Dog Art Today

Tag: erl gallery

  • Mr. Dog Goes to Utopia by Kwak Su-yeon

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    Mr. Dog Goes to Utopia by Kwak Su-yeon

    One of my favorite artists, Korean painter Kwak Su-yeon just opened a new show at Gallery Erl in Seoul.  She uses minwha, the traditional Korean folk style, to create a metaphor for her own life.  She told JoongAng Daily:

    “My past works featuring dogs with luxury goods had a satirical tone.
    They showed people who were driven to work outside the home in order to
    make enough money to purchase luxury goods, while their dogs were left
    at home to enjoy them,” Kwak said.

    “On the other hand, the works
    for this exhibition have more lyricism,” she continued. “The dogs
    resting amidst the books or journeying to a Taoist paradise reflect my
    desire to escape my own reality, in which I work for eight hours per
    day alone in my studio, and leave for a utopia.”

    I think anyone who works anywhere can relate.  See her earlier depiction of luxury and satire from her Dog Days exhibition here.

    Mr. Dog Goes to Utopia runs until July 1, 2010.

  • Su-yeon Kwak: Dog Says…

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    OK, it seems to me that Korean artists are producing some of the most interesting dog art in the world today.  Su-yeon Kwak's solo show Dog Says… at Erl Gallery in Seoul looks spectacular!

    Notes from the show (translation is a bit funky, but you'll get the gist): 

    Kwak Su-yeon's work features dogs to reflect human aspects, naturally addressing social issues through their external appearances. Designer handbags and perfumes inserted implicitly into folk painting display the current tendency of consumerism and materialism, conveying an unpleasant truth that such dogs reflect  our own looks and images. The truth also presents the irony that the relations of humans with dogs are reversed.

    The artist joins in the stream of change in oriental painting through her witty, humorous representation of the animal dogs, lending social meaning to them. Strictly speaking, what the artist presents through her paintings, such as the relations of humans with dogs and a slightly prickly truth concerning dogs turn eventually to human stories.  Kwak Su-yeon continues her evolution as an artist and expresses her regrets about the severance of human relations implying that dogs did not evolve as they were supposed to and humans also gave up on evolving as the way they should, using the medium of the dog,  which is her own way of picking up a quarrel about such an irony.

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    Part of the reason I am ga-ga for these paintings is that several years ago I was hired to write a script about Queen Min, Korea's last queen. Along with reading dozens of books on Korea's history, I got to travel there and experience the culture myself. I absolutely fell in love with it and feel a kindred spirit to the country still.

    Look how perfectly I fit in…

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    Speaking of Queen Min, fabulous fashion blogger and jewelry designer, Wendy Brandes was inspired by her incredible story to create this ring.

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    When my movie gets made (one day), I will buy the ring as a celebration gift and wear it to the premiere.

    P.S. Su-yeong Kwak's show Dog Says… runs until September 30, 2008 at Erl Gallery. Via Merry & Happy.