filling the well

I really needed a bit of time out and took myself to see the Korean Art exhibition at the Singapore Art Museum yesterday - this was my artist's date for this week. I really had no expectations, I knew none of the artists, nonetheless I hoped there would be one or two pieces that I liked or moved me in some way. I was pleasantly surprised to discover three artists work that I particularly liked; two on an asethetic/emotional level, the other conceptually. It's always wonderful to discover some new contemporary artists, and then realise that my preferences are fairly well established - for example I know I gravitate towards nature, natural forms and materials and particularly admire artwork which is executed skillfully.

Cheong Kwang Ho's work really impressed me. He makes exquisite copper wire sculptures - large, transparent pieces. My favourites were a large (around 4 ft across), four petalled flower, the other a multi-lobed leaf. Each piece was beautifully handcrafted - the leaf and flower literally stripped to their bare bones.

I lost myself in Kim Hong Joo's paintings. These were subtle aerial typographies of imagined landscapes, with paths or rivers running through them. Up very close you could see an incredible attention to detail, with very fine brush stokes of different colours blending together. According to the blurb, it takes him months to complete one painting. I loved the ambiguity of these landscapes - these could be microscopic or large scale.

Ik Joong Kang artwork intrigued me and I will certainly find out more about him. 'Happy World' dominated a large part of a wall and consisted of (hundreds?) of 3 x 3 miniature canvases. According to the brochure, 'Kang describes himself a s a collector of dreams, dreams of people.' I really like the idea of all these (possibly) random images and thoughts coming together to create a one large completed piece. It got me thinking - what if I did a small drawing or artwork every day? Something really small - even a doodle. Mmmm, that might be an interesting project...