Exhibition | Works on Paper

ArtXchange Gallery presents Works on Paper, a group exhibition celebrating the wide-ranging possibilities of one of the world’s most accessible art materials. Featured in this exhibition is the work of gallery artists Alan Lau, Gilchun Koh, Donald Cole, Jiyoung Chung, and Elaine Hanowell, who each bring their own distinct sensibility to the idea of “work on paper”.  Whether it’s drawing, printmaking, painting, sculpting, or collaging, paper provides a freedom and immediacy cherished by artists throughout history.

Alan Lau is a painter, poet, journalist, and creative organizer who has been a key figure in Seattle’s Asian-American cultural scene for decades. Lau’s abstract paintings on paper weave ink, paint, and pastel into layered, rhythmic patterns. These elegant abstractions are both macrocosms and microcosms, skillfully weaving a poetic web of connections between his own life, the ever-evolving Seattle community, and the larger world. Lau’s work is rooted in the traditions of the Chinese Literati movement and Northwest modernism yet fused with contemporary style and free in his own interpretations. Lau is the recipient of City of Seattle’s 2014 Mayor’s Arts Award, and a major grant by the Adolph & Esther Gottlieb Foundation.

Gilchun Koh is one of the most internationally recognized artists from Jeju Island, South Korea. This landscape of breathtaking volcanic beauty is also the site of centuries of conflict, due in part to its strategic location between Korea, Japan and China. One of a group of prominent political artists known as ‘Sasam artists’, Koh blends art and activism throughout his work. In addition to creating works commemorating and honoring the history of Jeju Island, he aims to create awareness of the growing impact that military activities and commercialization are having on the environment and local species. Koh received his BFA (painting) in 1982 from Chosun University in Kwangju and MFA (printmaking) in 2006 from Hong-Ik University in Seoul. Koh has taught extensively in Korea and the US. In 2011, Koh was a visiting guest lecturer along with Noam Chomsky at Boston College, and later with Gloria Steinem at New York University, on the subject of art and its role in political protest.

Jiyoung Chung is internationally recognized for bringing the utilitarian “Joomchi” tradition, a Korean method of hand-felting Hanji (mulberry) paper, into the world of contemporary art. In Jiyoung’s hands, the ancient craft takes a contemporary appearance and hanji paper reveals itself as a painterly, abstract medium filled with sculptural and textural qualities. Chung’s “Joomchi” works create poetic visual narratives about connection, and the strengths and holes in the essential relationship between humanity, nature, and spirit. Chung received her BFA from Rhode Island School of Design and her MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art. Her work has been featured in numerous solo and group shows throughout the U.S., Korea, China, Canada, Australia, and Europe.

Donald Cole’s energetic mark-making and textured surfaces are hallmarks of his work, but each painting is purposefully a technical departure from the next. Born in 1930 in New York City, Cole’s work has deep roots in the Abstract Expressionist movement that surrounded him as a youth. As his art career gained momentum in the 1970s amidst the Pop Art and Minimalist movements, Cole explored independent directions in abstraction. Rejecting artwork that responded only to formal concerns or trends, Cole expressed political and cultural content through color, brushstroke, and texture. Cole is the recipient of multiple awards and grants, including two from the National Endowment for the Arts, and his work has been exhibited abroad through the Art in Embassies program of the U.S. State Department.

Elaine Hanowell is a Pacific Northwest artist whose work is influenced by a deep love for nature, and a sensibility inspired by extensive travel and immersion in global cultures. Working primarily in paper and wood, her lighted sculptures are recognized throughout the West Coast, from large installations in public buildings, such as popular Seattle restaurant The Dahlia Lounge, to smaller custom arrangements in private residences. In 2007, Hanowell was honored with the Grand Prize in the Margo Harris Hammerschlag Biennial Open National Competition in Sculpture for Direct Carving, awarded by the National Association of Women Artists in New York, the oldest professional women’s fine art organization in the United States.