Wool Ga Choi
Choi's life experiences have been a perpetual inspiration for his work since he began making art over 40 years ago. His themes are culled from many sources ranging from his nomadic life-style to his struggle to live as an artist to the interconnectedness of lives in metropolitan cities. The subjects and objects that appear in his paintings are part of a unique visual vocabulary Choi has developed and reused in his work throughout his life as an artist. This vocabulary has become the ideal language to share his views and understanding of the contemporary world. In Choi's compositions, the subjects and objects do not share overt relationships and are purposefully situated in improbable scenes. These juxtapositions of decipherable and indecipherable symbols and displaced objects coexist harmoniously and reflect the reality of coexistence in the world at large. The simple colors, forms and style reference primitive and innocent gestures while reiterating the artist's belief in the harmonious nature of life.
Choi begins and ends all of his paintings with the austere colors of either black and white. To develop the depth of the black or white surface, Choi combines layers of different colors that exist, unseen, below the surface of the black and white finish. Over the past five years, Choi has begun to include a painted frame or protective barrier in his the paintings in order to enclose the personal and abstract space and vision in his paintings. To help keep the objects and ideas in place, polygonal shapes are strategically "sewn" into the corners of the canvas. These calm minimalist-like corners of the paintings act as buffers in what can be a chaotic scene and subtly help to achieve balance within the works.
Woolga Choi grew up in Bussan, Korea and currently lives and works in New York and Korea. Well known and recognized in Korean art circles as a forerunner in neo-expressionist style, Choi spent the last thirty years practicing art in Paris, Tokyo, and Seoul. He moved to New York in 2000 to escape from acrylic painting and his familiar lifestyle in France in order to explore a new world. Choi made his New York debut with paintings and sculptures from the White Series; the first body of work he produced in New York that also garnered him much recognition. The Black Series began in 2006 became the focus of his attention in 2008.
