Cody Choi, an artist to be represented in the Korean pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2017, presents his second solo exhibition in Korea. Cody Choi, who has been exploring the clash between diverse cultures in contemporary society since the 1980’s, is an artist who came to recognize the resulting chaos and frustrations, in the conflicting ideas of the rational and emotional, visual and conceptual art, and Amercian and Korean cultures, as beautiful and expressive experiences. Color Painting: Frustration is Beautiful is a collection of 14 new paintings and installation work that provides great insight into the cultural theorist’s mind and the ‘beautiful’ experiences.
Choi’s new painting series Color Painting serves as a great way to experience the beautiful frustrations. With the names of colors written in different colors than what it signifies, typographically compiled on top of each other in different fonts, the paintings intriguingly disturbs the functions of the left and right brain. As a result of this visual confusion and frustration, you are invited to question your own cognition further leading you to read and gain understating of his paintings through the heart. Choi’s Episteme Sabotage is a series of reproduced masterpieces juxtaposed with a hand-embroidered text on fabric. The text, usually 1 or 2 words, represent a type of almost mockingly humorous relationship between the text and masterpiece. As an artist who has already gained international recognition, Cody Choi’s pursuit of demonstrating beauty in frustration in his own unique ways can be seen and felt at PKM Gallery.