Changing Art Paradigm
Artist Kim Nam-ho, who invented the world’s first luminous paints and is famous for paintings shining on their own, held a solo exhibition from April 5 to 11 in the lava cave of the Dolbitna Art School located in Hallim-eup, Jeju.
The exhibition was proposed by Yoon Arte Director and World-OKTA Shanghai Chairman Park Sang-yoon before the World-OKTA conference in Jeju that took place from April 6 to 9. The World-OKTA or World Federation of Overseas Korean Traders Association has 146 branches in 74 countries around the world. Its representatives and members who visited Jeju for the conference saw the cave concert that marked the opening of the exhibition on April 5, too.
The exhibition took place inside the cave divided into branches in the shape of a star. At the entrance of the cave surrounded by natural rocks, Jeju cuisine expert Yoo Bok-hyun decorated a photo zone with canola flower baskets to bring even more pleasure.
The concert deep inside the cave created a fantastic atmosphere with the light that streamed through its holes from the clear sky and flutists, violinists, dancers and singers were perfectly harmonious in creating a rhythm of light in the dark.
“Everyone feels despair and has his or her own cave, and artist Kim Nam-ho’s works were a precious consolation for me every time I was in despair,” Park Sang-yoon said in his congratulatory speech, adding, “His works have the power of healing and I want to share it with all of you.”
Artist Kim Nam-ho has held exhibitions of pictures of light since 2009. “This is my first exhibition in a cave, which I have never imagined ever since my first luminous painting of 10 years ago,” he said, continuing, “I had to turn the entire exhibition halls into darkrooms in the past in various countries around the world but, here in Jeju, the magnificent lava cave as it is makes a beautiful exhibition hall and I am so appreciated.”
He has held international invitation exhibitions at the Scope Basel Art Fair in Switzerland, Shanghai International Art Fair, Yoon Arte Gallery Shanghai, and many more. He was an official art director for the 1988 Seoul Olympics and taught visual design at a college for 25 years before moving to Jeju in 2016 as a full-time painter.
His luminous works are one of a kind in the world. The works use no electricity at all and emit light on their own in showing their meanings and shapes to those who see the paintings. In short, his works have created a new paradigm in the history of art.
“In deep despair, I used to go around the world, looking at the stars in the sky and endlessly questioning myself about the universe, god and my own being,” he mentioned, recollecting that the time allowed him to clear his head about his own world of art and then he could express the love of god that came to him in the form of a streak of light. This is why the exhibition in the cave had the title of ‘God Sign’.
The highlight of the exhibition was the different images that were created by water droplets falling onto his works with their own sounds in the pitch dark cave. His works, changing in various colors without constraints of time and space, impressed and mesmerized the audience with constantly changing feelings.
As an art director and planner of the show, I hope artist Kim Nam-ho’s works will be shown in more places around the world, in caves in particular, so that more people can share the power of consolation and healing.
For more details about his exhibitions and artworks, please send an email to happyarts@naver.com.