Gallery d'Arte
JAUSEOK KANG
Education
2009 Studio Art, Brooklyn College, NY
2004 Fine Art Photography, Hongik University Graduate School, Seoul
2002 Visual Design, Hansung University, BFA, Seoul
Biography
Jaiseok Kang (a.k.a Jason River) was born in Seoul, South Korea. While growing up, Mr. Kang dreamt of becoming a painter and enjoyed drawing from his own imaginations and observations. In 1995, he entered Hansung University’s Industrial Design department where he was introduced to photography for the first time. After graduating, he pursued his career as a photographer and worked doing numerous commercial projects including fashion, movie posters, and album covers for two years while attending a graduate program at Hongik University majoring in Fine Art Photography. After holding several group exhibitions in Seoul, in 2005, he came to New York City and held his first solo show at Contemporary Project Space Gallery. He studied Fine Art such as Painting, Drawing, and Printmaking at Brooklyn College until 2009, and has been shown both his photographs and printmaking extensively in galleries and a museum throughout the Untied States.Now he lives in Brooklyn and continues his work in Long Island City, New York.
Solo Exhibitions
2016 "JASONRIVER, NY, 2016" Gallery d'Arte, NY
2104 THE COLLECTORS, 1984 Gallery, Seoul
2013 Artwork by Jaiseok Kang a.k.a Jason River, Louis 649, NY
2012 Gelatin Silver Prints & Lithographs by Jaiseok Kang, LIC Art Show, NY
2010 Photograph & Printmaking Show, Studio★/byul:/, LIC Open Studio, NY
2008 Jaiseok Kang Open Studios, 315 Studio, Crane Street Studios, NY
2005 Reflection in the Mirror, Contemporary Project Space Gallery, NY
Two Person Shows
2014 Dancer in MocoMoco, LIC Open, NY2013 Beauty AFTER All, 216 Gallery, NY
Grants/Awards
Honorable Mention Artist, 2011 National Photography Competition, Camera Club of New York (CCNY)
Artist Statement
My work begins when I take photographs unconsciously of varying subjects. It seems as though many artists tend to fit their work into an oppressive theoretical framework before they actually start taking photographs. Although I do not completely deny that my artwork has a theoretical backdrop, many of us wrongly believe that having a concrete theory in their work is the beginning point of photograph taking. For me, the act of taking photographs comes before theoretical background.
The moment never returns. In this regard, I concentrate on each moment with my subject or of situations when I can and I capture the moment when I can with my camera. I do not think about anything else.
Wrapping Series
With models posing in the nude, sometimes in classic poses associated with statuary, there's a freedom for viewers to create their own ideas about what they're seeing, their relationship to the images and who these figures are. Yet the addition of wrapping, tape and labels indicating the models' origins creates a different dynamic. What happens to a viewer's identification with a model? Is the photographed figure still seen as beautiful or something foreign, unknown? Is the figure deadened when constricted and covered up? The use of physical labeling/packaging that obscures a figure's body and severely limits movement can serve as a metaphor for how social labeling/packaging in our contemporary world can obscure who we are and dictate our possibilities. Packaging/labeling can bind us in ways that limit a broader, more imaginative understanding of our humanity.