dayoutlast is a record of my direct engagement with mostly contemporary art, mostly Los Angelean.

As this blog has evolved since its 2010 inception, so has my perspective. What I once perceived as central within the investigation was what was central, literally, within the photographic frame that I shared here. While still an important consideration, such thinking has also given way to more peripheral considerations, ones also accompanied occasionally by text (written manifestation of thought) and the oscillations between them. What's missing here are larger unknowns surrounding issues of presentation and representation; the amount of time and space it actually takes to accomplish such first-hand observations; and the quandaries between documentation and interpretation.

Despite my attempt to communicate here with image and text what is essential in some respect about the artwork, neither representation should ever be considered a substitution for the primary viewing experience. Of course, occasionally there are exceptions.

Most of the time, these posts are merely remnants---residual fragments---from my last day out.

Saturday, December 10, 2016

Ha Chong-Hyun @ Blum & Poe


Conjunction 15-132, 2015
Oil on hemp
71 x 47 1/2 inches




Conjunction 16-104, 2016
Oil on hemp
47 3/8 x 71 inches





Conjunction 15-131, 2015
Oil on hemp
71 x 47 1/2 inches




Conjunction 16-152, 2016
Oil on hemp
48 1/8 x 96 1/4 inches




Conjunction 14-119, 2014
Oil on hemp
51 1/2 x 64 inches





Conjuction 15-135, 2015
Oil on hemp
51 1/2 x 64 inches



Context is everything. Otherwise, how to talk about these outside of Robert Ryman, for example? Also motivation and intent. Stylish. Bordering on design. Fiber... 

These paintings are very nice to look at in person.  They do no reproduce well in terms of light and scale.  That said, you can get a visual taste of what they are like, the subtlety and surface nuance between ground and painted mark, a seemingly painstaking process-driven  task.  The surface quality reminds me of Evan Nesbit paintings which can be seen from time to time at Roberts & Tilton, just around the corner from Blum & Poe.  See here and here. Whereas Nesbit revels in mostly brighter colors, Chong-Hyun maintains a very minimal, monastic palette.

The detail photos in this post reveal the complications of scale in such paintings. Whether they be full size or detail, abstract images all, it's difficult to get a handle on their relative size to a human viewing situation.  I suppose this variability and complication is what I like best as the mechanical belies any emotional suggestion, thought it is best when both are palpable and present.

Overall, these paintings seem to be more about ritual than anything, and this is good enough for me.

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