CHOI JEONG HWA

Born 1961 in Seoul, Korea. Lives and works in Seoul.

Choi Jeong Hwa, happy happy, 2009, commercial plastic containers, installation view at Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2009. Courtesy the artist

Choi Jeong Hwa is a Seoul-based artist and designer. Founder of Ghaseum Studio in Seoul, he is regarded as a leading figure of Korean pop art. He works across many disciplines of art, graphic design, industrial design and architecture, using a broad range of media such as video monitors, moulded plastic, shopping trolleys, real and fake food, lights, wires and kitsch Korean artefacts. Choi revels in public participation in his work and is known for the slogan: ‘Your heart is my art.’

In an early and much exhibited work, “About Being Irritated” – The Death of a Robot (1995), Choi used fabric, an air compressor and sound speakers to create a large yellow robot. The robot lay on its back, attempting to rise over and over again, ultimately defeated. The hopelessness of the act reflected on the fallible nature of human beings, obsessed with power and self-destruction. As well as installation, video and sculpture work, Choi has recently worked in oversized floral-form inflatables, including lotus blossoms in black, white and transparent plastic. This celebration of a seemingly superficial object honours the beauty of nature, and the need for imagination when living in urban cultures with a diminishing natural aesthetic.

In his recent exhibition, ‘Welcome’ (2007), the artist stacked brightly coloured, mass-produced plastic baskets, bins and bowls in an interlocking fashion, connected by wire from floor to ceiling, in a variety of configurations. People can walk between these eye-popping columns to create a bustle of colour and movement. First held at the Wolverhampton Art Gallery, ‘Welcome’ looked to re-cast the traditional gallery space through built assemblages, fabrics and elaborate structures, extending inside and outside of the building. Large diagonal ribbons ‘wrapped’ the gallery exterior, referring to the wrapped buildings and environments of Christo. Choi’s playful practice comments on the privileged environment of art institutions and questions the prized status of artworks amidst a consumer-frenzied world. For the 17th Biennale of Sydney, Choi Jeong Hwa will create a site-specific architectural intervention in the hallowed cultural space of the Sydney Opera House.

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2009 ‘OK!’, Towada Art Center, Towada, Japan
2008 ‘Choi Jeong Hwa – New Works’, Pékin Fine Arts, Beijing, China
2007 ‘Truth: Choi Jeong Hwa’, REDCAT , Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles, USA
2006 ‘Believe It or Not’, Ilmin Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea
2004 ‘Happy Happy’, Kirkby Gallery, Liverpool, uk

Selected Group Exhibitions

2009 ‘Your Bright Future: 12 Contemporary Artists from Korea’, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, USA
2005 ‘Secret Beyond the Door’, Korean Pavilion, 51st Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
2004 Liverpool Biennial, Lime Street Station, Liverpool, UK
2003 ‘It Happened Tomorrow’, 7th Lyon Biennial, Lyon, France
1998 ‘In Living Contact’, 24th Bienal de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

Selected Bibliography

Christine Berkman and Lynn Zelevansky, Your Bright Future: 12 Contemporary Artists from Korea, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2009
Mami Kataoka, ‘Choi Jeong Hwa: Shine a Light’, ART iT, vol. 7, no. 3, June 2009, p. 100
Seung-duk Kim, ‘Focus South Korea: changing times’, Flash Art, vol. 40, no. 255, July–September 2007, pp. 90–94
James B Lee, ‘Flim–flam and fabrication: an interview with Choi Jeong–Hwa’, ArtAsiaPacific, vol. 3, no. 4, 1996, p. 66
Carrie Paterson, ‘Choi Jeong-Hwa’, Flash Art, vol. 41, March–April 2008, p. 134