Koh Myung Keun A blending space

Tokyo Gallery +BTAP is pleased to present A blending space, a solo exhibition of works by Korean artist Koh Myung Keun. He will be showing in Japan for the first time in 11 years since his last exhibition at the gallery in 2006.

Koh uses photography, a two-dimensional medium, but transforms it into a three dimensional piece with a unique technique. Koh makes digital prints of his photos onto film, which he then laminates with clear plastic, and constructs into three-dimensional forms using a heat gun. The semi-transparent photographic layers have been constructed as if they were the walls of a building, but not as an attempt to recreate the structure of the subject. What we see is a paradoxical space, where the interior seems to be the exterior itself. Koh has been using this method since the 1980’s, creating series based on three main subjects: nature, architecture, and the figure.

This show will exhibit works based on photographs he has taken of cities in Asia. The architecture, with its profound expression of cultural heritage, and the thin, transparent images work together to create an extraordinary space. On the other hand, the series titled Chamber proposes a space that maintains a more intimate distance with the human figure. The image creates an illusion of contact between the viewer and subject based on the “viewed/viewer” relationship.

Koh Myung Keun was born in Seoul, South Korea in 1964. After graduating from the Department of Sculpture at Seoul National University in 1987, he received an M.A. from Pratt Institute in New York in 1991. Based in Seoul, he has held solo exhibitions and participated in group exhibitions domestically and internationally. His work is held in the public collections of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, Seoul Museum of Art, and the Museum of Photography, Seoul.