<HOI-POI> is a collaborative international exhibition between FINCH ARTS (Kyoto, Japan) and Space Four One Three (Seoul, Korea). Exchanging the works of contemporary Japanese and Korean painters, <HOI-POI> aims to spotlight paintings that have not yet been introduced in either art scenes. Although information can be easily accessed through the Internet, there are inevitably limitations on gaining deeper insight into the art scene of a foreign country. Rather than proffering a solution, this exhibition presents a unique mediation of Korean art in Japan and Japanese art in Korea.

FINCH ARTS is a gallery located in Kyoto, Japan. Unlike Tokyo, Kyoto’s art market is limited and does not have many art spaces that actively introduce and support contemporary and emerging artists. Nevertheless, Kyoto has continued to expand its cultural scene over the years. The city has several art colleges, including the Kyoto University of the Arts, from which many of its graduates remain in the city to form pockets of creative communities, and hosts a wide variety of international art events, such as KYOTO EXPERIMENT, a performing arts festival that began in 2010 and KYOTOGRAPHIE, an international photography festival that opened in 2013. Established in 2016, FINCH ARTS has consistently organized solo and group exhibitions of young artists who are based in the Kansai region. If Japanese art taught in universities is centered around animation (anime) or traditional painting (nihonga or ukiyo-e), what kind of works will FINCH ARTS be introducing to the Korean audience through this exchange exhibition? And, vice versa, what kind of Korean artworks will Space Four One Three introduce to the Japanese audience?

For <HOI-POI>, Space Four One Three has selected six painters with whom they have worked on several projects—from group exhibitions such as <No Matter, Paste>(2019), <Latency>(2019, 2021) to the numerous public art projects organized by art platform PACK. Commonly, Korean artworks presented at international art festivals around Japan are those that are interpreted in tandem with the country’s political history. In other words, Korean artworks that have been introduced thus far have often been those which can be seen as an extension of ‘minjung art’ or are comparable to ‘monoha’ sculptures or ‘dansaekhwa’ art. The works on display at FINCH ARTS, however, deviate from this pattern and present a fresh take on contemporary Korean art.

Removed from their original context, artworks by six Korean painters and four Japanese painters are placed in a new environment. The exhibition is loosely organized around the following three categories: (1) Image-Environment, (2) Image-Object, and (3) Image-Character.

(1) 'Image-Environment’ delves into abstraction, regarding the practice of painting as a kind of ecosystem for the production of images. Taishi Nishi uses ceramic art materials on the canvas to devise a visual language that conveys bizarre stories that he comes across on the Internet. Seungchan Lee works with the materials of what would become the final artwork to skew the contrast between three-dimensionality and the state of flatness. Hyelin Shim takes interest in how the use of color and brush marks can dictate the sense of scale and depth within the canvas surface.

(2) ‘Image-Object’ includes artists that are concerned with the physicality, materiality, and tactility of painting. Masato Mizutani quite literally squeezes and exerts force upon paint, the most rudimentary material of painting, creating works with a strong visual tactility. Sla Joo is interested in how an object can be viewed based on the imagery as materialized by 3D technology through the digital screen. Yujeong Eom often begins with the observation of a particular subject matter over a long period of time and renders it into an image of a single object against a white background.

(3) Taking various points of reference, the works in ‘Image-Character’ deploy diverse painting methodologies to create striking images of individuals, crowds, and characters. Though beginning with subjects from novels, Yumi Nishimura is interested in the unspoken narrative that interweaves the spaces between sentences. In their portraiture, Mimi I depicts different characters while simultaneously reflecting upon their own personal interests and identity. Heesu Jeon similarly draws from familial scenes of his daily life onto the canvas. Lastly, Nana Kuromiya produces dream-like imagery that appear like traces of the past.

The exhibition title 'HOI-POI' takes inspiration from the hoi-poi capsules in Dragon Ball, a popular 90s Japanese animation series, which defy the laws of conservation of mass. Geographically close yet distant, the distance between Korea and Japan can also be felt when discussing the contemporary art scenes of the two countries. Appearing with a boom!, the vibrant paintings of <HOI-POI> propose new points of connection and crossovers between the two cultural spaces. How about taking this exhibition as a starting point to move beyond the boundaries that have limited the exchange of Korean and Japanese contemporary art?

Text_Yuki Konno