Seungtaik JANG

“Light and color are basic elements of art. but these become absolute elements in my art with a semi-transparent medium. My work’s true meaning is revealing the mind through the actualization of materiality by accretionary transparent colours and circulation of light.’
What is painting? Seungtaik Jang’s works start from such a humble question. We cannot really find a traditional sense of painting due to his questioning mind. Rather, precisely speaking, it is hard to find painterly factors which make ‘ painting looks like painting’ in his paintings. For that reason, his art looks more the objects rather than paintings. ‘Painting as an object’, which has no strokes with a brush is what Seungtaik Jang aims for on the contemporary art horizon.
Seungtaik Jang’s working attitude seems close to those of Dansaekhwa Artists, Park Seo-Bo,Lee Dong-Yup, Jung Sang-Hwa, and Choi Byung-So, who were trying to reveal a unique spirituality through their repetition of action. As we know, the arts mentioned above all try to melt mind into their materials through a physical penance. At least, Seungtaik Jang’s working attitude has something in common with the first generation Danseakhwa artists’ attitudes in terms of ‘mind’. However, while Park Seo-Bo, Jung Sang-Hwa and Choi Byung-So’ works emphasize materiality formed by repetitive action, Seungtaik Jang’s works have a completely different texture in terms of using a smooth surface as a key factor.
In what point of view are they different? First of all, it is about the aspect of the materials they use in recent years, Seungtaik Jang’s material has been flexiglass. This material, which is a sort of synthetic resin, is specially made for the artist and used for the replacement of canvas. The remind  of rather a wide and large box than a canvas.
Seungtaik Jang lays this wide box shaped object on his work table and applies acrylic paints which are diluted with a special medium with a spray gun. At this moment, thin paint liquid flows down to the sides and forms a series of marks.
These various-colored paint liquid marks, formed through a twenty times repeating process bring a subtle colour difference and laminated effect.
Seungtaik Jang is fascinated by these corner parts and he believes that they are an important factor of his art.
 When diluted paint liquid get sprayed onto a flat object by a spray gun, it is a pleasure to imagine the process of the fine particles of the paints setting onto the surface lightly. (In reality, they come down very slowly by the flow of wind and sometimes they come down like they are dancing). He has to wait as one colour gets sprayed onto the surface till it dried, and he has to go through applying different colours twenty time like that. Then, a lamination layer of paints gets formed at last. If we compare this to language in everyday life, we can say these corners’ expression is talkative. That is somewhat ‘chatty’ when compared to the death of silence of the surface of completed work. At a glance, these various visual effects of the corner parts look nothing but sediments of single colour from the front of the object. However, these are mementoes that glove paint layer onto this thick object, which corners have a curved finishing touch, and have gone through repetitive action dozens of time.
Yoon jin-Sup
Art Critic

Seungtaik JANG
Born in 1959, Gyeonggi-do, Korea

EDUCATION
1989 B.F.A., Ecole des Arts Deco de Paris, France
1986 B.F.A., Hongik University, Seoul, Korea

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITION
2016 Seungtaik Jang Solo Exhibition, Gallery Date, Busan, Korea
2016 Seungtaik Jang Solo Exhibition, Gallery Bundo, Daegu, Korea
2012 Seungtaik Jang Solo Exhibition, Gallery Skape, Seoul, Korea
2010 Seungtaik Jang Solo Exhibition, Gallery Art Park, Seoul, Korea
2010 Seungtaik Jang Solo Exhibition, Gallery Date, Busan, Korea
2008 Seungtaik Jang Solo Exhibition, Gaain Gallery, Seoul, Korea
2003 Seungtaik Jang Solo Exhibition, Gallery Ihn, Seoul, Korea
2002 Seungtaik Jang Solo Exhibition, Korea Art Gallery, Busan, Korea
2001 Seungtaik Jang Solo Exhibition, Gallery Yeh, Seoul, Korea
1999 Seungtaik Jang Solo Exhibition, Cais Gallery, Seoul, Korea

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITION
2015 Context Art Fair, Miami, USA
2014 Empty Fullness; Materiality and Spirituality in Contemporary Korean Art, SPSI/Shanghai/Beijing/Berlin/São Paulo
2013 The Color, Ilwoo Space, Seoul, Korea
2012 Dansaekhwa: Korean Monochrome Painting, National Museum of Contemporary Art Korea, Gwacheon, Korea
2011 Captive Space, Gallery Skape, Seoul, Korea
2010 Inside Out, Bongsan Cultural Center/Seok Gallery, Daegu, Korea
2004 Monochrome Painting of Korea; Past and Present, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea
2002 Understanding Abstract Art, Sungkok Art Museum, Seoul, Korea