Van Abbemuseum

Jewyo Rhii

26 Jan - 12 May 2013

Jewyo Rhii, Big Black Man and Small Black Man, 2012. Courtesy the artist
Jewyo Rhii, Walk to talk typewriter
Two, 1999 - 2002. Installation view at Van Abbemuseum, 2013. Photo Peter Cox
Jewyo Rhii, Airport Romance
Jewyo Rhii, Cooling System, 2010. Courtesy the artist
Jewyo Rhii at work in Eindhoven, 2013. Courtesy the artist
Jewyo Rhii, Lie on the Han River
JEWYO RHII
Walls to Talk to
26 January - 12 May 2013

Jewyo Rhii's practice shows an apparently unending struggle simply to cope with the world. She is an artist who has developed a unique body of work that stems from her sensitive, personal and almost subliminal responses to her immediate environments. Born in Korea, she has displaced herself many times in the last 10 years including periods in Western Europe and the USA. These conditions of constant movement, which are shared by many artists and others of her generation, form one of the bases of her work.

Rhii's sprawling, makeshift sculptures and installations have a homemade feel that recalls elements of arte povera, US women artists of the 1960s such as Eva Hesse as well as appropriation art from the 1990s with their reuse of domestic or familiar elements.

Rhii's exhibition at the Van Abbemuseum will be the artist's most comprehensive exhibition to date, presenting a selection of recent work, including drawings from the museum's collection alongside a series of site-specific pieces produced during a four-month stay in Eindhoven. With these pieces, as with many of her previous bodies of work, the artist will draw on the experiences, sentiments and materials of her immediate surroundings.

Following its presentation at the Van Abbemuseum the exhibition will travel to MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt and Artsonje Center, Seoul and will be accompanied by a catalogue, published by Koenig Books. The exhibition is supported by the Yanghyun Foundation.

Curators: Nick Aikens, Charles Esche
 

Tags: Eva Hesse, Jewyo Rhii