2GIL29GALLERY is going to present artist Qwaya(B.1991)’s 15th solo exhibition running from 13 June to 17 July, 2020. We hope that we can have an opportunity to rethink of what is truly valuable to our lives through this exhibition, while we have been going through Covid-19 that has been depriving us of our daily lives, which has changed our perspective on an ordinary life and relationship. It is undeniable that we are having time of realizing how precious ‘a daily life’, ‘ordinary’, and ‘normality’ is, which we took for granted before the Covid-19. At this moment, we are going to have a solo exhibition of artist Qwaya, who has been calmly delivering a series of ordinary records containing a daily life of ordinary people.

 

The artist Qwaya draws every day as if he writes a diary every single day. Fragmented information recorded in his inner side recovers its objecthood and is represented as new figuration through presentative(表象)image captured by intuition. He mentioned that “My work is a process that dynamic flow is created. One is static and inactive, but when it is combined into two and three, and then that is when the dynamic flow is created. It is same as the process that a myriad of fragments come into one image.” It is same as the process that a myriad of fragments come into one image.” And he also said that “It is meaningful at some level that we look at gathered pieces by taking a step back”. He has received a great response on his unique world of art with untamed, unconstrained, and raw style of his own while having been working as an artist. And last year, he drew a lot of popularity and the public’s great affection by participating in various commercial projects including a design work of album cover jacket of Jannabi, which is an indie band in Korea, and etc. Currently, He has been coming to the fore considered as one of the most emerging young artists while bringing Korean art scene in the recession to life by making an outstanding record of selling out all his works in his previous solo show last year. In this forthcoming invitational exhibition at 2GIL29GALLERY, he is going to display his more developed world of art with his new works of 30pieces.

 

Artist Qwaya’s work is evocative of bluish moonlight that saturates a silent night. His work looks alike the moon not the scorching sun in the daytime that seems to be readily ignited in any minute. That is because his work contains intimate moments of him that were collected from a time of his contemplation not from a moment of momentary feeling that is given off and soon dissipates. His work includes silence and solitude of the night as same as his name ‘Qwaya’ that is taken from ‘과야(過夜)’, which means a time of passing by the night and acronym ‘Quiet, Quest’, which means a quiet quest. He explains his works as above.

 

His works will be featured in the exhibition at 2GIL29GALLERY are reminiscent of a phrase of Paul Klee about spirit of art. “Art does not reproduce the visible but makes visible.” Qwaya disposes intense colors that trigger a microscopic perception, and it leads to a sensory world far from the reality. And viewers’ involuntary memories are summoned up through subjects that have a dreamy look in their eyes. Thus, his work is like comprised of codes filled with numerous symbols. His sensitive symbols stimulate thoughts of viewers. And that is a process of “New structure of time” that Gilles Deleuze mentioned, and it can be a driving force for us to go back in lost time. In that sense, he lets us think about an essential meaning of art. Maybe, a task of art is to lead us to world of contemplation that we have lost and to extended thoughts by disconnecting chain of perception that we gain from limited experiences while bringing our repetitive daily routine to life. But art isn’t revolution that breaks the rules of the world? We can experience an extended world owing to art. In particular, his works of new series that will be featured in this upcoming exhibition let viewers get to world of contemplation where it endlessly proliferates and it is recreated, and it also opens perceptual world. And that turns an ordinary scene of daily life into an individual field of creation. That is a power that artist Qwaya has, and it might be a right direction that contemporary art should be heading towards. As it is inevitable that a place where is the brightest is also the place where is the darkest, artist Qwaya has been growing while going through numerous nights for brilliant creation and keeping all the time of truth he has passed in his name, Qwaya. He continues his work bringing us hope while holding up the time in the depth of night, while we might have lost valuable things.

 

 

Bio.

under the name of Qwaya that means a contemplation in the night and silence. After he graduated from Sangmyung University with his Fashion and design degree, and then in a short span of time, he has received good responses with unique world of his own while having engaged in various exhibitions of solo shows and curatorial exhibitions. His works serve as an evocation that leads us to a hidden gem of our daily lives with his innermost records and intuitive intense colors. And he has been presenting his artistic outcomes while having collaborative projects with conglomerates and doing numbers of album art works. Qwaya who has been showing a wide variety of spectrum of his activity straddling a borderline between commercial and fine art has been coming to the fore being considered as one of the most emerging artists in the Korean art scene, and those results have been naturally coming down to large attention and popularity by the public.

 

 

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