Our artist Hwang Dayeon is currently presenting two exhibitions at Hyundai shopping centers in Dasan and Daejon. Both are part of "The Common Space Art Project" campaign, which aims to present artworks in relaxing areas of shopping malls, creating a moment of escape and inspiration for visitors.
It is not the first time that the artist exhibits in shopping malls. She particularly appreciates the idea that art comes directly to meet visitors, potentially creating a much more spontaneous resonance than when visitors make the effort to go to a museum or an art gallery. In a shopping mall during a shopping spree, if art makes the consumer stop for a moment of pause, contemplation, and inspiration, it is a victory for the artist.
At the Hyundai Outlet in Daejon, the entire exhibition space, Holyday in Pantopia, is dedicated to Hwang Dayeon's works.
These are for the most part works that GartGi visitors know well and can acquire on our platform. In these landscapes that she describes as those of her pantopia, Hwang Dayeon deploys a form of tranquility where visual and sensory memories mingle through landscapes purged of any truly human figure, so that everyone can find their place. Through colors, sunbeams and reflections on the water, but also heterogeneous objects ranging from abandoned beach toys to ancient statues, there is a kind of melancholy of inverted ruins for a post-romanticism specific to Hwang Dayeon.
At the Hyundai Outlet in Dasan, she exhibits a short selection of her works in an exhibition shared with artist Kwon Hyun-kyung. Here, the focus is mainly on her "Pink" series. For the artist, the "Pink" and "Paradise" series broadly share the same vision of the world, but differ in the chosen scale. If the "Paradise" works present an enlarged view of a landscape and a sum of details to explore in all corners of the canvas, the paintings of the "Pink" series, on the contrary, reduce the focus to what would have been called "still lifes" if the term were not antithetical to the artist's intentions. Because the detail of a plant, or a flower, can be the gateway to a new landscape of personal paradise, attractive and full of life.
In the hustle and bustle and consumerism of a shopping trip, the artist offers a moment of oblivion in a bubble of serenity and sweet memories.
Ronan Govys