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Email PageSonamu (Pine Trees)
March 20, 2008- April 14, 2008
Bien-U Bae
Gana Art
568 W 25th StGana Art announces the inaugural exhibition in its Chelsea gallery, a selection of photographs by leading Korean photographer, Bien-U Bae. On view from March 20 through April 13, 2008, the exhibition will include some 20 black-and-white and color photographs of seascapes, mountains (orum) and pine trees (sonamu).
Installed on the gallery’s two floors, the exhibition will focus primarily on the artist’s sonamu series – the Korean word for pine tree. For the past 18 years, Bae has photographed Korean pine forests, which together comprise almost 16 million acres, or some 65% of the country’s land. Traveling on foot to remote parts of the countryside, Bae captures Korea’s national tree. Used ritualistically in birth and death, pine represents longevity and pine forests often serve as sites for ancestral worship.
All shot exclusively with natural light, the images range in color and shade, sometimes featuring the backdrop of the night sky or the first rays of daylight filtering through densely packed trees and a rolling fog. Bae’s compositions vary with his camera angles, exhibiting tree roots, tree trunks, and a number of sky scenes peaking through the treetops, which can reach heights up to 165 feet. Printed in editions of 5, the photographs are framed in pine by the artist.
Bien-U Bae was born in 1950 and lives and works in Seoul. He is a Professor in Photography at the Seoul Institute of the Arts, and has exhibited widely throughout Europe and Korea, including solo exhibitions at Museo de Arte Thyssen-Bornemisza (2006) Madrid; Rollo Gallery, London (2005); Polar Gallery, Frankfurt (2005); Insa Art Center, Seoul (2005); Galerie Gana-Beaubourg, Paris (2002); and ISE Gallery, New York (2001).
Books and DVDs related to artists in this show
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