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As a printmaker and classically trained painter, Korean artist Sanggon Chung creates dramatic, organic landscapes that exist at the border of the fictional and the real. The specific landscape he paints is less relevant; rather his intention is to portray an experiential, humanistic and historical perspective. This gives each viewer a unique and subjective experience.
The creative process for Chung is an extremely sensory one, with the brush acting as an extension of his body and his emotions. Masterly brush strokes flesh out thick, textural swathes of paint. The vitality and energy of these strokes echoes that found in nature, from the smallest blades of grass through to more grandiose thick fleshy leaves and tumbling water falls. His paintings reflect Chung’s experiential way of life and become a materialisation of his senses. His atelier itself is surrounded by nature, and he draws inspiration from his time within it. Forms flow organically from him, working on a table instead of at an easel, sketching out lines first with a pencil and moving physically over the canvas and around the table. This allows for him to work close to the surface in a way not possible if the work were vertical, providing him with different perspectives.
This creates a work that is both accidental and intentional – various ratios of paint and solvents create myriad shiny surfaces, making parts of the canvas appear wet. Strong, fast brushstrokes create colours that are swirled and split, an organic surface that reminds us of mountains, rocks, waterfalls, trees and grass, a psychedelic scene that conveys humidity, wind and the scent of the woods. Chung gathers the emotions that nature elicits in him and flings them onto the canvas. He finds a way in which to excavate the two-dimensionality of the canvas and probe the great depths of profound emotion that can be found in the aw-inspiring power of nature.
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