Referential Weaving Painting

Seungean Cha is a South Korean artist creating paintings through weaving in reference to Korean and Western modern abstract paintings. By revisiting Korean abstract art from the 1960s to 70s, she is examining how the Western-style, which was introduced without historical context, as defined in Korea. Due to the rapid modernization, she sees the past as vivid as the present. Various digital media allowed history to be flattened in space and time. Experiences were bound up too soon. The method of weaving, which is incapable of fast growth has a set time sequence allowing the process to take its time. The artist is inseparable from the process, using her own hands, dyeing the weft and warp threads, building patterns by inserting colored threads or painting on the complete canvas about the icons found in abstract painting such as the grid or a brushstroke.

Whilst in Tilburg Seungean Cha focuses on using the loom about the artworks of American abstract expressionist Helen Frankenthaler (1928 – 2011) and Korean artist and painter Sendja Rhee (1918 – 2009). The works of both artists were achieved by using the inventive techniques of applying paints on canvas. The attitude towards materials and methods is researched further by Seungean Cha during her stay with SEA Foundation.

About Seungean Cha

Seungean Cha graduated in 1999 with a BA in Fiber Art, from Hongik University in Seoul, and in 2010 she obtained a MA in Painting & Drawing from The Institute of Chicago, School of Art in the USA. Her artworks are included in the collections of modern and contemporary museums in South Korea. She examines what was defined in the past and what is meaningful in abstract painting now by incarnating the image of handicraft labor, the loom, that can not skip time. The examples of woven paintings shown below are from the series Hairy Fairy Stain exhibited at Gallery Royal, Korea in 2017.

Website Seungean Cha

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