구자현 대한민국, 1955

Koo Ja Hyun has been researching the essence of flat artwork for over 40 years with a consistent and thorough attitude toward materials and properties. As one of the master craftsmen of Korean printmaking, the artist is discovering his artistic methodology through delicate material research and unique techniques. Koo Ja Hyun is an artist who simultaneously pursues the purity of the medium and its transcendent characteristics, maintaining the tension between the form of art and the attitude towards life. Born in 1955, Koo Ja Hyun graduated from the Department of Fine Arts at Hongik University and has exhibited in cities such as Seoul, Daegu, Busan, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Paris, and Nuremberg. He is one of the representative artists of contemporary Korean art, with his works collected in prestigious institutions such as the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, and the State Bank of Bavaria in Germany.

Koo Ja Hyun’s artworks can be broadly categorized into two types: tableau works, which are painting works using gold leaf and platinum leaf on a flat surface with multiple layers of gesso, and printmaking works utilizing techniques such as lithography, screen printing, and woodcut. In pursuit of a perfectly flat surface, the artist's tableau works begin with an underpainting process that creates a surface of pure white using the tempera technique. Onto this surface, Koo Ja Hyeon applies gold leaf sourced from Kanazawa, Japan, renowned for its gold leaf production. The gold leaf, with a thickness of 0.001mm, is an extremely delicate material sensitive even to minor static electricity, demanding extreme precision in its application. Upon settling onto the surface, the gold leaf quivers with the slightest movement, transcending its physical weight and density. Moreover, gold leaf, being a mineral itself, embodies a diversity perceived visually depending on changes in space or light, adding layers of complexity to the artwork. Koo Ja Hyeon's paintings are simultaneously material and immaterial, seeming worldly yet unworldly, embodying both the material properties and symbolic nature of gold as color and light. This ambivalence and polysemy are unique characteristics of Koo Ja Hyeon's paintings.