In The Water
UnKyung Hur & Shinji Ogawa
Vernissage: December 13th, 6-9pm
Exhibition dates: December 13th 2014 – January 31st 2015

XVA Gallery is pleased to announce the joint exhibition of Korean artist UnKyung Hur and Japanese artist Shinji Ogawa entitled In The Water. Both artists explore ideas of humanity, life, creation; their search for answers is shared with a wider audience through the work that they produce. Both utilize traditional techniques that require skill and patience, and although symmetry plays an important role in each artist’s work, the materials that are utilised are vastly different and the finished products are complementary in their contrasting detail.

Hur’s work is an exploration of the relationship between vitality and energy and is expressed through forms of geometrical structure that are created using traditional Korean lacquer inlaid with mother of pearl. Hur explores her views of the world expressed through themes such as creation and extinction, time and existence.

The main theme explored by Shinji Ogawa is ‘How the world is recognised’ by human beings. Ogawa’s artworks allow him to consider how time and space which we feel as humans are constructed and how they are related to our consciousness.

This is the first time either artist will exhibit in the UAE.

About the Artists:

UnKyung Hur
UnKyung Hur was born in Seoul in 1964. After she graduated from the Department of Painting in Seoul National University, she attained her Bachelor and Masters Degrees from The Art Center in Pasadena, California in The United States. With her first solo exhibition After Myth held in Pasadena in 1992 she presented After Myth 2, a continued series, in Los Angeles in 1994, as well as three solo exhibitions that were held in South Korea. She has also participated in many group exhibitions that were held in the United States, South Korea, Germany and China.
Late in 2013 Unkyung explored the relationship between vitality and energy through forms of geometrical structures in Under Cosmos at the Leeahn Gallery, Seoul. She also showed at Art Basel Hong Kong in 2014.