Ahn Hyun-Ju - von Südkorea nach Bilk

 ... wurde 1969 in Seoul (Südkorea) geboren und studierte dort von 1989-1993 Bildhauerei  Von 1995-2001 setzte sie ihr Studium an der Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf fort, mit dem Schwerpunkt Malerei und Videokunst. unter anderem Meisterschülerin bei Alfonso Hüppi  - 1999 Akademiebrief.

Habe grad erst von ihrem Tod gehört  - mit Baujahr 1969 - leider - sie war auf einem guten Weg. Wenn ihr nähere Infos habt - ich hab nichts gefunden.. 

Mag ihre Arbeiten sehr - hab diese frühen und noch zwei große 150x150 auf Aluminium - die muss ich auch mal fotografieren - aber echt schwer..  

Ahn hatte lange ihr Atelier auf der Merowinger Str 55 hier in Bilk - die beiden unteren Arbeiten sind 1mx1m und von 2001 signiert 

Seit 1996 hatte sie regelmäßig Ausstellungen, u.a. in der Handwerkskammer Düsseldorf und nahm dort zweimal an der "Großen Kunstausstellung NRW" teil. Für die Theaterinszenierung "Heute Abend: Lola Blau" von G. Kreisler, in Düsseldorf, erstellte sie ein Videoscreen.

ich hab bei artistics.com mehr über ihre Werke und Arbeiten gefunden - sie war in Frankreich gut vernetzt.

The influence of sculpture and experimentation with materials 

Ahn Hyun-Ju (1969) is a South Korean artist who has lived and worked in Germany for over twenty years. Born in Seoul in 1969, she studied sculpture in her hometown and then continued her studies in painting and new media in Düsseldorf. From the beginning of the 2000s, she focused on painting and began experimenting with various types of media such as plastic, glass and fabric before being won over by metal, especially aluminium because of its industrial, neutral and stable nature. 

These characteristics mean Ahn Hyun-Ju can use very vivid colours that keep all their intensity due to the medium chosen. Aluminium and paint do not assimilate each other, so the metal often remains partially visible in these works, making the colour stand out and with the paint itself therefore becoming a component part of the work. 

The three-dimensional aspect engendered by the medium of aluminium undoubtedly survives from Ahn Hyun-Ju’s training in sculpture. Because of this, her works on aluminium are not just contemporary paintings but can be considered more like pictorial objects, wall sculptures or paintings “with volume”. 

The intensity of the colours and the importance of visual contrasts in Ahn Hyun-Ju’s work

The artist favours bright, intense, vibrant colours that she uses automatically without any precise intention or overly considered choice. She suggests that the use of these colours could be a kind of outlet for everything we would not allow ourselves to do or say out of politeness in everyday life. For her, it’s a way of rediscovering her freedom. 

Pursuing her experimental approach, Ahn Hyun-Ju mixes her acrylics with colour pigments herself. This gives her a broader, more varied palette of pictorial effects, with multiple levels of opacity and transparency with colours that are more intense or more translucent. She also uses different painting techniques; in the Dripping series, for example, she combines the dripping technique with drops of paint dripped onto her work alongside the Colour Field style, with its flat, solid planes. 

This combination creates a visual tension between chaos and order, halfway between spontaneity and control. Ahn Hyun-Ju’s painting is in fact characterised by contrasts and oppositions; the coldness and neutrality of aluminium as well as neutral, geometric shapes are opposed to the sensuality, intensity and opulence of colours, that in turn create an effect of harmony or rupture.

The purest and simplest compositional aesthetic possible

The biggest influence on contemporary painter Ahn Hyun-Ju is undoubtedly the American Minimalism movement of the 1960s and 1970s. The artist claims she felt a sense of freedom when contemplating the works of Frank Stella or Barnett Newman, recognising minimalist art as the pure and simple aesthetics of the material.

Arriving at a composition that is as simple and as stripped down as possible is an artist’s hardest challenge according to Ahn Hyun-Ju. In order to achieve this aesthetic as much as possible, the artist uses geometric shapes, a careful line composition and balanced symmetries. The artist seeks to escape from symbolic language, narrative intention and metaphor. Her life experience, memories and ideas only enter her painting after they have been filtered, formalised and simplified. She summarises her artistic research as follows: “What I try to do is simply to translate my aesthetic ideas into a pictorial language”.

Ahn Hyun-Ju’s work has been regularly exhibited in Europe since the early 2000s, especially in Germany and France. The artist has been featured five times in the collective exhibition “Die Grosse” at the Kunstpalast Museum in Düsseldorf and in the collective exhibition “Colore non solo”, presented at the 51st Venice Biennale in 2005 and at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna in 2006.

CV

Education

• 1995/2000 – Kunstakademie, Düsseldorf (Germany)
• 1989/1993 – Ewha Womans University, Sculpture Degree, Seoul (South Korea)

Exhibitions

• 2013: Salon Réalités Nouvelles, Paris (France)
• 2012: Ein Blick : Paintings and Photographs from the Bärbel and Schütte collections, Essen Art Center, Essen (Germany)
• 2011: Saturation Point, Corner House Gallery, London (UK)
• 2011: 5th Biennale of Contemporary Art, Museum of Art and History of Saint-Brieuc, Saint-Brieuc (France)
• 2009: One Minute International Film & Video Festival, Aarau (Switzerland)
• 2009: Contemporary Art Ruhr 2009, Essen (Germany)
• 2007: Art Toronto, Lausberg Gallery, Toronto (Canada)
• 2007: Bis Jetzt, Kunstraum 21 Gallery, Cologne (Germany)
• 2006: Art Fair21, Kunstraum21 Gallery, Cologne (Germany)
• 2004: Tivat New Art Collection, Ljetnjikovca Buca Gallery, Lukovic (Serbia)
• 2003: Objektiv, Art Cult Center, Vienna (Austria)
• 2002:  Projekt Atelier, PACT-Essen, Essen (Germany)

Solo exhibitions

• 2018: Irrational Symmetry, solo show – Espace Schilling et galerie, Neuchatel, (Swiss)
• 2011: Malerei, solo show, Schütte Gallery, Essen (Germany)
• 2008: Conditions of Reflection II, solo show, Kunstraum21 Gallery, Cologne (Germany)
• 2007: Neue Arbeiten, solo show, Lausberg Gallery, Düsseldorf (Germany)
• 2006: Recent and earlier works, solo show, Kunstraum21 Gallery, Cologne (Germany)
• 2006: Conditions of Reflection, solo show, Atelier am Eck, Düsseldorf (Germany)

Group exhibitions

• 2023: “La ville“, group show, Gallery Les Voûtes du Puits Châtel, Blois (France)
• 2022: Triennale of Paris, group show, Bastille Design Center, Paris (France)
• 2019: Salon Réalités Nouvelles, group show, Parc floral de Paris (France)
• 2018: Salon Réalités Nouvelles, group show, Parc floral de Paris (France)
• 2017: Salon Réalités Nouvelles, group show, Parc floral de Paris (France)
• 2016: Salon Réalités Nouvelles, group show, Paris (France)
• 2016: The Drawing Collective, group show, Abstract Project Art Center, Paris (France)
• 2016: Die Grosse, group show, Kunstpalast Museum, Düsseldorf (Germany)
• 2015: Salon Réalités Nouvelles, group show, Paris (France)
• 2015: Die Grosse, group show, Kunstpalast Museum, Düsseldorf (Germany)
• 2014: Die Grosse, group show, Kunstpalast Museum, Düsseldorf (Germany)
• 2012: Farbe-Raum-Konzept, group show, Dreieich Art Center, Dreieich (Germany)
• 2011: Farbe-Raum-Konzept, group show, Dreieich Art Center, Dreieich (Germany)
• 2010: Position Fluide, group show, ParisCONCRET Gallery, Paris (France)
• 2010: Die Grosse, group show, Kunstpalast Museum, Düsseldorf (Germany)
• 2010: ABSTRKT, group show, 15a Gallery, Lochem (Netherlands)
• 2009: Group show, Kunstraum21 Gallery, Cologne (Germany)
• 2008: Die Grosse, group show, Kunstpalast Museum, Düsseldorf (Germany)
• 2007: Format 13×18 – 60×45, group show, Christine Hoelz Gallery, Düsseldorf (Germany)
• 2006: Colore non solo, group show, Theseustempel, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (Austria)
• 2005: Colore non solo, group show, Arsenale Novissimo, collateral event of 51st Venice Biennale, Venice (Italy)
• 2005: Group show, Christine Hoelz Gallery, Düsseldorf (Germany)
• 2003: Darmstäter Sezession, group show, Mathildenhöhe Institute, Darmstadt (Germany)
• 2002 – 21: young artists of Düsseldorf, group show, Düsseldorf (Germany)

Awards & Residencies

• 2010 – André Evard Art Award, finalist, award granted by Kunsthalle Messmer, Riegel (Germany)
• 1999 – Emprise Art Award, finalist, NRW-Forum Kultur, Düsseldorf (Germany)