The Brooklyn Rail

The most remarkable aspect of this extraordinary exhibition of recent work by Korean-born artist Hyong Nam Ahn lies in his choice of works that emanate from an overflowing aesthetic consistency. Since Ahn arrived in Chicago in the 1970s, he has aimed to develop an identity through art. In the process, he has committed himself to opening new doors of speculation, leading to a pure understanding of what his art represents—these qualities are significant and clearly worth seeking out.

Ahn’s work goes in search of a new way of thinking. He is focused on making art that is both distinctly personal and, on some level, equal to the culture he left behind in Korea. His clarity of purpose has been a way of coming to terms with the binary aspects of art and life, finding ways to pull them together and see both in relation to one another.

The current exhibition, curated by Beatrice Caprioli, presents a selection of mixed media works focused primarily on neon light, transformed from use in the everyday world into works of art. There are numerous examples of varying shapes and forms that reveal the flexibility of Ahn’s approach throughout this exhibition. According to the artist, this might further suggest how linear light coiled within the construct of sculptural form has revealed new aesthetic possibilities. Ahn’s work engages the fact that light and dark are more than opposites, thereby opening the permissive gates of the supposed opposition between the artful intrigue of neon and its isolated conjunction with everyday life.

In the current exhibition, titled Absolute Space (No Longer in Time), Caprioli lists the various components in each of the artist’s works. The materials are few (sometimes more, sometimes less). They include aluminum board, oil paint, neon light, and stainless steel (metal cut-outs). These have been used repetitively, thereby suggesting a relative connection between the various works. It is curious that the listing of oil paint consistently drops the word paint, leaving the word oil in suspended isolation. It is more curious yet that the word neon is purposely followed by the word light—it is not the chemical, but the light itself that is Ahn’s chief concern.

The material sameness of Ahn’s work to which I refer is not intended as a critical comment. In fact, the variety of forms represented here is truly remarkable. There are never two of the same, neither in metal nor in paint. It refers to the quality within the materials he employs, but not to the works themselves. There are similarities, but nothing close to copies. In actuality, Ahn’s work carries a brilliance that stems from the relative limitations the artist has placed upon his practice. The exhibition makes this clear.

As suggested earlier, Hyong Nam Ahn’s career began at a very young age upon his arrival in the United States from his homeland in Korea. He was inevitably clear in his intentions to become a serious artist; yet at the same time he wanted to reveal a sense of multiplicity through his ability to come to terms with a new culture, and in so doing discover something radically new. This continues into the present.

This impulse towards radical invention has also been clear in terms of Ahn’s repetitive use of materials over the years. The difference between the work that Ahn produces and the scope of the materials he uses is crucial to understand. The two are not the same. In essence, the materials used by him over the years are the same materials that have always given him what he needs to pursue his work. Their relative consistency depends on what direction the artist is moving.

The emphasis on neon has been concentrated in Ahn’s recent work, as we have seen for several years now. This will continue as long as necessary. Hyong Nam Ahn is an artist for the many, not just for the few. This means he is in a position of rare leadership, a position he has occupied from the beginning. Here, he decided that a life in art was how he wanted to live—to become an artist meant creating an idea that would not be allowed to disappear.