Ken Gun Min - g.b.t.y.c.

"g.b.t.y.c"

(Acronym of)

Good bye to your compulsion

or
Go back to your country

Ken Gun Min's visual vocabulary freely samples from Asian art history and western popular culture, redeploying styles and genres alongside computer-generated images with a pastiche of smart phone conceits, chinoiserie / japonisme, and kitsch as well as graphics borrowed from subcultures and commercials. His unexpected combinations readily combine paintings with small-scale installations and found objects from estate sales and thrift shops with expensive antique pottery from all over the world.  By incorporating the different visual languages of traditional art history and 2020s information culture, Min rewrites and expands on the appropriation art of his generation through his use of mixed-material painting methods that go beyond the flat surface.

The show's title, "g.b.t.y.c", is borrowed from racist rhetoric “go back to your country", as the artist's response to global 2020s bias incidents. It also means "good bye to your compulsions", Min's gift of joyful relaxation and release to his audience during challenging times.

Born in Seoul, South Korea, Ken Gun Min lives and works in Los Angeles. He studied art history and studio painting at Hong-Ik University, eventually moving to San Francisco to pursue illustration for film at the Academy of Art University. He spent a decade in the film industry as an artist and production designer.  Shortly after moving to Los Angeles, he started his career as an artist.