The 12 exhibitors are made up of both established and emerging artists,selected by the exhibition's curators Chung Joon-Mo and Trinh Tuan.
“The exhibition organisers want to give the public a view of the approach,features and differences in the monochrome-style works of Vietnamese andKorean artists,” said Tuan.
“Monochrome style is a strength of Korean painting. This is proved by manyexhibitions with the participation of many famous artists held in Korea."
The seven RoK artists are Kim Tschoon-Su, Khang Young-Soon, KimKeun-Tai, Kim Taek-Sang, Lee Jin-Woo, Lee Jin-Young, and YoonSang-Yuel.
Their paintings are not monochrome only but made in a minimaliststyle with one colour or two colours.
A series in blue by Kim Tschoon-su is eye-caching, with the threeoil-on canvas paintings entitled Ultra-Marine 1947, Ultra-Marine1948 and Ultra-Marine 1949.
He painted them using his hands and not a brush.
“Participating in the exhibition gave me a chance to introduce about modernfine arts of Korean artists,” said Kim. “In the past, Korean fine arts wereimpacted by western fine arts. It makes me to think about Korean typicalcharacteristics.”
“The exhibition enables me to view paintings by Vietnamese colleagues. Though,I see the similarities and differences between the two countries.”
Kim studied in the RoK and received his MA in the US. He is currently aprofessor of Fine Arts at Seoul National University.
Since 1990, Kim has been painting exclusively in blue. He purposelyexposes small areas of the white background, creating a dialogue between thesurface and the artistic process.
Lee Jin-Young is displaying a set of three painting entitled Cloud,Flower and Dream.
Lee used analog printing to create the works from photo layers. The cloud and flower photos were taken by her.
“Monochrome painting shows the feelings of Korean people,” said curator Chung.
“Colour is not the most important element. Korean artists tend to choose lightcolours because they want to avoid the colour becoming the centre of thewhole work.”
Trinh Minh Tien is the youngest among Vietnamese artists at the ageof 36. His paintings at the exhibition include paint-on metal Cathedralin The Rain and Old Monastery and acrylic Inside.
Inside was made this year, inspired by the 1,000-handBodhisattva Kwan Yin statue.
“It’s great to show paintings with many other veteran artists of the RoK andVietnam,” Tien said. “I’m proud to represent Vietnamese artists at thisexhibition.”
Tien won awards the second prize at the Young Eye contest held by Vietnam FineArts Association in 2005 and French embassy and the excellent artist at a WorkRoom Four event in 2003.
The exhibition is held by the Korean Cultural Centre with support fromthe Korea Culture and Information Service, the RoK Ministry ofCulture, Sports and Tourism and the RoK Embassy in Vietnam.
The exhibition runs until December 14 at 66 Nguyen Thai Hoc street./.