[This Week's Exhibitions] Choi Sungim Solo Exhibition 'Breath of Objects', Jeong Yeoreum Solo Exhibition 'Multiples', and More

Editor's NoteThis week's exhibitions feature a curated selection of diverse and captivating shows from across the country, highlighting a variety of exhibitions you can visit in a single week.

Nohsik Park Solo Exhibition 'Primary Effect'

A first impression is formed in a brief moment, yet it lasts for a long time. Nohsik Park's first solo exhibition, 'Primary Effect,' begins with the gap between 'how others see me' and 'how I perceive myself.' The artist has often been told since childhood that he resembles a llama or an alpaca and has experienced first impressions of appearing cold and intimidating due to his expressionless face. Rather than realistic self-portraits, these memories are transformed into characters with elongated faces, exaggerated ears, and simplified features. Through 80 works spanning both painting and ceramics, the exhibition poses the question of whether, in the moment we believe we know someone, we are truly seeing the person themselves or merely an image created within ourselves.

The repeated faces throughout the exhibition may look similar but are each subtly different. "I - Same Person" presents two almost identical figures with different expressions, showing how even minor changes can drastically alter one's impression of a person. "Not angry 02," with its title "Not angry," highlights the disconnect between the face itself and the gaze that interprets it. Sculptures shaped from clay gain physical volume and weight, occupying real space, while painted figures instantly evoke impressions through changes in color and expression. The exhibition suggests we reconsider the habit of defining a person by a single image and urges us to look again, a little longer. Until September 19, Peyto Gallery, Jung-gu, Seoul.

Seongim Choi's 'Mak'. It shows the relationship between light and gaze, inside and outside through a translucent screen made of plastic honeycomb and cotton. OKNP Seoul

Seongim Choi Solo Exhibition 'Breath of Objects'

Objects breathe as well. Seongim Choi's solo exhibition 'Breath of Objects' translates questions of time, place, and relationships into flat works and objects. The artist reconstructs forms and materiality while weaving together different elements, searching for the possibility of connection between things that appear separate. "24," displayed in a row at the exhibition, consists of twelve pieces combining thin metal pillars and wood. The cones inside the pillars maintain a taut balance, with their pointed tips angled downward as if nailing themselves to the spot. Much like twenty-four seasonal divisions that make up a year, the artwork expresses the quiet tension of endurance and the cyclical flow of time.

Choi Sungim's "24." Twelve metal pillars and a conical structure are lined up in a row, revealing the tension of enduring work and the cycle of time. OKNP Seoul

"Mak" is a translucent screen layered with plastic honeycomb and cotton. The light passing through the window travels through countless tubes, softly illuminating the entire surface, and colored pieces fill and empty the holes, creating ever-changing patterns. To the artist, these materials are not merely honeycomb tubes but the hours, days, and seasons of one's lived time. The series "Airhole" and "In-Between" demonstrates how small dots and fragments join to create a rhythmic whole. As the artist states, emptiness evokes relationship; the exhibition quietly questions how objects and people, inside and outside, individuals and communities, can coexist. Until October 1, OKNP Seoul, Jongno-gu, Seoul.

Jeong Yerum's Apron at the Low Place. It explores the boundaries inside and outside the exhibition space and the sensations of lower positions through text, single-channel video, and variable installation. Photo by Lee Eerok, Doosan Art Center Doosan Gallery

Yerum Jeong Solo Exhibition 'Multiplicity'

One story is never enough. Yerum Jeong's solo exhibition 'Multiplicity' explores the issues of "movement" and "subversion" by an artist who has long dealt with the relationships between war, nation, visual devices, recreated spaces, and memory in video art. Jeong, recipient of the 15th Doosan Yonkang Art Award in visual arts, examines the tension between vast political-social forces and the micro-level lives that persist within them. The title, "Multiplicity," evokes the idea of a plurality of stories and overlapping memories that cannot be reduced to a single voice or a singular history. Through the issues of refugees, migration, and boundaries, the exhibition asks fundamental questions about the structure of the world we live in today.

Jeong Yeoreum's Shepherd. A work combining book and sound, overlapping reading and listening times to evoke multiple layers of narrative. Photo by Eui-rok Lee, Doosan Art Center Doosan Gallery

The exhibition consists of three video and installation works: the single-channel video "Multiplicity," the book-and-sound project "Shepherd," and "Apron at the Low Place," which combines text and single-channel video. "Multiplicity" is a 1-hour, 6-minute color and black-and-white video screened in the gallery at 70-minute intervals. "Shepherd" brings together a book and a 15-minute, 17-second looping soundtrack, overlapping the time of reading and listening. "Apron at the Low Place" expands the boundaries between inside and outside the exhibition space through text, a short video, and a variable installation. Between the white cube and the black box, image, language, and sound each become a different form of testimony. Until October 17, Doosan Art Center Doosan Gallery, Jongno-gu, Seoul.

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