This past March, Ian Harvey and his wife Koo Kyung Sook had a small group show at the Shimo Gallery in the bottom right corner of midtown. In this small and intimate space the husband and wife team, who are known to frequently collaborate on elaborate and labor intensive multi-part paintings constructed from small business cards acting as support, put together a grouping of individual works in each of their own unique styles and techniques.
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| Ian Harvey, No. 158, Ink, acrylic, and shellac. 2016 |
Perhaps my favorite element of the work I have seen of Ian's, tonight as well as on a few other earlier occasions, is the different approach to materials or the physically of those materials that he gives attention to. The use of the different media, the ink or the acrylic, or even the shellac or occasional oil, all plays a role with the color it brings as well as the varying ways in which its physicality and surfacing are deployed and utilized. The different opacities, or multi dimensionality, or contrasting effects impact the feel of the work uniquely while also spontaneously and deliberately. There are no mistakes or accidents here, there is only intention and expression.
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| Ian Harvey, No. 157, Ink, acrylic, shellac, and oil. 2016 |
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| Koo Kyung Sook, Markings 15-4, Woodcut. 2015 |
Koo's work, these magnificent woodcuts, is so physically engaging and rewarding. I stood in front of several, if not all, of her prints show that night and marveled at the sculptural qualities, and at the massive amount of sneaky unassuming and monumentous detail. The pulp that makes up these works has real three dimensional elements to it, the paper pulp having been built up further and further to create winding valleys of color and form. The one color palette is also supportive, creating and highlighting form in addition to that which the winding crevices of the paper itself inhabits. It was so astonishingly straightforward to get lost within these.
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| Koo Kyung Sook, Markings 14-3, Woodcut. 2015 |
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