Korean contemporary artist Seongmin Ahn offers a rich and nuanced introduction to her art with special emphasis on the JSMA’s recently acquired monumental painting Mindscape (2020) that marks her critical practice within the cultural, social, and art historical context of interdisciplinarity and multiculturality. Mindscape represents aspects of two important Joseon-dynasty (1392-1910) painting genres, one of “True View” landscapes (jingyeong sansuhwa) and the other of still-life imagery of scholarly accouterments (chaekgeori). However, Ahn further enlivens her composition with a complicated hybrid perspective featuring two divergent vanishing points (one European and linear and the other based on traditional Korean perspective). In addition, Ahn enriches her color palette with florescent pigments exquisitely highlighted by black lights. Her art creatively interrogates the coexistence, balance, and connection between tradition and innovation, and technology and interdisciplinary thinking, which invites diverse perspectives and interpretations. Mindscape will be showcased in an upcoming Korean art exhibition Landscape, Mindscape: Portrayals of Nature and the World from Korea and Beyond, 1700-2020 opening at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art on June 8, 2024.
