'Pixel artist' Hong Seung-hye's road to creative liberation
Veteran artist Hong Seung-hye calls her ongoing solo exhibition, “Over the Layers II” at Kukje Gallery in central Seoul, a “liberation from a prison of a rectangular grid of pixels.” Courtesy of Kukje Gallery
By Park Han-sol
For a quarter of a century, the basic building blocks of veteran artist Hong Seung-hye's paintings have been none other than pixels ― the smallest square unit that forms a foundation of any raster image appearing on a digital screen.
Pixels, or picture elements, have been the virtual bricks for all of her abstract creations ― from what the artist called “organic geometry” to pictograms and even 3D furniture inspired by her 2D-printed images ― as the 64-year-old spontaneously combined and disassembled them using Adobe Photoshop.
But these very elements that were once a driving force behind Hong's ceaseless artistic endeavors eventually became her creative roadblock ― “a prison of a rectangular grid of pixels,” as she put it.
It was time to liberate herself from the style that has, over the years, become formulaic and repetitive.
The artist found the answer in Adobe Illustrator, which produces vector-based images rather than raster-based, pixelated art like Photoshop. No longer confined to the grid of square dots, she began her experimentation with the design program, birthing new multihued shapes and manipulating them on a whim.
Installation view of Hong Seung-hye's solo exhibition, “Over the Layers II,” at Kukje Gallery / Courtesy of Kukje Gallery
“It took Andy Dufresne from 'The Shawshank Redemption' almost two decades to escape from jail. For me, it's been 25 years since I've put myself in this prison,” Hong said at a recent press preview at Kukje Gallery in central Seoul, where her latest works reflecting the new stage of her creative emancipation are on view.
“Over the Layers II” presents a merry mix of 2D and 3D pieces, including sculptures, murals and furniture, alongside sound and light works, as a rainbow-colored playground for children and adults alike.
The featured shapes are more free-form and dynamic ― constellations, animals, waves, clouds and even the artist's starry-eyed self-portrait ― that previously could not be rendered on Photoshop without appearing pixelated.
Viewers can immerse themselves in these shapes that have taken over not only the blue and lemon-colored gallery walls but have also materialized as a forest of playful, geometric furniture of tables, partitions, cabinets and paper holders.
Installation view of Hong Seung-hye's solo exhibition, “Over the Layers II,” at Kukje Gallery / Courtesy of Kukje Gallery
“I do not have a particular form in mind when I sit down to produce my work. This unpredictability is the key to my creation, like that of children playing with Legos,” she noted.
In addition to producing a more eye-catching set of shapes, Hong also adopted a free use of color as an homage to French art master Henri Matisse.
“He used vivid hues as an autonomous agent on canvas to achieve aesthetic beauty. During the last decade of his life, the artist also created paper cut-outs, or papiers decoupes, to birth wide-ranging structures,” she said.
Installation view of Hong Seung-hye's solo exhibition, “Over the Layers II,” at Kukje Gallery / Courtesy of Kukje Gallery
The centerpiece of the exhibition unfolds throughout the entire room of the gallery's K3 space as a visual summary of the artist's decades-long oeuvre.
The hall is embellished with her previously iconic, pixelated sculptures of human performers suspended in midair, new rainbow-colored installations in the shape of flower petals and her music box-like sound work.
“It's like a ballroom filled with five couples dancing amid fluttering blossoms,” she noted.
“Over the Layers II” runs through March 19 at Kukje Gallery.