Showtime, 2022 oil on canvas, 70 x 95 cm, courtesy Kang Contemporary

Jaehong Ahn

Sensation is perhaps the driving force behind Jaehong Ahn's creational process. The inception of his paintings is solely guided by the artist's physical movements. Through automatic painting, Ahn creates abstractions only to then move to figuration. His intuitive motions on the canvas turn into wondrous and sometimes bizarre landscapes. The foreign species and odd landmarks change and undergo continuous metamorphoses, disorientating the observer. Theatrical elements such as stages and curtains, as well as the steadily transforming subjects, remind us that these scenes are carefully constructed imagination and separate themselves from our known visual vocabulary. The contenders who enter this world of tension are often separated and linger, unable to overcome the divide. The theme of separation weaves itself throughout all of Jaehong Ahn's paintings. Nevertheless, there is always a strong sense of balance. The artworks enter a game of severed and yet balanced conversation, of emerging and being separated. The artist, the canvas, and the viewer are divided forces that isolate and conceal and nevertheless come together in an aspiration for unity.

Artist Text