Gallery InORBIT is marking its opening with artist An Bong-gyun's invitational exhibition, In ORBIT–the Orbit of memory, from Apr. 29 to May 30.
InORBIT in Hannam-dong, Seoul, is an exhibition space that takes "light" and "Orbit (orbit)" as its core concepts. The space explores how life, sensation, and empathy form relationships with one another. "Orbit" means a flow formed by encounters among diverse experiences and beings, rather than a fixed center. "Light" functions as the fundamental condition that enables recognition of existence.
The opening for In ORBIT–the Orbit of memory will be held on the 29th at 5 p.m. Visiting hours are 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., and the gallery is closed on Sundays. This opening exhibition presents the process by which sensation and memory consolidate along each other's Orbits. At the same time, it serves as a starting point that reveals the aesthetic and spiritual direction the gallery pursues.
Artist An Bong-gyun has continually explored the relationship between image and text. In this exhibition, the artist shows how layers of memory and time form and transform within painting.
The work begins with letters. The text filling the surface seems readable from a distance, but the closer one approaches, the more its meaning blurs. Instead, material texture and form are emphasized, and the text shifts into image. In this process, the viewer experiences a crossing of reading and seeing.
The artist uses modeling compound to build letter structures on canvas. The artist then repeats the process of layering multiple colors and carving them back. This method physically reveals the accumulation and traces of time. In addition, the various texts quoted in the works, especially Bible verses, do not appear directly. Instead, they soak into the structure and flow of the surface, evoking questions about existence, time, and memory.