![[SEOUL] Welcome to My Island, Minju Kang](https://artlogic-res.cloudinary.com/w_800,h_800,c_limit,f_auto,fl_lossy,q_auto/ws-artlogicwebsite1442/usr/images/exhibitions/group_images_override/93/1.-falmingo-and-alpaca-2023-acrylic-on-canvas-210-x-280-cm.jpg)
CHOI&CHOI Gallery presents ‘Welcome to my island’ by Minju Kang. The exhibition marks the artist’s first solo show with the gallery, showcasing a range of her works that depict uncanny landscapes and stream-of-consciousness storytelling.
As you enter the gallery, you are greeted by a large diptych of an amusement park filled with colorful rollercoaster rails, alpacas, and flamingos (Flamingo and Alpaca, 2023). Some might instantly recognize the landmark ‘Children’s Grand Park,’ yet there is something uncanny about the familiar scene.
The theme park is a bubble-gum pastel dreamscape—a sanctuary the artist used to frequent on quiet weekdays—satisfying both her love for all things whimsical and her aversion to large crowds. This tableau aptly introduces Kang’s practice, which frequently draws on personal anecdotes. These elements reinforce the deeply personal nature of her compositions and aid in her exploration of the fickle, half-accurate, half-nonsensical nature of memory itself.
The artist’s recollections are not told with accuracy, chronology, or logic. Bottles of Korean berry wine spill into an Egyptian desert, forming puddles of blood in White Desert and Bokbunja; a lone penguin watches over a fairy-lit Icelandic town in Penguin in Iceland, 2022; and a cartoonish hotdog stand welcomes weary travelers to a resting place in Oasis, 2023. Straddling the line between the surreal and the real, her compositions appear mundane at first glance but reveal humorous and nonsensical details upon closer inspection, offering an abstract glimpse into her internal monologue.
Kang’s techniques also contribute to the uncanny valley effect of the worlds she creates. At first glance, they seem depicted with detailed precision and realism, only to reveal inaccuracies and creative liberties on closer inspection. In this altering and obscuring of reality lies the essence of Minju Kang’s work, inviting viewers to lose themselves in her otherworldly island shaped by fleeting thoughts and subconscious whims.
