前 言

姜亨九以极写实的手法创作人物肖像而闻名，作为今年的压轴大展，阿拉里奥北京艺术空间隆重推出了姜亨九的主题个展《面对面》。二十余幅作品在本次个展中亮相，除了画布作品以外，观众亦可观赏到艺术家的铝板漆画作品。舞动的金色发丝、美妙的鱼尾细纹等极写实的表现手法将激活观众的触觉神经，在欣赏作品的同时经历一场惊险而震撼的直觉绘画之旅。此前姜亨九已经在韩国国内举办过多次个展，而此次北京个展是继2009年纽约个展之后在韩国以外举办的第二次个人作品展，此次个展亦将奏响其2011年10月新加坡艺术博物馆（SAM）个展的序曲。

踏着沉重的历史脚步，绘画艺术经历了没落与复兴的时代，对于一位伫立于现代艺术舞台上的艺术家来说涉猎这一领域并非轻松的课题。但是姜亨九却欣然接受身为“画家”的宿命，面对巨大的画布，他毅然选择了陈旧的、毫无特色的、甚至于为很多画家所不齿于投身的人物画的创作主题。他选择玛丽莲·梦露、奥黛丽·赫本、梵高、米开朗基罗、爱因斯坦等代表着某个时代的标志性人物为创作对象，将创作焦点无限拉近直至最大限度地集中在人物面部。他运用极写实的手法进行描绘，这种表现手法因为运用了喷枪、磨床、钉子、电钻、棉棒和牙签等各种新鲜的媒介来代替传统的绘画工具——画笔而变得可行。由此而诞生的人物仿佛照片一样真实，无数观赏者甚至因此产生误解，但实际上他的作品却并非以照片为模板而作。姜亨九的工作室里堆满了书籍与DVD光碟，这些都是他长期以来搜集的各种有关的信息与资料，通过这些，画家在自己的想象空间里勾勒出人物的表情，转而表现于画布之上。这也正是其人物画作品的独到之处。随着技术复制时代的来临，众多预言家们预言绘画艺术将走向衰亡，但姜亨九却以真正出自画家之手的、完美的、纯粹的“绘画”作品击碎了这些所谓的预言。

他的作品令人很自然地联想到极写实主义的技法，但这仅仅是实现他通过作品来传达心声的一种手段而已，事实上姜亨九身处的是现代美术极写实主义理论与概念的对立面。极写实主义的概念中强调的是不带有任何感情色彩的冰冷的表面属性，而他则更加强调深刻的内在属性。正因如此他尤其着重于对人物眼部的刻画。观众面对这些200号或更大画布上的超大面孔，凝视着如人脸般大小的眼睛时，便能真切感受到这位浑身充满匠人精神的艺术家为避开极写实主义手法所作的种种努力。画家希望观众面对这一张张巨大的面孔，不是单纯的欣赏，更要与人物进行对话和情感的交流。

因此艺术家刻意地造成作品中的人物与现实观众的“面对面”。极度写实的效果让观众的视线集中于画面本身，并试图与画中人物的内心世界相对。画面中是众所周知的真实存在的人物，他们的各种表情也早已为大众所熟识，因此观众们还要去判断他们的表情究竟是画家丰富想象力虚构的产物，还是画中人面对媒体时刻意摆出的造型。观众站在巨大的画布前与画中的人物进行交流，这一过程中观众在视觉与触觉体验之间不断徘徊。最初他们对作品整体的庄严崇高的感觉，会随着观察的细致深入，通过人物的一根发丝、干裂的皮肤甚至瞳孔等转而成为一种惊异感与明显的不适感。

有关现代美术存亡的争论依然不绝于耳，但姜亨九却欣然接受身为画家的宿命，乐于进行艰苦的劳动，始终坚持手工作业，不断追求画家纯“手艺”的艺术境界，令人不得不敬佩其坚定的意志与强烈的艺术精神。期待所有观赏者在欣赏这些作品时，如画家所愿能同作品产生情感上的交流与共鸣。

中国北京朝阳区安外北苑北湖渠酒厂艺术园 (100012)
Jiuchang Art Complex, Beihuqu Road, Anwaibeiyuan Street,
Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100012 P.R. China
Tel: +86 10 5202 3800  Fax: +86 10 5202 3808

1. Exhibition Title: HYUNG KOO KANG_Face to Face
2. Dates: 4 December, 2010 ~ 23 January, 2011
3. Venue: ARARIO BEIJING  Space 1
4. Opening reception: 4 December 2010, 4pm

Exhibition Introduction

As the last exhibiton of the year 2010, Arario Beijing is proud to host the solo exhibition of Kang Hyung Koo under the title Face to Face. Renowned for his hyperrealistic renditions of famous figures, Kang will present over 20 portraits at this exhibition. Consisting of canvas works as well as aluminum panel paintings, Kang’s works offer a powerfully chilling tactile experience, illuminating on the subtlest details such as flyway pieces of hair and light wrinkles. Kang has already exhibited his work many times in Korea, as well as having held two international solo shows and a solo exhibition in New York in 2009. This exhibition in Beijing will be a prelude to the artist’s solo show being held at The Singapore Art Museum in October, 2011.

It's a difficult task for a contemporary artist to deal with the genre of painting, which is already burdened with an extreme history that includes both its death and birth. As if to have accepted his destiny as a painter, however, Kang continues painting portraitures on large canvases - a subject in painting that in today’s context seems banal and uninteresting. Kang creates close-up depictions of famous icons of their own generation, such as Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, Van Gogh, Michelangelo, and Einstein. Such hyperrealistic rendering is possible as he rejects the traditional painting tool of the brush, and favors airbrush, grinder, nails, drill, q-tips, toothpicks and other inventive mediums. The figures seem as real as photographs, yet they are not projected a photograph on the canvas and not transferred from a photograph neither; rather, their expressions are synthesized and reinvented from the artist's imagination based on the collected information on the figures through books and DVDs. This is what stands Kang’s works apart: as if to silence the voices that predicted the death of painting in this day and age of reproduction, his works are complete 'paintings' that have been born through the hands of a fine artist.

Kang’s works inevitably suggest Hyperrealism, but this is just an approach the artist employs to deliver his intention through his work. The intention behind his oeuvre is actually situated on the opposite end of the spectrum from the theories and concepts of Hyperrealism. Unlike Hyperrealism, which rejects feelings and emphasizes cold external qualities, the artist focuses on the profound internal depth of his subjects. Thus, his painstaking work focuses particularly on the expression of the eyes. One feels a certain aura that Hyperrealism tried so hard to eliminate, when looking at the eye the size of a human face that has been magnified through absolute craftsmanship on a colossal canvas measuring over 2 meters. Through confronting the massive face, the artist demands a conversation or mutual responding between the audience and the figures in the painting rather than a unilateral meditation of his work.

In such way, the artist pursues a direct face-to-face contact between the figures in the work and the audience. Paradoxically, the audience comes to attempt at communication with the internal world of the figures through their eyes that are so realistic that they seem like nothing but objects. The audience also comes to question whether the 'actual' figures universally known as popular icons, are ‘illusions’ created through the imagination of the artist, and if their widely-known expressions have been 'fabricated' for the media. At first encounter, the perception of the whole image of the figures in the gigantic canvases offers a majestic and sublime experience. As the viewer nears the work, however, one starts to see strands of hair, dry surface of wrinkled skin, and even pupils of their eyes, and suddenly the colossal visual impression of the work is transformed into a chilling and uncomfortable tactile experience. The viewer encounters the middle between visual sense and tactile sense.

Kang Hyung Koo is a highly respected artist for his relentless fine artist spirit that accepts the painstaking labor as the destiny of his own, even in this contemporary art world where the death of the artist is commonly debated. The gallery’s intention through this exhibition is the same as the artist's: for everyone to be able to communicate with works of outstanding craftsmanship.