Night Windows Offer an Illuminated Look Inside at CMay Gallery

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South Korean artist Hwang Seon Tae’s remarkable Night Windows is his first exhibition in Los Angeles, and it is a stunner. At CMay Gallery in mid-city through November 30th, the luminous new works from his Lightbox series are truly astonishing.

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Using literal illumination through images of windows, we are invited into perfectly designed, innately architectural rooms and spaces, through which we can see outdoor views or portals of light. In some cases, we see shadows from trees cast in light spilling onto walls. The result in each work is something incandescent.

Hwang Seon Tae, The Sunshine Room, 2019, Plastic Plate, LED, 29.9 x 22.4 x 3.5 inches , 76 x 57 x 9 cm

Asked if the works were representative of a Zen-like or meditative state, the artist demurred. Tse related that the works are to be taken “however you wish to take them, as long as you enjoy them and feel pleasure from them.”

Blissfully free of humans, while several pieces feature a peacefully sleeping cat or dog, the spaces are primarily pristine, well-designed living spaces. The emphasis on the domestic creates the sense of a place of being at rest, a true home.

Demur as he will, there is a highly spiritual component to the work, an emotional peace that vibrates through the observer.

Tse also explained that he views each of his precise lines as a kind of representative, visual language, and that each line has meaning and resonance for him as an artist.

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The use of light is enormously appealing, drawing the eye of course, but also engaging the mind and heart. It feels both transcendent and sweet, balming and beneficient.  His work is also concerned with simply the use of light, dimension, and space.

His line drawings illuminated by LED create an aura of stillness and restfulness, but also the provide a way for the viewer to step into that illumination and feel awash in its brightness. The dimensionality welcomes the viewer to step within each work.

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Some images include bright spots of color, as in the work above.

Tse’s manipulation of the physicality of the acrylic plate is a testament to his art, and in its perfection, also pulls viewers into the contemplation of simplicity, beauty, and minimalism.

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There are a number of other pieces from earlier series also on exhibit at CMay: a glass sculpture representing a rumpled newspaper; soft, out of focus photographic images of objects.

In an art talk Saturday night, the artist said “I am most interested in the objects themselves. In giving them meaning, attaching importance to them.”

Hwang Seon Tae, The Sunshine Room, 2019, Tempered Glass, Sandblast, LED Backlit, 86.6 x 34.4 x 1.6 inches , 220 x 62 x 4 cm

In a sense, he makes the objects – sofa, lamp, chair, window – into a character in his visual narrative.

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Above, a view of one of Tse’s works taken through a gallery window, a perfect introduction to the exhibition.

Born in Korea, trained in sculpture and Glass Art at Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle in Germany, the exhibit is mesmerizing and involving. And it would be difficult to overstate the sense of calmness, the sense of joy which the viewer feels when “coming into the light.”

Hwang Seon Tae, The Sunshine Room, 2019, Tempered Glass, Sandblast, LED Backlit, 40.2 x 31.5 x 1.6 inches, 102 x 80 x 4 cm

CMay Gallery is located at 5828 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA, 90036.

  • Genie Davis; photos: Genie Davis, and provided by gallery

Heaven on Earth Takes on the Corporate Culture

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Manfred Manz’ Heaven on Earth: Imperialistic Evolution of the Corporate World,  at CMay Gallery through August 31st, gives viewers a vision about all-too-real messages in the clouds.
Upending the viewer with images of bucolic  scenery and quiet roads, the cloudscapes reveal commercial messages that seem to explore the soullessness of our corporate-driven culture and its constant advertising.
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The idea of product placement in tent-pole motion pictures seems quaint compared with today’s all-encompassing corporate advertising. In this exhibition, the artist presents a disturbing future that has to a large extent already overtaken us.
As timely as it is haunting, the exhibition begs for discussion. On August 24th, the artist will conduct a walkthrough and talk about his own messaging with Shana Nys Dambrot, who composed an essay for the exhibition that intriguingly discusses the “pernicious intrusiveness and low key mind control perpetrated by the corporations that rule the world.”
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Menz’ work is both satiric and astute, using simple images to incorporate our complacent buy-ins to corporate sponsorship, advertising, promotion, and ownership. It would come as no surprise if Amazon actually advertised its near monopoly on the white fluffy clouds above us; or if Nike put it’s footprint on the sky.
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Presented as a series of 14 photographs, Menz looks at clouds as if they were corporate billboards flashing their moving images and familiar logos in advertisements.  We see Coca-Cola on a fluffy white cloud; American Airlines advertised on chemtrails, Netflix taking over a growing nimbus cloud much as the service obliterated video stores and conventional media viewing. Binge watch Menz’ warning, a cautionary tale as sharply observed and amusing as it is terrifyingly true.
Our politicians are brands, some of them as toxic as weed killer; our prediliction for the consumption of products define us; Amerika is the land of the corporate shill. All in all, it is one small leap to a bar code for the soul.
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Menz is not new to creating a satiric view of a prescient subject: a previous exhibition, the Invisible Project, presented images with flora and fauna surrounding nothingness, their famous man-made landmarks, such as the Spanish Steps, not-seen above, obliterated.
Before being scanned into the Big Lots of life, take in the surrealism, wit, and darkness of Menz’ powerful new exhibition and the insightful talk this Saturday — and take the first step in resisting the corporate entities that insidiously engulf our consciousness.
CMay Gallery is located in mid-city at 5828 Wilshire Blvd. in Los Angeles.
– Genie Davis; photos provided by the gallery