David B. Smith Gallery

I create works that evoke a fundamental recognition of our space and environment and imply physical vulnerability in our daily life. These ideas evolved from my interest in studying the similarities between human and non-human life forms pertaining to structures, symbols, and patterns. The main concept is a fascination with the comparison of human activity and natural phenomena as it corresponds to the circulation of destruction and creation. My work consists of installations often made out of found objects and common products. In giving these everyday materials new meanings and aesthetic possibilities, I strive to actively practice the concepts of the Eastern philosophies of the circulatory life system and the continuous flow of connections. I re-create or manipulate the materials into a likeness of natural forms to embody new contexts of physical existence, in a sense, mimicking the fundamental force of survival and growth. By attempting to understand characteristics of different life systems and their associations with our own entity as my subject matter, I intend to introduce new visual dialogue and meanings for ephemera in life to define conflict associated with contradictions inherent in nature and society, such as physical fragility and danger, ephemeral and perpetual, creation and extinction.

Hong Seon Jang received his MFA from Rochester Institute of Technology and BFA from Dan Kook University. He has been widely exhibited in solo and group exhibitions at many institutions, including the Islip Art Museum, East Islip, NY; Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, NY; Dumbo Art Center, Brooklyn, NY; Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Island City, NY; Hangaram Art Museum, Seoul, South Korea; and PS122 Gallery, New York, NY. Jang received the Urban Artist Initiative Grant at the Lower East Side Printshop during his 2011 Special Editions Residency, and other residencies and awards include the Elizabeth Foundations for the Arts, NY; Museum of Arts and Design, Open Studios, New York, NY; Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Omaha, NE; and the Triangle Artistsʼ Workshop Program, New York, NY among many others.