Chung Eun-Mo: Shape of Light
Monica De Cardenas is delighted to announce an exhibition by Chung Eun-Mo at the gallery in Zuoz. The artworks will fill rooms with a strong architectural identity: the ancient vaulted entrance and the former barn behind it鈥攁 vertical, airy space where the ceiling rises from five to over eight meters in height. In this context, the encounter between Chung Eun-Mo鈥檚 work and the gallery鈥檚 historic architecture is not merely a dialogue but a shared construction of visual experience: the space shapes the perception of the artwork, and the artwork, in turn, activates a new reading of the space.
In the exhibition "Shape of Light" Chung presents a core group of shaped canvases, created mainly from the 1980s to the early 2000s. These paintings, defined by asymmetrical geometric outlines and areas of pure color, engage with the surrounding architecture. The shaped canvases converse with the volumes of the space, responding to the arches, openings, and large windows that flood the gallery with natural light. The expansive white wall becomes a kind of neutral field that welcomes and refracts the chromatic geometries of the works, creating a visual rhythm that extends through the gallery. The compositions thus resonate with the architectural elements, generating a perceptual experience that is both pictorial and spatial.
At the heart of Chung Eun-Mo鈥檚 practice is a conception of color as a manifestation of light. For the artist, light is not a subject to be represented but an intrinsic quality of chromatic material. By shaping her paintings, Chung makes visible their capacity to emit, reflect, and modulate light: color becomes structure, and pictorial form becomes architecture. In this sense, her works seem to give form to light itself鈥攏ot natural, descriptive light, but light perceived through the relationship between form and color.
After moving to Italy in the 1980s, Chung Eun-Mo developed an intense and enduring engagement with Renaissance painting. Her relationship with Italian art history is not expressed through direct references but rather as a method of vision and visual construction. Though her painting is abstract, it maintains a deep connection to figurative tradition, reflected in the rigorous composition, the balance between positive and negative space, and the use of color as a structural and relational element. In this sense, Chung鈥檚 interest in Piero della Francesca鈥檚 work is no coincidence but rather a cornerstone of her visual and painterly formation: in both, space is also mental, organized according to principles of clarity and proportion. Light is constructed through internal relationships, and color acts as a tool for spatial articulation. Chung Eun-Mo鈥檚 works evoke mental spaces and suspended atmospheres: some compositions seem to allude to landscapes or archetypal structures, where silence, measure, and formal tension take the place of narrative. The result is a painting that, while radically non-figurative, retains a perceptual resonance鈥攊t generates images in the mind rather than representing them. Micola Clara Brambilla
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Monica De Cardenas is delighted to announce an exhibition by Chung Eun-Mo at the gallery in Zuoz. The artworks will fill rooms with a strong architectural identity: the ancient vaulted entrance and the former barn behind it鈥攁 vertical, airy space where the ceiling rises from five to over eight meters in height. In this context, the encounter between Chung Eun-Mo鈥檚 work and the gallery鈥檚 historic architecture is not merely a dialogue but a shared construction of visual experience: the space shapes the perception of the artwork, and the artwork, in turn, activates a new reading of the space.
In the exhibition "Shape of Light" Chung presents a core group of shaped canvases, created mainly from the 1980s to the early 2000s. These paintings, defined by asymmetrical geometric outlines and areas of pure color, engage with the surrounding architecture. The shaped canvases converse with the volumes of the space, responding to the arches, openings, and large windows that flood the gallery with natural light. The expansive white wall becomes a kind of neutral field that welcomes and refracts the chromatic geometries of the works, creating a visual rhythm that extends through the gallery. The compositions thus resonate with the architectural elements, generating a perceptual experience that is both pictorial and spatial.
At the heart of Chung Eun-Mo鈥檚 practice is a conception of color as a manifestation of light. For the artist, light is not a subject to be represented but an intrinsic quality of chromatic material. By shaping her paintings, Chung makes visible their capacity to emit, reflect, and modulate light: color becomes structure, and pictorial form becomes architecture. In this sense, her works seem to give form to light itself鈥攏ot natural, descriptive light, but light perceived through the relationship between form and color.
After moving to Italy in the 1980s, Chung Eun-Mo developed an intense and enduring engagement with Renaissance painting. Her relationship with Italian art history is not expressed through direct references but rather as a method of vision and visual construction. Though her painting is abstract, it maintains a deep connection to figurative tradition, reflected in the rigorous composition, the balance between positive and negative space, and the use of color as a structural and relational element. In this sense, Chung鈥檚 interest in Piero della Francesca鈥檚 work is no coincidence but rather a cornerstone of her visual and painterly formation: in both, space is also mental, organized according to principles of clarity and proportion. Light is constructed through internal relationships, and color acts as a tool for spatial articulation. Chung Eun-Mo鈥檚 works evoke mental spaces and suspended atmospheres: some compositions seem to allude to landscapes or archetypal structures, where silence, measure, and formal tension take the place of narrative. The result is a painting that, while radically non-figurative, retains a perceptual resonance鈥攊t generates images in the mind rather than representing them. Micola Clara Brambilla
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