Various Small Fires is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Korean artist Donghoon Rhee at its "and Milk" project space. The presentation of new wooden sculptures and paintings marks the artist’s international debut and first show with the gallery. Rhee’s practice mainly revolves around capturing gestural movement by chiseling and painting voluminous wooden sculptures. As a way of re-interpreting the sculptures, he transposes his subject matter of plants, animals and human figures onto the canvas. Rhee’s earlier sculptures of flowers in vases were carved in wood after studying the interesting configurations of each petal and leaf. Using Korean red pine, elm, birch and ginkgo trees, the stiffness found in the floral sculptures were transposed onto the canvas by using wide brushes to accentuate its ruggedness.
Exploring possibilities of embodying movement to his immobile sculptures, the artist expands the breadth of his subject to the dance moves of female K-pop idols. By using an electric saw, Rhee illustrates swift synchronized dance gestures of stunning K-pop stars such as Hyein from NewJeans and Winter from Aespa. Like in Hype Boy, Hyein’s swaying ponytail, detailed ornaments of her daisy-patterned blue varsity jacket, and the cheeky dance sequences are all expressed within the artwork.
The title of his first international show stems from Willem de Kooning’s Women series. On the design board at the artist’s studio, printed images of De Kooning’s Woman I (1950-1953) and Women III (1953) are juxtaposed with cut-outs of Hyein dancing from various angles. The antipodal imagery of the two are merged into one work with an intriguing twist; de Kooning’s rough brushstrokes are re-invented in the jagged cuts of the uneven wooden surface while the sculpture as a whole is an amalgamation of Hyein’s feminine gestures.
Rhee often finds himself using sculptural methods while painting and vice versa.
