[Gallery Stroll] Old Paintings Fade, Small Objects Remain

Han Manyoung Solo Exhibition "Time Stitching: Patterns of Time" at Art Side Gallery
Paintings That Lay the Past Beside the Present Without Restoring It

Pale pink, faded sky blue, and a gray as if the light has drained away. The canvas is large, but its voice is not loud. Instead, memories that have long lingered come to mind, slowly. At times, it evokes the landscapes of An Gyeon; in other moments, the crowds of Brueghel; and then, suddenly, the face of Mickey Mouse appears. The solo exhibition "Time Stitching: Patterns of Time" by Han Manyoung, held at Art Side Gallery in Tongui-dong, Seoul, is not an exhibition that simply rehangs images from the past. Rather, it is a show that lays old paintings down beside the present once more.

Reproduction of Time - Dreaming Acrylic on Canvas & Object 193.9x130.3cm 2026. Art Side Gallery

In Han Manyoung’s works, the first thing to collapse is the authority of the original. The classics cannot hold center stage. They recede, blurring into the background, while in the foreground a colored pencil, a military dog tag, a book, or a small component-like object appears. You might think the masterpiece is at the center, but in the end, what lingers in the eyes are these trivial items. The past fades, and the present survives as the faces of objects. This is why the artist's ongoing series "Reproduction of Time," which began in the 1980s, has not grown old. He does not restore time; he deliberately stitches it askew.

The works in this exhibition are no exception. In "Reproduction of time - An Kyon 2," An Gyeon's landscape remains as if it has almost evaporated, while the object attached to the bottom of the canvas pulls that ghostly scenery back toward reality. "Chaekgeori" does not stop at simply reinterpreting Joseon-era still life. The book becomes both a symbol of knowledge and a reproducible object, and the time layered onto the painting remains like a crease that was once folded and then smoothed out, rather than being neatly arranged. In "Reproduction of time 2407," familiar pop icons enter the scene, subtly twisting the atmosphere. The face is light, but the materiality beneath it never allows for a full smile.

Reproduction of Time - 2404 Acrylic on Canvas 116.8x91cm 2024. Artside Gallery

The exhibition is compelling because it does not force appropriation as a theory. Even without invoking the word "postmodern," the canvas already knows. Images from different eras overlap in a single space, and elements of Eastern and Western painting, fine art and popular culture, memory and symbol, are juxtaposed without forced reconciliation. The seams left unpolished become the very breath of the artwork. The artist has never fully aligned himself with the rigorous flatness of Dansaekhwa or the narrative pressure of Minjung art, instead developing his own grammar from a position slightly apart.

A good exhibition, rather than showing more, changes the way we see. "Time Stitching: Patterns of Time" does just that. Rather than making us look again at masterpieces, it prompts us to reconsider how images survive within time. What fades, and what remains in the end? Sometimes, small objects bear witness to the present longer than grand histories do. Han Manyoung’s canvas captures that moment. The paintings are quiet, but that stillness is not shallow. Only long after seeing them does it slowly become clear what remained unstitched. The exhibition runs through April 25.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.