KANG Cheolgyu: Discarded Host: Solo Exhibition

ARARIO GALLERY SEOUL presents Discarded Host, a solo exhibition by KANG Cheolgyu (b. 1990), on view from May 1 (Fri) to June 20 (Sat), 2026. KANG has developed a body of work that transforms lived reality into an imagined painterly realm, drawing from personal experience and psychological sensations rooted in the inner self. Rather than directly depicting specific events, he concentrates on the moment when emotions and memories crystallize into visual form, composing psychological scenes in which anxiety, tension, and unfamiliar sensations quietly persist. By projecting the self onto figures and narratives situated within fictional environments, his paintings engage in an indirect confrontation with identity, constructing a visual narrative that reflects an ongoing process of personal transformation. Composed of new paintings, this exhibition highlights a perceptual shift evident in KANG’s recent practice. The works move away from understanding the self as a fixed and unified entity, instead proposing it as a fluid condition shaped by intertwined perceptions, sensations, emotions, and recollections. The exhibition follows how this conceptual transition emerges through evolving pictorial motifs, revealing that symbolic images—previously appearing through fragmentation and cohesion, distortion and continuity—are not markers of internal deficiency but outcomes of multiple modes of perception operating simultaneously.

 

KANG Cheolgyu was born in Gimcheon, Korea in 1990. He received his BFA in Painting in 2015 and MFA in Fine Arts in 2019 from Hannam University. He has held solo exhibitions at Gallery IN HQ (Seoul, Korea, 2024), Chapter II (Seoul, Korea, 2022), M2 Project-room at Lee Ungno Museum (Daejeon, Korea, 2021), Artist Residency TEMI (Daejeon, Korea, 2020), and Gallery Gabi (Seoul, Korea, 2018), among others. His work has been included in group exhibitions at Museumhead (Seoul, Korea, 2025), Kumho Museum of Art (Seoul, Korea, 2025), Schema Art Museum (Cheongju, Korea, 2024), Daejeon Museum of Art (Daejeon, Korea, 2024, 2021, 2018), WWNN (Seoul, Korea, 2024), ARARIO GALLERY SEOUL (Seoul, Korea, 2024), Gallery Baton (Seoul, Korea, 2022), and Gwang Gallery, Sejong Center for the Performing Arts (Seoul, Korea, 2015). He participated in residency programs at Artist Residency TEMI in 2020 and Studio White Block Cheonan in 2023. KANG was selected as a Kumho Young Artist in 2024. His works are held in the collections of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea Art Bank; Seoul Museum of Art; Daejeon Museum of Art; and the ARARIO Collection.