Portal, 2013 Untitled (Double) #4, 2013 Edition 2/3, plywood, changing LED Edition 1/3, plywood, LED lights lights and mirrors and mirrors 61.5 x 61.5 x 6 inches 45.5 x 45.5 x 5.5 inches Not Pictured Mirror Drawing I, 2013 Mirror Drawing II, 2013 Plywood, LED lights and mirrors Plywood, LED lights and mirrors Tunnel, 2013 Unique, cinderblocks, fluorescent lights and mirrors 23 x 68 x 68 inches Exhibition made possible with support of the C. Grimaldis Gallery, Baltimore, the Talbot County Arts Council and the Maryland State Arts Council. Chul Hyun Ahn Perceiving Infinity 106 South Street Easton, Maryland 21601 410-822-ARTS (2787) www.academyartmuseum.org The Academy Art Museum is supported by a grant from the Maryland State Arts Council, an agency funded by the State of Maryland and the National Endowment for the Arts. Western, his family background is Asian, and Museum, amongst many others. Discovered Exhibition Checklist that his mother’s Buddhist religion - with by Constantine Grimaldis, who first saw Chul Hyun Ahn its philosophy of “emptiness” - may have Ahn’s work at his 2002 MFA thesis exhibition unconsciously influenced his way of working. at MICA, Ahn is a member of a group of Upon seeing her son’s work during a US visit young light artists including Olafur Eliasson, Perceiving Infinity she immediately Ivan Navarro, understood the Spencer Finch, and November 16, 2013 – January 26, 2014 artwork. Leo Villareal. He mentions Dan Chul Hyun Ahn was born in Busan, South led him to place one of his paintings in a box In 2011, Ahn began Flavin and James Korea. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts of mirrors. He explains that he places two a new body of work Turrell as lighting degree from the Chugye University for the Arts mirrors facing each other, to create what he entitled Mirror examples. Creating in Seoul, South Korea. In 1997 he moved to informally calls the “barbershop mirror effect.” Drawings which zen meditations the United States and later received a Master The effect is close to “infinity,” something he re-introduced his on notions of the own painterly hand infinite and the Void, 2011 Mirror Drawing #21, 2013 of Fine Arts says did not learn Edition 3/3, cast acrylic, Unique, plywood, LED lights and mirrors from the Mount in school but to the work. The void distinguishes LED lights and mirrors 31.5 x 59 x 6 inches 90 x 71.5 x 12.5 inches Royal School at spent a lot of time drawings are made by Ahn’s oeuvre from the Maryland experimenting scratching into the other artists working Institute College and testing. back of the mirror with light. Ahn’s of Art (MICA) When he layer to create line- multiple on-going in Baltimore discovered the based, abstract images sculpture series in 2002. Ahn magical properties instead of allowing including Forked creates sculptures of one-way the construction of Series, Tunnels and utilizing light, mirrors, Ahn lights themselves Void, systematically color, and illusion knew he had to form that image. explore the as physical found a method In addition to the expansion of space representations of of creating drawings, Ahn has and optics while his investigation infinite depth. been exploring simultaneously laying of infinite space. By the time of architectural spaces bare the methods Railroad Nostalgia, 2012 Dots, 2012 that have always of constructing Edition 1/3, plywood, railroad tracks & ties, LED Artist Proof, plywood, LED lights and mirrors He achieves this his 2002 MFA lights and mirrors 61.75 x 77.5 x 6.5 inches through the use Thesis Exhibition been present in the the illusion. In 100 x 144 x 41.25 inches of electrical light at the MICA, he artist’s work, such as the past few years, sources including had abandoned the Tunnel series and global interest in Light Emitting traditional Portal piece. the artist’s work has Diodes (LEDs), painting seen a tremendous fluorescent, and altogether in spike in activity, black lights set order to create his Ahn’s first solo culminating in Ahn’s between mirrors and one-way mirrors combined now signature sculptural light constructions. exhibition was with participation in the with housings made of plywood, cast concrete, or The effect of his artwork is minimalistic C. Grimaldis Gallery 2013 Venice Biennale cast acrylic materials. The image of the work is in a way, involving light as a fundamental in 2003 with six in the Palazzo Bembo created through the placement of lights between element. Ahn himself does not call it sculpture, light sculptures. exhibition, followed the two reflective surfaces, which creates the though it is three-dimensional, and says it Since then he has by his first solo illusion of an infinitely reflecting light sculpture. is actually hard to define in one word. In exhibited extensively museum exhibition nationally and internationally and is included at the Academy Art Museum. Ahn lives with Ahn’s mirrored light sculptures arose out of conversation the term “fourth dimension” was Forked Series #28”, 2013 Forked Series #27”, 2013 his background as a painter. His interest in discussed, relating to space and time, though in numerous private and public collections his family in Baltimore. He is represented by Edition 2/3, plywood, fluorescent lights, Edition 2/3, plywood, fluorescent lights, in Paris, Karlsruhe, Seoul, Istanbul, Dubai C. Grimaldis Gallery. color gels and mirrors color gels and mirrors hard-edge, geometric abstraction and creating Ahn’s works are non-kinetic. The somewhat 21 x 21 x 4 inches 21 x 21 x 4 inches infinite depth within the surface of his canvases shy Ahn explains that while his training is and closer to home at the Delaware Art Anke Van Wagenberg, Ph.D., Curator.