Chung Hyun

Chung Hyun (Korean:정현 1956)was born in Incheon, Korea. He received both his B.A. and M.A. from Hongik University majoring in sculpture. Then he earned his diplome l’Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Art de Paris in 1990. He has produced mainly human heads and humanoid bronze works in the 1980s and 1990s. In the 2000s, he made works using railway sleepers. Not only the material but also the more abstracted form are perceived as the material, and the interest of the 'human' that the artist ultimately pursues in the context of it is added to the depth.

Most of the artists left the classical human body in the diverse and complex divisions of contemporary art, but Jung Hyun constantly explores this material. His work, which deals with the problem of 'existence' by embodying a face or body, is as unfinished as it is rough and rough, but there is a sincere and sincere worry about life in it.

Materials chosen by Chung Hyun are usually from discarded waste that no longer has a purpose. Through sleepers, charcoal, asphalt concrete and mixed stones - materials in which have been thrown away in contemporary society – the true side of human being is revealed. Chung Hyun does not alter the material much, but he tends to correspond and try not to lose any of the material’s particular characteristics, rather concentrates on bringing out power carried within out onto the surface.

After he returned from Paris, he held solo exhibitions in Beijing Today Art Museum, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Kim Chong Yong Art Museum, and Kumho Museum of Art. He also participated in integral group exhibitions at Seoul Olympic Museum of Art, Pohang Museum of Art, and Fukuoka Museum of Asian Art. He was awarded ‘Today’s Artist’ at Kim Chong Yong Art Museum, ‘2006 Artist of the Year’ at National Museum of Contemporary Art in Korea. Recently, Chung was a winner of Korea Art Critics Association Award. He is currently a professor at Hongik University Graduate School of Art.

Works:
"Rediscovery of Drawings" (1998),
"Korean Sculpture of Today 2000 - Finding a New Dimension" (2000),
"Invitation Exhibition of Korean Contemporary Art" 1999) and was selected as the Artist of the Year by the National Museum of Contemporary Art in 2006. His main concern is 'human'.
The 'sleepers' used in 'Untitled' (2002) are large and solid wood that supports the rail under the railway track. It is difficult to fold in various shapes due to its strong texture. In this work, a simple human figure is revealed together with a rough result in a place where the sleeper cuts a tentacle. In massive mass, life energy seems to be condensed, and in the rough texture, the fleshiness of human life is felt.
https://hisour.com/artist/chung-hyun/