paper, lithography, sculpture, graphite and large-scale tapestries, Song exemplifies the idea of the artist as maverick thinker, extending boundaries both conceptually and stylistically, utilizing unconventional materials in the service of a bold and provocative vision.

Drawing largely on natural imagery, Song dismantles the familiar representation of the “thorn,” excising the image from its metaphorical meaning, pursuing it instead as a purely physical and literal object. It is this “objectness,” how a thing can exist in space and time, necessarily burdened with its own inherent shadows, nuances and obvious distinctions, that both captivates and motivates Song. The “thorn” is essentially stripped of its physical properties, transforming beyond the meanings that have come to be attached to it, i.e. religious and or spiritual connotations. These images are extrapolated from their own shadows, the underpinnings, the implied gestures that inform these objects as unique in and of themselves, separate from, yet completely connected to the artist’s essential impulse to create them at all.

BURNSOO SONG - The Creations of Energy (Grey)


BURNSOO SONG






The artist will also exhibit sculptural works rarely before seen in the United States in keeping with the theme of transcendental illumination, weightless abundance and light and space.

Song’s approach to making art is at its core a deeply philosophical pursuit wherein form serves as a means of dismantling conventional thought as though the artist, through a deeply personal exploration, were liberating images and thoughts from his own mind, delving headlong into shadow as though obliterating the past in favor of a more ominous and complex future. These images are distinctly and necessarily corporeal as the shadows lurking behind the thorn images act as a second skin, a deliberate provocation to subvert the familiar trope of the thorn as a painful and awful object. Song liberates the image from its own historical past, and its darker associations, imbuing it instead with a fiercer, more contemporary narrative meaning. Song currently works and lives in Korea.

An Opening Reception for BurnSoo Song's U.S. inaugural exhibition will take place on Saturday, March 16, from 6:00 to 8:00 pm. The exhibition will remain on view until April 20, 2013.

ABOUT BURNSOO SONG:
Song was born (1943) in Gyeryongmyun, Gong-Ju, Chung-Nam, Korea, and has exhibited his work widely both nationally and internationally. His work is included in many notable collections including the TOTAL Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, National Museum of Budapest, Hungary, National theatre of Jangchung-dong, Seoul Korea, KTX Yongsan Station, Seoul, Embassy of Korea, Kuwait, Lucky Goldstar Metal Reasearch Institute, YongIn Korea, Seoul City Museum of Art, the Busan City Museum of Art. Exhibiting since the early 1960’s Song is currently Emeritus Professor of Fine Art College of Hong-ik University, Seoul, Korea. Song has also exhibited widely throughout Europe, and has been the recipient of many prestigious awards including the “On the Occasion of the 1000th anniversary of the foundation of the Hungarian State (First Golden Fleece Prize, The Hungarian Cultural Heritage Budapest, Hungary)”, and “The Lausanne Beijing-International Tapestry Art Biennale (Honor Grand Prize, Beijing China)”.