"For the past few years, out of the countless technical branches with which I could express my subject matter, I chose and brushed up on the expression method that largely resembles reality and is concrete in terms of light and shadow. Although the subject that is ultimately read varies, from the life of a great man to the reality where a bit of imagination was added like seasoning, each of the rectangular screens is a completely new time and space, having unusual gravity, different weather, and a unique texture, which I have introduced. These pieces are incapable of voicing self-explanations, but they are intended to achieve a pan-cultural communion through each respective story and sensibility, which are melted in various symbolized objects that are clearly, or sometimes vaguely, positioned.
My pictures are introduced as a mirror of myself, not just as the medium of the stories stored within the pictures. I attentively ensured that any objective subject matter would go through a process in which it would be fully digested prior to my commencing the work. Therefore, I want these works to be good communicators and representations of my ways and self-image. Beyond the narratives contained on the screens, I am the teller of the stories who reconfigures and explains such narratives.
Therefore, all elements in the presented pictures came into being based on my own desire to communicate, and they have been delivered to spaces outside my own studio for this particular purpose. I believe that only when I introduce these pictures with the same kind of passion as when I first put the stories into the pictures, my objectives and my hope, which I had when I first held the paintbrush, will be realized."
- In Kyung Chah, 2014
Education :
2008-2009 B.F.A Illustration at The University of Arts, Philadelphia, PA
2010-2014 B.F.A Illustration at The School of Visual Arts, New York, NY
Group Exhibitions :
2008 "Invisible Cities" , Rosenwald Wolf Gallery (of the University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA)
2013 "Kings and Queens" , the Visual Arts Gallery (of The School of Visual Arts, New York, NY)
"Kings and Queens" , Gallery Palais de Seoul (Seoul, South Korea)
2014 "ART/WORK EXHIBITION" , Coohaus Gallery (New York, NY)
"Symbolic Presence" with Leila Namin, Coohaus Gallery (New York, NY)
"Prints and Small Books", the Visual Arts Gallery (of The School of Visual Arts, New York, NY)
"BFA Illustration/Cartooning Senior Open Studios", The School of Visual Arts (New York, NY)
"SILKROAD KOREA Group Exhibition", Gallery Palais de Seoul (Seoul, South Korea)
"SILKROAD KOREA 2014 Exhibition in New York", Coohaus Gallery (New York, NY)
2015 "Light and Shadow", Dong Soong Art Center-SVA office (Seoul, South Korea)
"Student scholarship competition Exhibition", The Museum of American Illustration" (New York, NY)
Awards :
2008- 2009 The Presidential Scholarship, the University of the Arts, Philadelphia PA
2010 - 2014 Chairman's Merit Award, The School of Visual Arts, New York, NY
2013 - 2014 UG Ill/Cartoon Award, The School of Visual Arts, New York, NY
Publications :
2014 "Portfolio 35, School of Visual Arts"