Shulamit Nazarian, Los Angeles is pleased to present Silverlake Dog Park, a solo exhibition by Korean-born, Los Angeles-based artist Ken Gun Min. This is the artist’s first solo exhibition at the gallery.
Silverlake Dog Park draws equally from real and imagined locations in Los Angeles. Anchored in visuals that are inspired by the east LA neighborhood of Silverlake, Min has created an environment that blends memory and fantasy to explore the emotional states of longing, melancholy and euphoria. His impressionistic scenes provide a fluid arena where the mundane becomes magical, and people and places are no longer governed by the rules of our known world. An exploration of desire and intimate connection in public space, this Queer idyll is ripe with possibility and wonder.
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The series was born over the past few years, during a time when the artist was relatively confined to his home and studio. Experiencing life from a solitary distance, Min began to construct his own world as a method to explore the intimacy and wonderment that was otherwise inaccessible.
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Grounding the exhibition is a new large-scale triptych that offers the most expansive view of Min's picturesque world.
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Min’s personal history has also greatly influenced this new series of paintings. After spending his formative years in Seoul, Korea, Min lived in Zurich, Berlin, and San Francisco, before finally settling in Los Angeles. Having lived and worked in Eurocentric capitals for almost two decades, Min’s practice evolved to challenge Western conceptions of sexuality, gender, and race, especially as it is depicted in Western Art History.
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His works have long explored cross-cultural figures and sites, both of which are constructed through a range of references that include historical textbooks, illustrations, advertising, and an archive of personal photography. These ideas are further extended via the materials that the artist uses to create his works, including western-oil paints, Korean pearl pigment powder, hand adorned beading and stitched fibers, all coalescing into a polyvalent world that reflects the various influences and interests of the artist.
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