Myung-Ok Han is a visual artist and performance artist born in 1958 in South Korea. She lives and works at La Ruche in Paris, France.
Biography Born in 1958 in South Korea, Myung-Ok Han moved to France in 1986 and continued her studies at the École nationale supérieure d'art de Dijon.
There she discovered the Arte Povera movement as well as the Gutai group.
Her installations feature materials such as cotton thread, reflecting her Korean heritage, as well as everyday objects from the kitchen (bowls, plates, spoons).
Her approach with thread explores the notion of time: she patiently winds cotton into bowls, in a simple and repetitive gesture.
In 1996, the magazine Ninety: Art in the 90s devoted its issue 20 to her, alongside Jean Le Gac. In this issue, Olivier Kaeppelin wrote an article about her entitled “A Line”.
In 1997, her work *Neuf cuillères* was acquired by the Fonds national d'art contemporain (FNAC).
Her work has been exhibited in France, notably at the Musée d'Art moderne de Paris during the exhibition "Paris pour escale" in 2000, in Switzerland at the Kunsthalle Bern in 2001, in South Korea during the exhibition "At the Groove of Time" at the Busan Museum of Modern Art in 2007, as well as in Australia, as part of the 3rd Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT3) in Brisbane in 1999. Quotes " When I set to work, I think of nothing, I can see nothing, I have an acute perception of movement, noises and even silences. While observing everything, I gradually let myself go".
Solo exhibitions (selection) 1996 – 3 Drawings, Hyundai Gallery, Seoul, South Korea 1996 – Lost Time, Édouard Manet Municipal Gallery, Gennevilliers; Claude Samuel Gallery, Paris, France 2001 – Oubliettes, Projekt Raum, Kunsthalle Bern, Switzerland 2001 – When All We Have Is Love, Guy Bärtschi Gallery, Art Brussels, Belgium 2003 – Guy Bärtschi Gallery, Geneva, Switzerland 2005 – Time Against Time, Korean Cultural Center, Paris, France 2008 – Good Luck Charm, Project Room, Guy Bärtschi Gallery (Wilde Gallery), Geneva, Switzerland 2009 – Good Luck Charm, Municipal Gallery of the City of Vitry-sur-Seine, France 2013 – From There, Galerie Grand E’terna, Paris, France
Group exhibitions (selection)
1995 – Salon de Montrouge 1996 – Choice of 6 Artists, Gallery Hyundai, Seoul, South Korea 1997 – Gwangju Biennale, South Korea 1998 – Poetics of Time, Ho-Am Art Museum, Seoul, South Korea 1998 – Interlacing & the Envelope, Villa du Parc, Annemasse, France 1999 – Ars Aevi, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina 1999 – 3rd Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia 2000 – Paris Escale, Museum of Modern Art of the City of Paris 2000 – Zero In, Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei, Taiwan 2004 – France – Land of Welcome, Jerusalem, Israel 2005 – Interweaving Cultures, Jim Thompson Foundation, Bangkok, Thailand 2005 – Emergency Biennale in Chechnya, Palais de Tokyo, Paris / Brussels, Belgium / Bolzano, Italy 2006 – At the Groove of Time, Museum of Modern Art, Busan, South Korea 2006 – Performance Biennale Infr’action, Sète, France 2006 – Korean Suites, Passage de Retz, Paris 2008 – Emergency Biennale in Chechnya / World Tour, stop 10 San Francisco (CA), United States / stop 11 Bialystok, Poland 2008 – Drawing Woman, Johyun Gallery, Seoul and Busan, South Korea 2008 – Contemporary Korean Artists in Paris, Seoul Arts Center, Seoul, South Korea 2009 – Fragile, Lands of Empathy, Musée d'art moderne (Saint-Étienne), France – Accademia d’Ungheria, Palazzo Falconieri, Rome, Italy – Fragile, Daejeon Museum of Art, South Korea 2010 – The Soul of the Line, Ungno Lee Art Museum, Daejeon, South Korea 2011 – Reliefs, Fondation Espace Écureuil for Contemporary Art, Toulouse, France 2012 – 10 Years of the Jean Brolly Gallery, Jean Brolly Gallery 2013 – Drawings and Works on Paper, Jean Brolly Gallery 2014 – Wooson Gallery, Art Stage Singapore 2016 – SAM, Galerie des grands bains douches de la plaine, Marseille
International Art Fairs
FIAC, Paris (1998–2005), with Guy Bärtschi Gallery ARCO (art fair), Madrid (2004), with Guy Bärtschi Gallery Art Brussels, Belgium (2002–2004), with Guy Bärtschi Gallery Art Cologne, Cologne (2002), with Guy Bärtschi Gallery
Public collections
Fonds national d’Art Contemporain, France (1997) Modern and Contemporary Art Fund of the City of Gennevilliers, France (1998) Samsung Foundation, Seoul, South Korea (1999) Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina (1999) Claudine and Jean-Marc Salomon Foundation, France (2003)
Bibliography
Michel Enrici, “SAM”, Galerie des Grands Bains Douches de la Plaine, Marseille, 2016. Lóránd Hegyi, “Fragile. Lands of Empathy” Philippe Piguet, “Myung-Ok Han or the possibility of being in the world”, Municipal Gallery of Vitry-sur-Seine, 2009. Kim Airyung, “Drawing Woman”, Johyun Gallery, Korea, 2008. Kim Airyung, “Korean Suites”, Passage de Retz, Paris, 2006. Kim Young Ho, “Seven Perspectives on Desire”, Espace Sol, Seoul, Korea, 2006. Kang Sun Hak, “At the Groove of Time”, Busan Museum of Modern Art, Korea, 2006. Ann Coxon, “Interweaving Cultures”, Jim Thompson Art Center, Bangkok, Thailand, 2005 . Catherine Francblin, “Praise of Lost Time”, Korean Cultural Center, Paris, 2005. Marie Shek, France Land of Welcome, The New Gallery, Jerusalem, Israel, 2004. Laurence Chauvy, “Wonders of Rice and Cotton in Geneva”, Le Temps, 2003. André Dpraz, “Myung-Ok Han or the Objectification of a Poetics” and Evelyne Jouanno, “Recreating Space and Time”, Galerie Guy Bärtschi, Geneva, Switzerland, 2003 . Evelyne Jouanno, “Flower Power or the Creative Strategies of Five Asian Women Artists Based in Paris”, MAKE: The Magazine of Women's Art (Issue 92), 2002. Evelyne Jouanno, “Paris Escale”, Museum of Modern Art of the City of Paris, 2000. Margueritte De Savran, “Selected Drawings”, General Council of Seine Saint Denis, France, 2000. Soyeon Ahn, “3rd Asia Pacific Triennale of Contemporary Art”, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia, 1999. Sylvaine Van den Esch, “In the Direction of the Thread”, Villa du Parc, Annemasse, France, 1998. Byung Hak Rhu, Kum Ho Art Gallery, Seoul, Korea, 1998. Seungduk Kim, Sarajevo 2000, Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna, Austria, 1998 . Kwang Suk Cho, Regard Image, Gwangju Biennale, Korea, 1997. Olivier Kaeppelin, “A Line”, Catherine Flohic, in Ninety: Art of the 90s No. 20, France, 1996 . Olivier Kaeppelin, “Perpetual”, Édouard Manet Municipal Gallery, Gennevilliers / Claude Samuel Gallery, Paris, 1996. Nedim Gürsel, “The Thread of Myung-Ok Han”, General Council of Seine Saint Denis, France, 1995.
Notes and references
External links
Archives of Art Criticism Catalogue of Art Criticism BnF Catalogue Kandinsky Library Catalogue CNAP Catalogue MutualArt Catalogue Fine Arts Resource: Delarge ASIA ART ARCHIVE Catalogue