Byung Hoon Choi @ Friedman Benda, New York, NY

Byung Hoon Choi
Water Meditation
Friedman Benda, New York, NY
November 9 - December 17, 2016

Friedman Benda announces Water Meditation, Byung Hoon Choi’s second solo exhibition in New York. For over 35 years, the Korean artist has built a unique oeuvre drawing on Zen Buddhist ideologies of introspection and Taoist notions of balance. Known for his play between natural and fabricated elements, he sets rough beside polished, old against new. Byung Hoon Choi consistently uses the word “afterimage” in titling his work in reference to what he calls “ an imaginary and mystical encounter with a previous world not yet experienced.” He returns with new works in two mediums—traditional lacquer and basalt—centered on the theme of water.

This exploration of lacquer is a first for Byung Hoon Choi. Inspired by his Korean heritage, he draws on traditional craftsmanship in East Asia, where lacquer techniques have been widely practiced for over 2,000 years. In his experimentation, Byung Hoon Choi mixes pigment into the lacquer, especially apparent in the red undertones of afterimage of beginning 016-459. The smoothly polished lacquer reflects like liquid surfaces, a metaphysical ode to the exhibition’s title. Still water fills a number of the larger pieces, a more literal leitmotif.

Juxtaposing the resting water of the lacquer works, the fountains’ running water evokes the notion of a moving, living sculpture. The fountains represent a progression of Byung Hoon Choi’s work in basalt, growing vertically, resembling a scholar's rock or a naturally grown accumulation.  On a more intimate scale than before, new seating and a table balance the rounded shapes of the lacquer works. Emphasizing the rougher parts of the stone, Choi is seen exploring the affinity of polished basalt as allegorical liquid surfaces.

About Byung Hoon Choi: Short biography

A pioneer of modern Korean craft, Byung Hoon Choi’s work is both aesthetic and functional, employing numerous natural materials such as wood, clay, granite and natural stone to create minimal furniture that is seen as both object and art. Byung Hoon Choi’s work is held in numerous collections throughout Korea, including the National Museum of Contemporary Art and the Korean Culture and Art Foundation; abroad his work can be seen in the permanent collection of the Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein; The Metropolitan Museum of  Art, New York; and the Musée des arts décoratifs, Paris. In 1989 he was given the annual award from the Korean Craft Council and in 2007 he received Grand Prize at the Seoul Living Design Fair. He is currently a Professor at the College of Fine Arts at Hongik University in Seoul.

Friedman Benda, New York, NY
www.friedmanbenda.com

Paul Cocksedge: Capture, Friedman Benda, New York

Paul Cocksedge: Capture
Friedman Benda, New York
September 12 - October 12, 2013

Friedman Benda, NYC, will present PAUL COCKSEDGE: CAPTURE the British designer’s inaugural solo exhibition. Capture will introduce new works developed by Paul Cocksedge over the last four and half years that push the mediums of light and structure, including a large-scale light installation, a collection of dramatic, seemingly impossible, hand-wrought dome lamps, and Poised, a series of unyielding steel tables inspired by the delicacy of paper. Known for exploring the limits of technology, materials, and manufacturing capabilities, Paul Cocksedge Studio has produced both commercial and experimental work, as well as a series of high-profile public installations around the world. Capture finds Paul Cocksedge presenting a new series of concepts informed by his studio’s commitment to technological ingenuity, expanding the boundaries of physics, and the creation of works that are both thought provoking and unexpected. 

The works include Capture, a 5 ¼ ft (1.6 meter) hand-spun aluminum dome that appears to “hold” the peaceful glow of a warm white light. The piece is informed by a process of reduction—a recurring theme in Paul Cocksedge’s work—as it subtracts the typical infrastructure around light, instead creating a hemisphere that seems to stop light from escaping. For White Light, Paul Cocksedge will create a room within the gallery in which everything and nothing changes. For this work, the designer will create an illuminated mosaic of precisely calibrated and positioned colored panels on the ceiling of the gallery. The ceiling will slowly fade from a spectrum of colors to a warm white light, while the room itself will remain unchanged, demonstrating the ways in which we do and do not perceive the interplay of color and light.

The inspiration for Poised comes from the elegance and amenability of paper. Half a ton in weight, the steel table appears improbable upon investigation. Created following an intensive series of calculations regarding gravity, mass, and equilibrium, the table looks as though it is about to fall, but is perfectly weighted and stable. 

In addition to these new works, Paul Cocksedge will present three architectural models that take conceptual threads from Capture and White Light and reapply them to architectural settings outside of the gallery space. Central to Paul Cocksedge’s work is an appreciation for the ways in which people respond to and interact with his designs. As a result, potential real world applications of these new works will be explored in a series of architectural models.

FRIEDMAN BENDA
515 W 26th Street, New York, NY 10001
Gallery's website: www.friedmanbenda.com