akive

Sungsic Moon is a young painter who started receiving attention when his works presented in the Korean Pavilion at the 51st Venice Biennale in 2005. Moon’s paintings of forest scenes are filled with trees and leaves by layering paint from one end point to another. He uses one of the oldest painting methods, one dating to pre-Renaissance days, which requires the use of a thin hairbrush. Each and every leaf is painted in such great detail so as to make the viewer aware of the kind of tree depicted, along with its mood. In addition, the shape of the forest formed by the trees appears to be selectively positioned at a specific point. Surrounded by the dominant white background, the forest appears to be an artificial park or part of another forest. Moon’s landscapes more closely resemble a visual hallucination or a dream rather than a stage or a garden. It is an unnatural space filled with accidents. In his forest, one stumbles upon the traces of someone’s footsteps. Tree branches remain broken, perhaps by some random accident, but no one is there to explain what happened. Instead, a photo-realistic tree leaves densely fill up the painting space. Moon’s drawings illustrate numerous events that are not revealed in his paintings, as if to enable them to converse on their own, in silence, and in secret. Although the encounter of characters and the crossing of gazes depict a relationship that almost failed, the two-dimensional techniques Moon uses to enact realistic representation through sharp and regular pencil lines tell us that a painting’s representation depends on the existence of deep psychological situations. More akin to a surrealistic narration, Moon attempts to arrange not just the objects but his experiences. The experiences seem to encounter each other for the first time on the canvas; however, they also convey old feelings, or what might be described as nostalgia sans explanation. Moon had a solo exhibition at Kimi Art in 2006 and a group show with two other painters at Kukje Gallery in 2007. Currently he is selected as one of the artists of Mongin Art Space Residency, preparing for his solo show at Kukje Gallery in 2011.