Shinduk Kang:
Heaven and Earth
Tenri Cultural Institute of New York
By D. Dominick Lombardi
Shinduk Kang's art is a breath of fresh air. In the main gallery, the artist lines the walls, from floor to 14 foot high ceiling, with a patchwork of silky, translucent fabric that is generally used in making the inner slip of Traditional clothing (Han Bok). The use, or reuse of these light weight and durable fabrics also refers to another tradition in Korea, of using off cuts of fabrics as gift wrapping (POJaGI ). And the colors, which are the colors of king, brings a sense of royalty to gallery visitors.
Placed in the corners of the gallery where this fabric hangs, are flat interlocking stones that curve and connect as if formed by nature. The way Kang rough cuts the surface of these stones is mesmerizing and meditative, like the small, repetitive undulations of an unstill sea.
From these magnetic forms, you move to her print work - hand colored etchings on paper that key on her interest in stone with rhythmic compositions and positive energy.
Down the side of the main gallery towards the front window of Tenri are five silkscreen prints on metal mesh type banners that hang one in front of the other from the ceiling. These shiny veils covered with simple, automatic writing enhance the celebratory effect of the entire show. Near by, another silken fabric hangs from floor to ceiling, in a tight spiral enclosure of bright yellow and red. Move inside this inviting form, and your sense of touch and sight will focus your thoughts on body and mind.
The one thing that Kang offers that I would have eliminated is the video animation that is projected on the ceiling. It's repetitive. The connection to the heavens is already there.
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Bing Lee
2X13 gallery
Chelsea
By D. Dominick Lombardi
Bing Lee's art is based on, and built upon a daily log of small, memory and observation based, somewhat automatic drawings that are triggered by anything and everything - bold lines that are softened and bent by a sure and confident hand. It all looks very much like the soupy forms of Peter Saul's early works where he too softened the reality of his dreamlike vignettes with a new and bold cartoon-like esthetic.
The main room of the exhibition offers a direct wall painting titled NACHO AMERICAN CHEESE. A curious work that balances those aforementioned renderings Lee obsessively makes with quirky, and oddly repetitive black forms - all against a traffic sign yellow ground. Using just a few stencils repeatedly, and in various combinations, Lee somehow gives these highly suggestive forms a non-linear narrative effect. And it all fits together in just the right ways.
Just imagine, a mix of the fluidity of sea based fractal forms, with the mechanical control of an abbreviated Fibonacci type layout - then add those begging to be animated forms that spew from the subconscious mind of Lee - and you have it.
Across form this wall painting is a small video screen set in the wall showing page after page, of the 20,000 drawings Lee has made since 1983. And as you watch these drawings pass by, you can see just how vast and complete his visual language is.
Some of these figures make an appearance in the form of small dye drawings on latex that look very much like old faded tattoos. I found these works of particular import because of my interest in the potential of the art form, giving me a strong base to enter the work.
I suspect you will find your own may into the world of Bing Lee.
