• July 21, 2022 – December 30, 2022
  • Bank of Hope Manhattan Branch (16 West 32nd Street, New York, NY 10001)
  • M-F: 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM (Bank of Hope Business Hours)
  • No opening reception

The AHL Foundation is proud to present Sunhee Kim Jung’s Solo Exhibition, Island, at the Bank of Hope Manhattan Branch (16 West 32nd Street, New York, NY 10001) from July 21, 2022. 

In this exhibition, the artist Sunhee Kim Jung presents her ‘Island’ series, which she started based on her experience of being quarantined due to Covid-19 for the past two years and feeling as if she was isolated on an island. The Island series shows a unique color, brightness,  saturation and arrangement that never overlaps. Sunhee Kim Jung creates a new world with her peerless colors, imagining the island that is so far away. 

“The artist Sunhee Kim Jung started imagining an island isolated during the pandemic, but ultimately the artist created an unique island that evokes various imaginations with her own colors. This is an exhibition that stimulates the sensitivity that whoever can imagine their own island.” Jiyoung Lee, Program Manager of the Foundation said. 

 

About Sunhee Kim Jung 

Sunhee Kim Jung is a Korean-born American painter living and working in Maryland. She is the recipient of the 2019 AHL Foundation: Andrew & Barbara Choi Family Grant. Currently she is preparing the Mural Project in Thailand for a non-profit organization that houses rescued trafficked children. Jung has been selected by the US Department of State’s Art in Embassy Program for the third time. Four of her paintings were shown at the American Embassy in Rangoon, Burma in 2016-2019. After her residency at the Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts, which helped her to further develop her work, she finished her second residency program at Tong Lau Space in Hong Kong in summer 2018. She finished the Cuttyhunk Island artist residency workshop with Suzanne Brooker in June 2019. She had her 13th solo exhibition at the Carroll Mansion which is the Peale’s inaugural exhibition at its temporary residence. She just finished her 15th solo exhibition at the Maryland Culture and Conference Center in Annapolis Maryland in 2022. She has also exhibited her work in numerous juried shows and solo shows internationally, nationally and regionally including the U.S., Austria, China, Costa Rica, Italy, Hong Kong, Burma, Port of Spain, Switzerland, and South Korea. Jung earned a BFA in painting from Corcoran College of Art & Design, George Washington University and MFA in painting from American University, Washington DC. Jung has taught Art courses at the Anne Arundel Community College in Arnold, MD since 2007.  Jung joined the Board of Directors at the Anne Arundel County Arts Council from 2016-2022. Now she has joined the Board of the Peale Museum in Baltimore, MD. Her paintings have been featured on WNAV radio, The Capital, The Gazette, The Tower Light, The Carroll County Times, Maryland Gazette, What’s up? Media, Washington Woman Magazine, WKTV etc. Her vision is to always strive to expand her work into the limitless territory of modern art. www.sunheekimjung.com

Statement 

For the last 2 years I had a feeling that I was isolated on a deserted island due to the pandemic of Covid-19 but I found some peace ironically in the middle of the isolation. A deserted island is a mysterious place and it certainly can be an isolated location but it can also be a shelter where people can find rest and peace. My paintings represent that place. With each leaf, having its unique color symbolizes all different emotions working together harmoniously with value and intensity in color. Creating a haven for the soul. None of the colors used are used more than once. During 2007-2012, when I had the opportunity to teach Color Theory at a College, I revisited and delved into the theory of color relativity of Josef Albers. He changed how we work with colors and has certainly influenced my recent works, especially the way I juxtapose the different shades of color to achieve different effects. I believe all colors have many different faces. Each viewer can perceive and feel each color differently. A color can be light or dark and the intensity of each color is different as well. By this I mean when the color is bright or dull. In the current series of work, I painted leaves which I believe to have lives similar to human lives. There are leaves of different ages both young and old. To portray this I use bright colors, dull colors, light colors and dark colors. The life of a human has ups and downs. In relation to these moments of feeling, I tried to focus on showing many shades and feelings that the leaves have. Every color has meaning. Colors in the leaves have many different values and intensities, just as human beings do.