Min Hyung: Visual Artist

In the Alexander McQueen's exhibition <Savage Beauty> at the Metropolitan Museum, McQueen said, "I want to empower women; I want people to be afraid of the women I dress." I often use his dresses for my female hero because his ideal woman overlaps the idea of my female hero.

This series is built on an ongoing narrative I call The Fifth World; within this narrative I have subsets such as the Sexaquarium series and more recent the Female Hero paintings. Within this narrative I am free to visually create elaborate stories, and translate my own observations and contemplations on the human condition, using paint and other mediums as my vocabulary to communicate.

I build elaborate compositions of compressed layers of landscape, figures and creatures. Vivid explosions of color and shapes to provide the viewer and invitation to enter my paintings; it by painting layers I create dimensions of space which allows for an environment that "captures" the viewer.

I put the same energy and intensity in my paint as I imagine my subjects to possess. I reference old masters, science, history, culture, fashion, performance, comics as way of introducing familiarity. I reference surrealistic historical paintings – The Temptation of St. Anthony from Bosch, Mathis Grunewald and Max Ernst – not only for familiarity but also traditions never seem to change.

I allow for 'no' boundaries changing and challenging anything that 'limit us'. I see beyond and paint beyond the rules of society. Questioning the accepted status quo through addressing basic human instinct that drives passion, despair and elation. I challenge presently held notions of normalcy and complacency within society and within art. My struggle is to get the details right and tell the story of the unseen world that is going on around us. I attempt to depict what society sees as differences to show that they are nothing but constructions of a repressed society. I want to show < New> strength of the "Female", contrasting the traditional view < traditions > of female image. You will see this in my paintings, <Madonna> <Dual side of Female Hero> < The Birth of Venus>< The Temptation of Venus>.

The orange colored oval-shaped patterns are fishes. I once went to a very big aquarium and there I saw orange fluoresces fish; as you know life come/started in water, But There is more to my orange fish, the orange patterns is fluoresces spray paint, when the spray can is press it makes a noise and it squirts out, this action is like ejaculation, it is like a man's orgasm. It shows the action of ejaculation. The fish /orange pattern are like sperm, sperm implies birth, implies life, and implies creation. It is like 'something' giving birth/ giving life, giving a visual orgasm, giving birth/life to a new world (my paintings).

< Madonna >

This painting is Inspired by female leader in Delacroix's <Liberty Leading the People> and referenced from Mathis Grunewald's < The Temptation of St Anthony>. As you see, "temptation" is one of the big motifs in my paintings. My female Hero is always surrounded by temptations.

I got title <Madonna> from mother of Jesus and the pop singer. My female hero is strong, confident, and yet retaining her femininity; she comes from a place of power. She is a warrior and a nurturer, my hero is stylish, powerful, sensual, very edgy, aggressive, positive, progressive, mighty, competitive, and majestic. She is never weak. She is dominant, yet she is generous. I wanted to address and depict the violence, cruelty and gruesomeness of society today and individuals and their characters/personalities reflected through historical surrealistic monsters as references juxtaposed against the modern, stylish female hero who commands the surface of the work.

< Birth of Venus >

Like Cabanel and Botticelli's Birth of Venus, All the Venuses ever painted was done for the optimum viewing pleasure of the male gaze. I depict my Venus as a strong confident leader/warrior that embodies a self-assured disposition; she comes from a place of power yet retains her femininity. She is brave and fearless. She is dominant yet generous, sensual yet autonomous, aggressive yet compassionate, she is majestic yet surrounded by her surreally depicted "people". In my works I am motivated by the complexities and contradictions of life. I made <commonplace David> out of Michelangelo's <David>, who is the perfect ideal man and who exurbs power. I placed my < Commonplace David >, who is not the perfect ideal man, who is more like one of us, who is fat. I place Commonplace David behind my dual Venus. I take the idea, the beauty, the power from Michelangelo's David and give to my dual Venus so people can admire, respect and be afraid of them; as you can see from the life size of my dual Venus in relation to miniature size Commonplace David. I celebrate these aspects of the human condition with paint. This painting is the evolution of my painting< Dual side Female Hero>.

< The Temptation of Venus >

The painting references of Peter Brugel's drawing < Temptation of St. Anthony>. As I mentioned before, Brugel made this drawing but he never painted it. The painting, which he made <Temptation of St. Anthony>, is quite different. I wanted to paint < The Temptation of Venus> from his drawing because he never this drawing into a painting. I like the subject matter < Temptation of St. Anthony> "Temptation" is one of the biggest motifs in my paintings and myself. I've never seen a playboy bunny. There are playgirl bunnies but no playboy bunnies. The god Pan started out as my playboy bunny (He is ugly and beast and very sexual) but that changed as I start to paint. He became more hairy and more beast looking than human. I sort of got the idea from the werewolf.

< Roadside Picnic >

I took some details from Bosch's <Temptation of St Anthony> I was inspired by a novel by Strugatsky Brothers, This scene about the surreal and real merging into one scene. There are three scenes in this painting, the front the middle and the upper scene, the narration of this painting goes in an arc like when a Frisbee is thrown. In the scene where the queen is walking , instead of wearing a gown she is naked, instead of her crown of jewels she wears a crown made of flowers, instead of the usual procession of people that goes with the queen she is lead by her chicken. Instead of the people that bow to the passing queen there is the blue man that bows to her. The middle part of my painting is the focal point, this scene is being watched by the bird, animals and insects who are also the focal/important subject, of my painting, this scene is also being watched by puppets like people . In this painting the queen is the female hero.

Skew Gallery is pleased to present it's first solo exhibition of gallery artist Min Hyung's paintings and sculpture. This new work depicts the central characters of an imagined alternate universe filled with parallel human emotions of love, aggression, joy and passivity, and the collective life experiences that generate such feelings. Responding to the craze of the inter-active video game/world such as Second Life, Hyung invites the viewer into her imagination where paintings and sculpture serve as both artifact and gateways. Hyung's work depicts a captivating journey into her fantastical Fifth World filled with unearthly primates of mythological proportions, visually describing their sexual energy, intense competition and the events that transpire as they navigate the depths of Hyung's thoughts. Meanwhile Hyung's work explores notions of obsession, escapism universality and human de-evolution.

The Fifth World: An Introduction presents the ape-like characters in Hyung's epic tale/alter-reality in portraiture fashion. Forgoing the commonplace subject of the world she operates in, Hyung traverses the landscape of her imagination and unleashes extraordinary visual elements, places and characters from her mind's eye. Similar to the way that J.R.R. Tolkien's masterpiece novels The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings is comprised of a superfluous information of connected body of tales, poems, fictional histories, maps, several invented languages, and literary essays to tell the story of the imagined world of Middle Earth; Hyung also needs to create the extraneous details of both the characters and the world that they occupy, in order to convincingly bring them visually to life. Hyung utilizes paint and technique, as her vernacular of choice in storey-telling, with text as her appendixes. The resulting paintings are brazenly executed; Hyung injects into her paint handling the same intensity, energy and visceral response as she imagines her subjects to possess.

Sutak

Sutak is a water- base creature with great power, but all his power goes to his sexual desire. Sutak is one horny guy, when he feel horny he gets so hot that in five seconds his body starts to melt. Sutak’s race has high sexual etiquette which means he must court the female before he can have some sex, so within that five seconds he must meet a female court her and have sex or he will melt into the ocean. Sutak (Great angry ocean) lives just above the ocean.

Hoark

Hoark is a philosopher, the lines above his head is a halo. Hoark rides around on his green energy board. He loves to figure out the answers to society’s problems and is big on giving answers. He is very logical and not emotional at all. He has great power but all his power goes to his ego. Hoark loves discussions, debates, but most of all he loves to lecture. His vocabulary is so massive it might as well be another language. When he lectures no one understands him because his choice of words are so difficult only he understands himself, but his massive ego will not allow him to use words that most will understand, so he basically talks to himself.

Ping Pong

Every 100000 years there is an Olympic games. All the different races compete in this game of Ping Pong. This game is unique because it takes place in the air, it is played on a table that is in constant motion because it is owned by the individual standing on it and he allows for this game to take place; actually it is the only place that this game can take place. The board is being flown around in mid air as the individual goes about his business. The stars changes colors to indicate the players and the numbers of stars increase or decrease to keep score.

Homan

He is very religious guy who devoted his entire life to meditation.
He does this so he can control his desires. He prays for the world.
He dreams about what happens to society and cries, when he cries his whole body cries
His tears are blacks and run down his face
Homan has his magic carpet, the colours above his head is his halo
He lives in the sky.
He is father of Sutak.

Banja

His energy comes from his farts, his farts create the balloon like contraptions upon which he moves around on and sleeps on. When Banja farts the sound is like that of a musical sea shell when it is blown. Banja’s farts is music the those who hears them, this sound is so enticing that it creates within those who hears it a mood of romance, a feeling of intense sexuality, men and women falls in-love or lust. Banja has never been seen by anyone, but his music is known throughout the world as “Spring Fever”. Bu to t Banja, his farts are anything but romantic; this is his method of travel it propels him from tree top to tree top; Banja like to rests on the tops of trees, he likes the feeling of how the trees moves as the wind pushes the branches around, so he glides from tree to tree by his farts and so doing creates, music and Spring Fever.

Tang Tang

He is a messenger, the green blobs on his body send out messages continuously, into the universe seeking other life forms. It is these beings’ purpose to inform other beings about the existence of The Fifth World. When one of these messengers gets a response he communicates the history, the culture the location of the Fifth World. The messengers can communicate with beings as well as computers. They can speaks over a thousand different languages and can understand and fluently communicate in all dialects that are derived from these basic languages. They can also create and understand languages that they may not be initially be fluent in because these 1000 languages are like the alphabet of any form of communication . This ability is not learnt but is written so to speak within the DNA of these beings. Even though their bodies are strong and solid these beings do not have any bones. The green blobs are his communicating centres and they glow continuously within, the light is so strong it can blind those who sees it, so the exterior is somewhat matted. Once communication is established and all the info has been given or transferred this being rises upwards into the atmosphere and then shoots into the universe becoming a shouting star he or she heads towards the location where the contact came from this way showing the way to The Fifth World.

99 Days

The monkeys are travelling to a very special place; this journey takes 99 days to complete. On this journey the monkeys do not eat or drink anything, as time passes they temporarily looses their eye sight, the only way to continue the journey is by the sense of smell. They follow t a particular scent. This scent is of a special herb that only grows in the pace they are travelling to, but before arriving at their destination they have to pass through an area that is all white and is covered with what appears to be snowflakes like objects. If the monkeys had their sight this area will cause them to go blind. This snow flake- like objects are actually living creatures that lie dormant until the monkeys enters the area; these are the only life forms that these creatures react to. These silvery like creatures rises up and floats in string like forms towards the monkeys. The flakes first only seek out the males avoiding the females. The flakes swirl around the male monkeys finding them way into the fur of the monkeys as they seek contact with the bare skin of the monkeys. Once they touch the monkeys the flakes continue to touch ever skin part of the, this motion bring exquisite pleasure to the monkeys to such a degree that the monkeys becomes highly sexually stimulated. The flakes continue their motion over the male monkeys until the males collapses in ecstasy and like bees takes honey the silver creatures takes the DNA of the males , then they move to the female monkeys whom became highly excited from the smell of the aroused males. Then unlike the hurried seeking of the skin of the males , the silver creatures dance through the fur of the female as they glide towards the skin of the females in what appears to be in a musical movement similar to the motion involved in playing a harp,. Once their touches the skins the creatures seek out the sexual organs of the females whose body by this time has swollen, the creatures deposited the DNA of the males and then float back to their resting places. This is how the monkeys procreate, after a short period of rest the monkeys feels stronger and they continue their journey arriving in 99 days.

BENTTON GUMMY

He is the weatherman; he brings spring showers that look like millions and millions of lolly pops falling from the sky. These beautiful lolly pop showers are very fragile and when they hit the ground or any solid object they shatter instantly and splash into millions upon millions of tiny sparkles that fly everywhere. These showers contain the essence of antioxidants.. All the creatures and all the people come out into the showers, takes off all their clothes and lay on the ground exposing themselves to the showers, so their bodies becomes healthy, young and fresh.

Boldingo Beka

This being does not have any bones. His body is covered with shells; he does not have eyes for seeing. His hair is made of antennas . No one knows from where he comes and as far back as recorded history Boldigo-Beka existed, no knowledge of his actual age exists. It is believed that the shells that makes up his body records his age much like the rings of a tree, but no one knows how to read the shells. Some says that he must be part animal, some says that he must be like a Caterpillar and somehow is in slow metamorphosis, while others believed he evolved from boneless fish His antennas are constantly receiving messages but he never communicates. It is believed that he is very wise . He seems to show no interest or excitement in anything or anyone, he moves very very slow. He is always there. Boldigo-Beka is the only one of his kind.

Makki

Makki is a creature that is a combination of all the primitive races that ever existed. This creature is the offspring of the African tribe, the native Indian tribe, the Asian tribes, the white tribe, he is of every tribe that ever existed. Like people today who is concern with accumulations of "things" , money, cars, clothes, to define them, Makki is concern with acquiring things of importance but everything Makki acquires he must make it a part of his body , that mean he permanently attached his acquisitions right into his flesh for all to see. The things that are Makki riches are things we consider worthless or have very little monetary value.

The greats that addressed four dimensional space in painting and science, like Cezanne's tactile space of non perspectivity, Picasso's multi-aspect view of a scene, Braque's materialization of space, Kandinsky's angles, triangles, lines and colors, Hofmann's push and pull, Da Vinci's "painting is conceptual" and Einstein's theory of relativity; was a motivating impetus for my creation of The Fifth World. I create my own interpretation of fourth dimensional painting and my own concept of spacial depth in fourth dimensional space. I create the Fifth World through fourth dimensional space, in this world there is no focal point. In the Fifth World the fourth dimension is illusionistic space. This world is based on a similar idea as the cyber world or the 'matrix'. My Fifth World is a concept of a 'matrix type world'. I am passionate about combining art with science and technology in creating a Utopian experience for the viewer. In creating this experience I prefer to use painting which is a warm, organic and emotional experience, it has texture and invites touch, rather than using the digital method which is cold. The space is in constant motion and flux; there is constant rotation of back and forth, up and down, push and pull. This space is active.

I accomplish this by applying multi-layers, each layer suggested space, offers a different view, and this is done transparent to create an illusionistic view. This illusionistic view pulls the viewer in, even though you are here, outside looking in you can be there inside looking in and experiencing the Fifth World. The viewer is pulled into the painting, my work is not about a quick "getting it" experience, and rather it takes time to see the whole painting. The lines, cubes triangles and organic shapes of juxtaposing images are put together and relates to and against each other in constant flux, they are structured, de-structured and restructured; a sense of chaos is essential in my painting. Viewers can assembled puzzles (lines, cubes, triangles and organic shapes of juxtaposing images which already have a story line from me) to create their own story line in my imaginary world. It is my belief that lines do not have to merge into a single focal point, the lines that goes out from my scenes in different directions, for example, The Fifth World: scene No. 1, creates multi- aspect views of a scene.

I paint not only to confuse or show the illusionistic world, but also to pull the viewer into the painting, into the Fifth World. I combine technology with organic to create the Fifth World, and to present a total experience as one experiences in the real world. Painting is abstract, the world I want to build is abstract yet organic, and it offers the same experience as a cyber world. Painting is like a PC, it has a flat surface, and like a computer screen it is an open door to a world of experiences. The PC experience is cold. The canvas flat surface leads to a door that opens to a Utopian world that is warm and organic. Painting becomes real because experience is real.

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Drawing from the energy of the unpredictable yet inevitable geological events that contour the earth, Min Hyung's spontaneous/logical paintings address the indelible links between our past and the present. Like tectonic plates, the varied layers of paint shift over one another, creating rumblings and disturbances, constructing and deconstructing spaces and depths. Each layer—whether composed of fine, linear drawings; thin washes of colour; or chunky, generous dabs of paint—alternately emerges or disappears in relation to one another. Among these shifting layers lies an exploration of the evolution of need and an awareness of how these emergent desires alter our environment.

Hyung describes her brightly coloured paintings as worlds of motion, flux, shifting languages—old and new—and contemporary references that are evolving and finding new translations. The canvases speak both to physical structures and to the foundations upon which contemporary society is built: the desire for and pursuit of protection, of secure living spaces. The sprawling villas, the cars, the idle times by the poolside, she suggests, are gestures back to humanity's long-fought odyssey for comfort and shelter. Deploying these contemporary visual references—architecture, luxury commodities—Hyung's paintings are concerned with space and how space can describe us individually or collectively, as a culture.

The most striking element to Hyung's work is perhaps the vibrant populations of her signature "blobs" which undulate through paintings like Oe Island or Where is "In the line of fire playing" in glossy waves. The blobs operate as a language through which the viewer is invited to navigate and resolve the painting: they form sentences, statements, and stories; they play against each other, humming, conflicting, stimulating, and unifying in a gestalt of colour. Ultimately, each bright marble of paint relates to one another individually and communally; they each require space, have their own evolutionary needs, and yet exist necessarily within a collective.

In Blow Spaces Away From The Whirling Blades of The Fan and The Curtain Rises, the blobs are openly connected to the individual; they exist within the sinuous outlines of swimming and diving female figures. The contrast of these organic figural lines with sharply geometric architectural lines references our longing to exist within a golden mean of carefully articulated spaces. In the end, Hyung's vivid and shifting picture planes address the search for a balance in our environmental desires. We exist simultaneously within our own bubbles of physical and psychological space as well as within the spaces needed to be part of a collective culture and society.