KANG HYUNG-KOO (KOREA, B. 1954)

Woman (Lot 155) is a signature aluminum painting from the Korean artist Kang Hyung- Ko o, who has built a reputation for his mesmerizing hyper realistic portraits. This charming portrait provides the viewer with a sensorial experience drawn from on a powerful yet enigmatic illusion balanced somewhere between Surrealism and Hyperrealism. As Kang stated, "I a m o f ten associated with the hyper-realist because of the techniques I employ in my work, but I am not a hyper-realist . In fact, unlike hyper-realist artists who tend to coldly study the surface of objects, I am very much inclined to investigate the inside of objects. . . " (Arario Gallery, Hyung Koo Kang, Seoul, Korea, 2007, p. 116). Kang pursues a complete mastery over the depiction of the inner world of humans through facial portraits. Woman proves the artist’s statement, demonstrating the ways in which Kang’s attention to external appearances and surface beauty manages instils his subjects with an aura that exceeds mere representation or imitation. Throughout his career, Kang always focus special attention on the execution of his figures' eyes as he aspires for his audience to experience a silent – almost religious – communion with his subjects. The gaze that occurs between the audience and the portraits are deliberately created by the artist to intensify the experience of his paintings. The overpowering physical presence of his works nearly inverts the viewer’s relationship with the image, instilling in him or her the feeling that they are the ones being viewed.