Thomas Choi Solo Exhibition: My Own Landscape

About the Exhibition

Beginning in painting and passing through the realm of sculpture, Thomas Choi's work converges the visual illusion of the flat plane with the physical reality that meets the body, into a single picture. The three-dimensional matière in relief form, rising up to break the flatness of the canvas, induces a tactile experience in the viewer and reveals the artist's aesthetic exploration of overcoming the limits of the flat surface. The most intense medium in his work is hanji (traditional Korean paper); through the performative act of tearing or pushing away layers of hanji laid over a ground of primary color, the artist has built his own distinctive methodology. His recent series My Own Landscape, which currently absorbs him, captures spiritual sublimity through the sense of place found in an archipelago and the night sea. The picture, formed from a pitch-black abyss of darkness, the moonlight staining it, and the softly rippling glimmer of water, delivers an ontological catharsis that leads viewers to reflect on the essence of existence. His paper-mâché works, made by dissolving newspaper and calligraphy practice paper in water, attempt a communication that transcends language by dismantling and erasing text.