Jay Jo, Dancing with Dolphins, Zanzibar, 53x65.1cm, Oil on canvas, 2025.jpg
Vidi Gallery is delighted to present "Times of a Summer Day," a compelling three-artist exhibition featuring the distinct yet harmonious voices of Kang Hee-young, Kim Jae-hyun, and Jay Jo.
On display from July 2 to July 28, the exhibition unfolds during a season characterized by deepening greenery and lingering, warm light, inviting audiences to reconnect with the fleeting emotions and memories woven into the landscapes of nature and human existence.
Moving far beyond literal representation, the canvases transformed by these artists become rich psychological terrains imbued with personal history and sensory awareness.
Visitors are gently guided into an immersive space where the external physical world coexists with the internal realm of the spirit, offering a serene sanctuary to rediscover forgotten sensations and ponder the deeper meanings of daily life.
Kang Hee-young anchors her painterly exploration in the vulnerabilities of human relationships, loneliness, and the evolving self.
Utilizing mirrors and colorful blocks as her central motifs, Kang illustrates the paradoxical duality of human connections—structures that appear flexible and solid yet remain susceptible to sudden collapse.
Her profound inquiry into identity began with the jarring realization of seeing her own reflection as a stranger, a concept she manifests by literally using mirrors as canvases to blur the boundaries between self and other.
The meticulously stacked blocks serve as metaphors for an ego built upon accumulated desires and ambitions, questioning the friction between societal expectations and the authentic self.
Enhanced by symbolic elements like isolated pools of water and dense thickets, her vibrant, high-saturation palette beautifully conveys a bright yet poignant solitude, offering viewers a profound space for interpersonal introspection.
Kim Jae-hyun captures the fluid emotional resonances and sensory impressions born from an intimate dialogue with the natural world.
Through his continuous series, including "Forest Impression," "Nature Impression," and "Acacia," Kim demonstrates a dynamic shift in perspective and distance, particularly employing the repetitive, patterned imagery of acacia leaves to amplify the minute textures of the wilderness.
Kim Jae-hyun, The Texture of Grass 26-05, 53 x 53 cm, Oil on canvas, 2026
To fully manifest the awe inspired by nature, he intentionally bypasses traditional perspective and conventional compositions, relying instead on thousands of rhythmic, overlapping brushstrokes to materialize intangible elements like temperature, scent, and the passing breeze.
This blending of abstract expressionism with organic forms evokes memories that resist linguistic description, leaving a deep, vibrating echo of nature's inherent vitality on the canvas.
Jay Jo translates the breathtaking landscapes encountered during her travels, and the precise emotional crescendos experienced within them, into rich oil compositions.
Rather than striving for photorealistic duplication, Jo focuses on encapsulating the weight of the air, the emotional temperature of a specific place, and the overwhelming sensation of standing as a minute entity before an expansive horizon.
Kang Hee-young, Downward, 53 x 45.5 cm, Oil and oil pastel on canvas, 2024
Her work uses the profound contrast between colossal nature and human scale to prompt existential contemplation, delivering a simultaneous sense of humility and absolute liberation.
Through the deliberate, slow accumulation of oil paint, layer upon layer, she constructs a visual timeline of a landscape's spirit.
In doing so, Jo articulates the indefinable beauty of the earth, creating an open-ended, meditative space where observers can freely wander through their own sensory histories.
