Byun Yong-kuk Solo Exhibition: Mirror of Light

Byun Yong-kuk's paintings can be called abstract, monochromatic paintings, and they fall largely into two types. One finishes the entire surface in a single color; the other begins from the white ground at the canvas's rectangular corners and gradually builds gradations, pushing forward toward a solid color at the center. In this second type, the distinction between the white wall as background and the painting itself becomes acutely ambiguous — an illusion arises in which the white wall is actively absorbed as an element of the painting and naturally pushes into the interior of the surface. In other words, color migrates gradually, through gradation, from the edge of the canvas's white ground toward the single hue occupying the surface. In an instant the boundary between painting and wall is erased, the wall itself is incorporated into the content of the painting, and the character of the wall comes to serve as the base tone of the surface. (Text: Park Young-taek, professor at Kyonggi University, art critic)