2011 Mirae Award – Exhibition

Kim Daemin (Senior, Seoul Institute of the Arts, Department of Photography)
An Jonghyun (Senior, Sunchon National University, Department of Photographic Art)
Jeong Gyeowoon (Junior, University of Ulsan, School of Biological Sciences)

period : 2012. 2. 1 – 2. 22
Place : Canon Plex Gallery

The MIRAE AWARD is a program aimed at nurturing next generation artists, where Art Foundation’s education programs and corporate Mecenat are combined. Starting off as “Canon Scholarship” in 2007, the AWARD was further developed in 2008 by “Geonhi Art Foundation”. In 2010, eligible candidates for the contest were expanded to college students across the country, regardless of their major, to transform the AWARD as “MIRAE AWARD” that gives open hope to all college students who are dreaming through their photos. This program has identified and nurtured 27 college students so far and it has served as a foundation for the cultural expansion of photo art. In the 2011 MIRAE AWARD, three winners were selected in June out of 110 college students across the country and they have been given tutoring classes by professional photographers of Koo Bohnchang, Noh Suntag, Park Youngmi, Park Hyundoo and Jin Dongsun for six months. Now they are presenting their works in the exhibition and a collection of works.

Kim Daemin’s works focus on a silver town that has emerged as one of major concerns due to structural changes in our society. It captured attention of the judges in a sense that it approaches the social essence of a space or our time with an unexaggerated and delicate gaze. In the mentoring class, he has adopted a more serious attitude as an artist in his works. Deeper observations about objects than before give an entirely different and new meaning to the objects, compared with when they are in a usual place. How long has he been waiting, what has he been looking at, and what has he had in his mind? These are the reasons that make the changes of this young photographer genuine.

An Jonghyun’s [The Red Room] illustrates the red-light district that has stopped its social functions and been turned into redevelopment. His work recreates the object, which may seem stale, in a focused frame and dreamy colours and shows that he is practised for a college student. During the short six months of the tutoring class, this enthusiastic young artist has made diverse attempts across genres and produced a large amount of works. A sense of selection and concentration, which contributed to the high score in the contest, is now leading to a new attempt at convergence and integration. After all, he has proved during those times that the desire as a young artist is not greed but faithfulness.

It is meaningless to draw the line between photo majors and non-photo majors. Nevertheless, Jeong Gyeowoon is all the more fresh and special because he has not received photo training. Ordinary objects and space are photographed with no frames and visualized roughly, which gives the enchantment of rawness. We were rather careful not to make this sensitivity become ordinary in the mentoring course. We hope that his gift of expressing the given sense honestly will not be locked in a cage and he can continue to create works that are just like “Jeong Gyeowoon”.

The winners of the 2011 MIRAE AWARD have found what they would like to do and they desire to walk along this tough but unstoppable path for an artist with the passion. We appreciate that they have taken their first step with the MIRAE AWARD program and expect them to continue deep introspection of our society and culture with the prudent attitude they have today.
Park Youngmi (Curator, Geonhi Art Foundation)

[Works]
Kim Daemin
An Jonghyun
Jeong Gyeowoon