30 Apr 2019 - 5 May 2019
Gallery Hyundai presents the works by Kyoto-based Korean artist, Kwak Duck-Jun, whose works question the absoluteness of established notions and the relationship between individual and society. Born in Kyoto in 1937, Kwak grew up in Japan in a Korean family. Even though he recognized Korea as his motherland, he could only perceive it through the eyes of others. The sensation of being an expatriate was aggravated when Korea was liberated as Japan surrendered in 1945; Kwak lost his Japanese nationality and became a ‘Korean immigrant’ in consequence of the San Francisco Peace Treaty, which came in effect after the Second World War. His idea of ‘identity’ and ‘origin’ has been nebulous and questionable, particularly across the historical and social boundaries between Japan and Korea. Gallery Hyundai exhibits a selection of Kwak’s works from the 1960s to 1980s – thus presenting an overview of the artist’s experimental art ranging from painting, printmaking, photography, to video.