Oriental VisArt is pleased to announce The Space Between, a group exhibition of works by Asian artists Wook Heo, Can Kang and Kumaresan Selvaraj.

The Space Between features works that respond to each artist’s individual perspective of their mercurial identity within a world that is changing rapidly by globalisation and breakneck urbanisation.

The three artists commonly explore how objects, images and surfaces can be viewed in a myriad of ways.  It is not the point to merely create an interpretive framework based on the subject matter, nor on the layers of medium used to create the work.  What each artist strives for is an analysis of what lies between reality and representation; an investigation of The Space Between.  The Space Between represents a connective point between the convergence and divergence of cultural life and identity in contemporary civilisation.

Korean artist Wook Heo finds new space and meaning by analysing and mixing an object from diverse angles. Created in unique form, his work is neither painting nor relief. His work is layered with puzzles to create and combine divided images. His colour fields create new planes, and when layered, form a solid structure. They do not come to a standstill. Planes become solid figures, and solid figures spread out on a two-dimensional surface. Disassembled objects are reassembled, and reassembled things are disassembled again. Elements expand and reduce. His work is full of constantly circulating energy.

The paintings of Can Kang are surreal narratives in response to his native-born China’s own process of internationalization and development. According to the artist, babies are the ultimate symbol of human purity – entering the world simple and unadulterated – and when juxtaposed against a contemporary context Kang transforms pre-existing notions of these symbols, creating a new disposition suggestive of this fanatical age of consumption.

Contrasting meanings collide and circulate in the work of Indian artist Kumaresan Selvaraj. Selveraj is interested in what the surface textures of his chosen medium implies about the ‘subterranean emotions’ of his memories and consciousness, not only of his state of mind now, but historically. The process of his awareness is filled with the energy of contradiction and harmony, and subsequently Selveraj explores mediums to blend diversely contrasting concepts such as matter and non-matter, time and space in his work.

Sascha Gianella (February, 2011)

'Between tiers-books 112', mixed media, 61 x 84cm, 2010 by Wook Heo

'What we see conceals a lot behind it', Ink on magazine paper, 121.92 x 121.92 cm, 2010
by Kumaresan Selvaraj