Ko Young-Hoon (born 1952) is a South Korean

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

Biography

Ko was born in 1952, on

Jeju Island Jeju Island (Jeju language, Jeju/) is South Korea's largest island, covering an area of , which is 1.83% of the total area of the country. Alongside outlying islands, it is part of Jeju Province and makes up the majority of the province. The i ...

, and graduated from

Hongik University Hongik University (; colloquially as Hongdae) is a private university in Mapo District, Mapo, Seoul, South Korea. It was founded in 1946. The university also maintains a branch campus in Sejong City. The university's colloquial name, "Hongdae ...

. He lives and works in

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

. His work is known for its

hyperrealism Hyperreality is a concept in post-structuralism that refers to the process of the evolution of notions of reality, leading to a cultural state of confusion between signs and symbols invented to stand in for reality, and direct perceptions of ...

that invokes ''

trompe-l'œil ; ; ) is an artistic term for the highly realistic optical illusion of three-dimensional space and objects on a Two-dimensional space, two-dimensional surface. , which is most often associated with painting, tricks the viewer into perceiving p ...

''.

Art

By representing objects with their most minute details, Ko, in the line of Magritte, questions our beliefs in authenticity and objectivity. But if his work clearly draws on

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

influences, it is also the product of an almost mystical reflexion on traditional Korean aesthetic values and on the concepts of nothingness ( mu 無) and existence ( yu 有). His work can be considered pertaining to both

Hyperrealism Hyperreality is a concept in post-structuralism that refers to the process of the evolution of notions of reality, leading to a cultural state of confusion between signs and symbols invented to stand in for reality, and direct perceptions of ...

and

Surrealism Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...

. The critic Gérard Xuriguera says of his series ''Stonebook'': "Combining in his painting lettered messages and their relation to stones, he positions them within the pages of an open book or imposed on newspapers, strangely gravity-free, in a way that creates contrasts in tension, modifying the sense of the displaced objects. This creates a sort of wakened dream, never broken from natural ebbs, in which reality and illusion combine."

Selected art exhibitions

* Solo exhibitions at Total Art Museum and Gana Art Center, Seoul * 42nd

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...

(1986) * Public collections, including the National Museum of Contemporary Art and the Ho-Am Art Museum, South Korea *

Detroit Institute of Arts The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) is a museum institution located in Midtown Detroit, Michigan. It has list of largest art museums, one of the largest and most significant art collections in the United States. With over 100 galleries, it cove ...

* Musée de Luneville, France * Queen Beatrix Collection, Amsterdam * Yokohama Business Park, Japan * Three of his works were recently displayed in the Paris group show exhibition "Vide et Plein", displaying the work of 10 Asian artists, organized by Paris-based Maison Bleu Studio.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ko, Young-Hoon 1952 births Living people Hongik University alumni People from Jeju Province South Korean painters