Bongchull Shin

„Stealing the Light“

Galerie Martina Kaiser is delighted to dedicate its second major solo exhibition to Bongchull Shin. And with “Stealing the Light” presents light art that seems out of this world...

In his new exhibition “Stealing the Light”, Bongchull Shin delves deep into the physicality of light and places its constantly changing appearance in a cosmic context.

Located somewhere between object and light art, Shin's installations made of colored glass cylinders play with the phenomena of reflection, refraction, color morphology and transparency. Depending on the incidence of light and the time of day, the glass bodies cast colored shadows on the wall, which constantly wander and change their shape until they finally evaporate. At their zenith, they even conquer the ceilings and floors of their surroundings, creating a new spatial experience where the materiality of light suddenly appears tangible.

It is both the fleetingness and the permanence of light that Bongchull Shin evokes in his works. And makes the dance of light into a spiritual moment, where the earthly meets the cosmic.

For the conception, execution and final arrangement of his works, Bongchull Shin draws on the principles of physical laws, empirical studies and the findings derived from them. For example, shadow phenomena are not linked to a change in the position of a person or object, but primarily follow the course of the sun. This is proof that the earth rotates. The mutation of shadows over the course of the seasons in turn provides evidence that the earth orbits the sun. This means that shadows, to which we pay little attention in everyday life, are, as it were, the messengers of cosmic processes.

The exhibition title “Stealing the Light” summarizes the artist's ability to capture light - at least for a brief moment - to follow it and illustrate its physical limits. This is as ambitious as it is magical. Light does not linger, slips away, penetrates spaces, intermediate worlds and even entire galaxies, remaining visible but never really tangible until it disappears at some point. Nevertheless, it leaves traces. And it is precisely these traces that Bongchull Shin allows us to trace in his symphonies of colored shadows.

Bongchull Shin (*1981) was born in Suwon/South Korea and has lived and worked in Munich since his student days in Germany. Equipped with a Master's degree from the Korean National of Arts in Seoul/Korea, his path led him to Europe to further his education in the field of glass art. He completed further studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, where he graduated under Prof. Prangenberg and Prof. Karstieß. His works have been exhibited in the USA, France, Italy, China and Korea. Selected works have been presented at the Suwon Museum and Chengjou Museum of Art (both Korea), the MusVerre Museum/France, the Bornholms Museum/Denmark and the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg

He is represented in numerous private and public collections, including the Alexander Tutsek Foundation, the Weißhaupt Collection and the Soneva Collection/Maldives.

Bongchull Shin

„A Breath of Light“

The Martina Kaiser Gallery is pleased to announce a stunning debut: With the exhibition “A Breath of Light” Korean artist Bongchull Shin will present selected works for the first time in our white cube.

The unleashing of color and light by means of a rhythmic glass-installation: The art work of Bongchull Shin is based on the interaction of material, matter and mobility showcasing complexity and depth while on the same hand being fluid and airy.

Fundamentally his art work derives from the glass painting genre, but due to its conceptual composing and the final reception it comes up to light art with all its changeable and transient effects. With the daylight changing and the observer moving his reflectional creations change their character constantly and assemble to always new effect-structures build from light, shade and empty space. Yet leading their aura to infinity.

Bongchull Shins carefully composed glass cubes and cylinders do function less than self-sufficient or complete art works, instead they serve as catalysts for carving out the deeper concept of sublime color and light art. Illumination, the material revelation of color and light, their tangible, 3-dimensional development and extension into the room – that’s what defines his art work leaving the sheer object behind.

Being raised on a flower farm near Suwon/South Korea Bongchull Shin experienced nature and cycles of all forms of life very early. What flashed him most was the play of light throughout days, months and seasons as well as the color change of flowers, plants and landscapes. This fascination led him to the decision to become an artist. For him glass, although being hardly relevant in Asian art, seemed to be the perfect media to translate his artistic vision into material. That why he chose to move to Germany in order to learn the glass painting technique.

Today the Korean artist has enriched this discipline with his own style of object art, yet shifting glass panes to cubes, cuboids and elongated stripes. The intense colors of his glass objects, ranging from pastels to full tones, come from fluid pigments which he adds to the composite. Being then polished they reveal maximum radiance when lit up by both daylight and punctual spot lights. And truly evoke what Franz Marc and Heinrich Campendonk defined as “Tiefenlicht”.

No wonder Shin names these grands, also being renowned glass artists, as an inspiration. Not to forget Ernst Ludwig Kirchner whose themes and color language Shin often recites.

Formally Bongchull Shins work is matching Minimal Art; with the reduction to the essentials and the focus on color and spatial effects he matches artists like Donald Judd and Dan Flavin who established light as an independent art material. Creating an alternative sphere and bearing a concept of an interactive, physically inspired art Bongchull Shin also stands close to Ólafur Elíasson, Jeppe Hein and Lee Bul with whom he has taken part in a group exhibition in 2019.

Bongshull Shin (*1981 in Suwon/South Korea) lives and works in Munich/Germany. After finishing his studies at Korean National University of Arts in Seoul, he came to the Academy of Fine Arts Munich in 2011 being a student of Prof. Prangenberg and Prof. Karstieß. He got his diploma there in 2017.

His works can be found in various private collections all over the world, moreover in museums and public collections such as Munich Airport, the Alexander Tutsek Foundation and the Glasmuseum Alter Hof Herding in Coesfeld/Germany.