By Emma Hapner, August 13, 2024

Recently, I had the pleasure of visiting an incredible group exhibition called Unbound Playground at Gallery Chang in New York City. This lively show includes six incredibly talented artists and was curated by Lina Hwang and Calvin Lee. Gallery Chang focuses on introducing the New York art scene to the works of esteemed international artists who are contributing to modern and contemporary art history. The exhibition is a part of the 2024 KANA Summer Exhibition, a two part collaboration between KANA, the Korean Association of New York Artists and Gallery Chang. Part 2: Unbound Playground showcases the work of artists with Korean roots who employ distinct visual styles and playful techniques to explore experiences, memories, and emotions. Each piece, marked by whimsical viewpoints, vivid colors, and a range of materials, offers a visual reconstruction of personal moments from everyday life.

It is difficult to describe the show without using the word “playful” over and over. Unbound Playground embodies the idea of art as play–as a way to explore creativity and nostalgia through colorful imagery that exudes a childlike sense of wonder. Although each artist is making very unique work, they all explore these ideas in their own way, resulting in an exhibition that is not only unified, but also fresh and exciting at every turn.

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One of the artists, Anikoon, is renowned for his intricate drawings and sculptures of robots. Inspired by the robots he encountered in cartoons and toys during his childhood, these figures continue to inhabit his imagination into adulthood. His work features not only toy robots but also characters from Star Wars and everyday objects, all of which come alive on his canvases as symbolic representations rather than mere imitations of reality. Through his artistic process, Anikoon transforms elements from popular culture and his own imaginative world into vivid, dreamlike compositions. His fascination extends to collecting wooden horses, tin toys, and vintage dolls from antique shops across the United States, which he incorporates into his work. These objects serve as conduits to the boundless, playful freedom of his childhood, allowing him to revisit and reimagine his early experiences through art.

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Another of the six featured artists in the show, Yong Eun (May) Kwon is an artist based in New York, born in Seoul, Korea. She creates her distinctive pink half-human, half-fish character, 'Fish Daegari' (meaning 'fish head' in Korean), using a variety of materials in both two-dimensional and three-dimensional forms. Through her work, she humorously explores incomplete self-portraits of individuals seeking escape from their concerns. Alcohol frequently features in her art, evoking the spirit of liberation associated with the ancient Dionysus Festival. In her artistic universe, the fish head serves as a mask reminiscent of the festival’s traditions. With a lifelong passion for art, Kwon recently graduated with her MFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York.

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Hongbin Kim is a distinguished artist from Korea, known professionally as VANHADA. His artistic pseudonym derives from the Korean word '반하다', or “banhada” which intriguingly encompasses both the meanings of being enamored and being opposed. This thoughtful choice of name reflects the essence of his artistic vision, inviting viewers to engage deeply with his work while also prompting introspection. Kim has pioneered a distinctive technique known as "reverse strata." This innovative method involves layering clear acrylic gloss onto a transparent film, followed by the application of acrylic paint through pouring and brushing techniques. Once the painting is complete, Kim flips the piece, removes the film, and stretches or hangs the resulting artwork onto a frame. As Kim explains, this process captures the exhilaration and potential he experiences when opening a new bucket of paint, embodying both its purity and transformative power. Kim has also recently graduated from the School of Visual Arts in New York with his MFA.

Unbound Playground also includes work by Sun You, a Seoul born, New York based artist, Soo Park, an innovative sculptor and mixed media artist, and Taekyung Suh, a contemporary painter making expressive figurative works. This stunning exhibition will be on view at Gallery Chang at 150 West 55th Street, New York, NY until August 18th. I highly recommend checking it out and taking a closer look at the amazing work they have to offer.

Featured:

Anikoon

IG: @anikoon

Website: https://anikoon.modoo.at/

Yon Eun Kwon

IG: @fish_daegari

Website: https://www.fishdaegari.com/

Hongbin Kim

IG: @_vanhada_

Website: https://www.vanhada.art/

Korean Association of New York Artists

IG: @newyorkkana