Thursday, January 4, 2024

Reflecting Time Passing, Chris Oh Reinterprets Works of the Northern Renaissance on Ephemeral Substrates

a detail image of a painting on gnarled wood of people harvesting produce

Detail of “Forage” (2023), acrylic on antique burl slab, 65.09 x 81.28 x 6.03 centimeters.

Shortly after the Renaissance swept through Italy in the 14th century, the Northern Renaissance began to take hold north of the Alps. In countries like Germany, France, Poland, and England, artists turned their attention toward humanism like their counterparts in Rome and Florence, although piety and the everyday trials of poor people dominated the north, while the wealthy and ruling classes featured more prominently in Italy.

In a new body of work on view at Capsule Shanghai, artist Chris Oh draws on this tradition through a series of paintings that consider how stories, knowledge, and information are shared through generations. Titled Passage, the exhibition features a range of found-object sculptures and wall-based works appropriated from primarily Northern Renaissance-era artists like Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Hieronymus Bosch, and Jan van Eyck, to name a few.

Oh often paints the likeness of the paintings from the period on natural substrates like gnarled slices of burl wood and pearlescent oyster shells, nesting the familiar scenes and portraits within organic surfaces. “I want to use materials that grew over time,” he says.

 

a painting on a woodcut depicting farm laborers resting underneath a tree

“Reap” (2023), acrylic on antique burl slab, 48.26 x 62.23 x 4.45 centimeters

The artist begins each piece by referencing the etymology and symbolism within the original works, which he then pairs with an unconventional material. “Reap,” for example, recreates Bruegel’s “The Harvesters” (1565), with grooves of gnarled wood indenting the scene of autumn crops and backbreaking labor. One of the few works within Passage derived from the Italian Renaissance, “Gorgon” positions Leonardo da Vinci’s portrait of Florentine aristocrat Ginevra de’ Benci on a thin piece of dried sea fan, the pocked surface evoking the juniper bush in the background of the masterpiece.

Through these recreations, Oh puzzles together scenes and objects from differing periods to help the viewer draw associations between the two. The idea, Fiona He writes in an essay about the exhibition, is to convey “that all the sentient beings exist(ing) on Earth can relate to notions of the celestial realm and the underworld, finding the lasting beauty that exists in between.”

Passage is on view through January 13. Find more of Oh’s work on Instagram. (via Art Viewer)

 

a portrait of a woman painted onto a porous dried sea fan sticking out of a wooden vase

“Gorgon” (2023), acrylic on sea fan with wood base, 48.9 x 25.4 x 7.62 centimeters

a painting of hunters with their dogs looking at a town on a snowy day, all rendered on a cut wooden slab

“Burl” (2021), acrylic on antique wooden burl slab, 53.34 x 76.2 x 5.08 centimeters

a woodcut with a painting of people picking berries

“Forage” (2023), acrylic on antique burl slab, 65.09 x 81.28 x 6.03 centimeters

a cross cut piece of wood with a painting of a herd of cows and a person on a horse in a bucolic setting

“Herd” (2023), acrylic on antique burl slab, 44.13 x 62.87 x 5.08 centimeters

top left: a painting of a gray hand with fingers dangling down on a blue backdrop in a spiked, wooden frame. top right: a painted face in a pearlescent shell. bottom left: a portrait of a woman with curly red hair and jewels on her head and necklace in a shell. bottom right: a painting of a hand dangling down on a green backdrop in a wooden frame

Top left: “Faint” (2023), acrylic on wood panel with antique frame, 21.27 x 13.65 x 3.18 centimeters. Top right: “Shimmer” (2023), acrylic on seashell, acrylic on seashell, 19.67 x 13.02 x 6.35 centimeters. Bottom left: “Radiate” (2023), acrylic on seashell, 22.9 x 20.32 x 2.54 centimeters. Bottom right: “Shed” (2023), acrylic on wood panel with antique frame, 22.86 x 20 x 2.86 centimeters

a detail image of people ice skating in a painting on a woodcut

Detail of “Burl” (2021), acrylic on antique wooden burl slab, 53.34 x 76.2 x 5.08 centimeters

a sculpture on a white pedestal in front of a window. the sculpture is of a gilded nest elevated with floral metal pieces and a butterfly with a woman's face emerges from the top

Installation view of “Hatch” (2023), acrylic on cicada with brass rod, robin’s egg, faux eggs, faux nest, antique metal holder, 34.92 x 20.32 x 20.32 centimeters

an installation view of a bust painted a deep shade on a wood pedestal on a larger white pedestal in a room with green, yellow, and red marbled walls

Installation view of “Chlorophyll” (2023), acrylic on antique statue, 34.61 x 16.83 x 19.05 centimeters

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article Reflecting Time Passing, Chris Oh Reinterprets Works of the Northern Renaissance on Ephemeral Substrates appeared first on Colossal.



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