MYONGHI KANG

Myonghi Kang’s (b. 1947, Daegu, South Korea) vibrant cosmic paintings project a pure sensibility without boundaries. Through her canvases, the artist expresses a view of the natural world that vacillates between emptiness and fullness in myriad manifestations of colours, marks, and shapes. Myonghi’s paintings radiate joy and powerfully transform their surrounding space. The artist is also a prolific poet; these two mediums allow the artist to capture the world around her, re-constructing its cartography through metaphysical forms of representation.

1980s

Since Myonghi moved from Paris to the Quai de la Loire area, she started her own studio with her husband Setaik Yim. She was being inspired by the ethereal scenery in the riverside area, experimenting between figurative and abstract. The delicate brushstrokes from Myonghi metamorphose the sharp outline of objects into a gentle touch. Although the theme of Myonghi’s work was still focused on the depiction of buildings and nature, her way of depiction has gradually migrated to an abstract expression style. Myonghi held a solo exhibition at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and National Museum of Contemporary Art in South Korea in the late 1980s.

1960S - 1970s

Myonghi studied Fine Arts both in South Korea and in France during the 1960s to the 1970s. She mainly painted buildings and nature in South Korea, and used a figurative style to reflect the political climate of her home country at that time. Myonghi’s training in Fine Arts allowed her to master the essence of the proportion and structure of everyday objects. When Myonghi moved to France from South Korea in 1972, she was still influenced by the city and natural scenery. In Myonghi’s work from the late 1970s, its theme still retains a kind of nostalgia for Korea. Myonghi held her first solo exhibition Disparité at Galerie Harry Jancovici in Paris in 1977.

*Myonghi and Setaik at Quai de la Loire, Paris, 1984.*

Myonghi Kang, Seo gui po, 1987-88, oil on canvas, 200 x 400 cm

Myonghi Kang, Kowalski, Setaik Yim, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 1986

1990s - Present

Myonghi focuses on the use of lines, colours, and patches in her paintings. From the early 1990s, she mainly used black and white colours to demonstrate various painting techniques on a simple background. Later in the 2000s, she began to fill the entire canvas with dense and large-scale colour patches.

Myonghi’s major series of “Jardin Nord” has been sculpted for more than 10 years, she held solo exhibitions on this theme in Korean temples between 2010 and 2011, to present the complete picture of zen and serenity.

Myonghi travelled the world to find inspiration, she would use a simple ballpoint pen, pencil and watercolour to do a few sketches during her journey. Myonghi has tirelessly and endlessly tried various combinations of colours and lines, presenting the dynamics of nature in an abstract style.