Ken Gun Min | Wounded Man, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

“Wounded Man, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World” is both a nod to acclaimed Japanese author Haruki Murakami’s book of a similar title and Min’s experience as an artist living multiple realities. Taking off from where his first solo show at K Contemporary, "g.b.t.y.o.c"left off, Min mines both personal and collective experiences that flood him (and society) with images, emotions, and ideas. His work, like Murakami’s book, transcends temporal and spatial boundaries allowing disparate images to co-exist and collide. Cartoon figures, birds, and tigers share space with anatomical drawings, flowers, western drapery, and lush Asian landscapes, creating a new universe with its own logic and language. The show debuts more than 20 new works including mixed media paintings and drawings, artist books, found objects, garments, and traditional Korean painted folding screens. Much of the work is on raw canvas, co-mingles Asian ink pigments with western oils, and is vivified with glass beads, scraps of faux fur, and crystal. K Contemporary owner and curator, Doug Kacena, elaborates, “Ken’s work is mythic and open to interpretation. As an immigrant artist caught between eastern and western traditions his narrative is projected into the theme of ‘Wounded Man.’ The mixed media pieces are about a person between two worlds, two narratives, two landscapes, and two cultures.  In his work, cultural differences and misunderstandings can lead to both pain and healing.  There’s beauty, humor, and hope in Ken’s unexpected juxtapositions.” 

Loading...