2GIL29 GALLERY presents Yoonkwan Kim’s (b.1971) “Contemporary Craft Furniture'' exhibition from June 24th to 27th. His goal to contain necessary function and design in the contemporary era shows and complete the entire process meticulously at his fingertips without any unnecessary process is fully shown in this upcoming exhibition. The 5 kinds, 12 works that will be exhibited at 2GIL29 GALLERY are one of the ‘Joseon Classic’ series, which began in 2012 and has been continued for more than a decade. His works reflect his philosophy of his desire to create a piece that will remain ‘classic’ rather than ‘traditional’.

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His work, which has pursued contemporaneity based on aesthetics of pausing rooted from the ‘Joseon aesthetic’, is often valued that has ’80 percent beauty’. And it is impossible without extreme aesthetics and restriction, and training, and the harmony and balance that are completed with restrained brevity is absolutely marvelous. Especially the ‘three sided table,’ which will be unveiled for the first time in this exhibition, is special in that it is a new version of the ‘four sided table’ of Joseon wooden furniture which he has deeply delved into. Also, it’s more valuable because it signals that his work, which has been thoroughly based on ‘function,’ has reached a big turning point. His value towards life has also changed significantly since his trip to a European monastery in 2017, and inspired during his trip, this wooden work was completed four years after he planned. He chose it as the most memorable, anticipated work ever.

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He said, "not technology, tools or wood. Time makes a good piece of wooden furniture. Time, waiting, and the mind that embraces and concedes the waiting make the furniture that will hold people's sight and touch.” The craftsman’s skilled time and value in his completed pieces with ‘proper pause’ will be reflected in the exhibition at 2GIL29 GALLERY. It hopes that the exhibition with 2GIL29 GALLERY will be an opportunity for contemporary people, who are pressed for time, to appreciate the time to wait and slow down.

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Artist Biography

YoonKwan Kim (b. 1971) 
He is an inborn craftsman who introduces himself as “a carpenter who makes furniture.” Or in more detail, he describes himself as “a carpenter who makes contemporary design furniture through the method of weaving with wood as a material.” He believes that the core of craft aesthetics is not to make ‘new things’ but to ‘make them better,’ and he thinks ‘making them better’ is also a way to embody ‘newness.’ He restrains excess in order to embody the original form of the object and seeks out the essence of the Korean aesthetic in wooden furniture of the Joseon Dynasty. He spends time cutting and trimming trees so that the depth and aesthetics of the wood’s property of matter can be naturally expressed.

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