CreatripTeam

Veteran Korean hyperrealist painter Ko Young-hoon (age 73) presents 19 works from 1992 to recent pieces in his solo exhibition “Reality and Essence” at Seoul Auction Gangnam Center through the 7th. New works include a triptych-like composition of overlapping moon jars (dalhangari) and mixed-media collages where real bird wings and objects sit atop painted book edges. Ko explores the boundary between illusion and reality, using precise, sensory visual depiction rather than language to evoke presence. His large 1990s piece The History of Hanra and the nearly 3-meter painting Time Embracing the Moon are on view. Early works placed disparate materials (feathers, stones) on books to create near-real illusions; later works emphasize temporal change of objects and a nondual (불이) worldview, reflecting shifts of focus, shadow, and space to expand painting’s representational limits. Ko, known as a pioneer of Korean hyperrealism, first drew attention in 1974 with a work titled “This Is a Stone” and was the first Korean artist invited to the Venice Biennale in 1986.