LEE Jihyun is an artist based in New Haven, Connecticut, whose paintings layer remembered places with everyday experiences. The starting point of this exhibition is a childhood dream. As a child, she thought that one day she should record the scenes she saw in her dreams through writing and painting so that she would not forget them. She hoped she would be able to recall those scenes even after many years had passed, but eventually realized that the same experience could never be repeated unless she dreamed the same dream again. Since then, rather than recreating the content of the dream itself, she has sought to capture in painting the very sensation in which memory and forgetting, the past and the present, become intertwined.
LIM Subeom's exhibition, presented concurrently at ARARIO GALLERY SEOUL, begins with the question, "Can we clearly distinguish gods from monsters?" The exhibition features works inspired by the Four Guardian Deities of East Asian mythology: the Azure Dragon, Vermilion Bird, White Tiger, and Black Tortoise. Within the boundaries they protect, the Four Guardian Deities are sacred beings that safeguard the community. Outside those boundaries, however, they may appear as fearsome monsters that prevent others from entering. Ultimately, the distinction between gods and monsters lies not in the beings themselves, but in the position and perspective from which they are viewed.
