At the Gallery Bisunjae in Seoul, Ugo Li's "Picking Flowers" exhibition is a thought-provoking yet accessible collection. On display are 50 paintings by the French artist, created over the course of a year specifically for his Korean debut, presenting an engaging exploration of a seemingly simple subject matter.
Through a succession of thematically similar images, I could appreciate how Li transforms the ordinary act of picking flowers into something more meaningful. As anyone who has taken still life in art classes will know, these paintings go beyond mere representation. The works become inquiries into the relationship between beauty and time, a concept that resonates particularly well young people like me, who sense the onset of changes in their lives, physical, mental, and emotional.
Spanning from September 26 to the end of October, the exhibition seems to have been timed to coincide with Seoul’s beautiful autumnal season. Such a felicitous schedule creates a natural connection between the artwork inside the gallery and the seasonal changes occurring outside, enhancing the exhibition's themes of transformation and impermanence.
While some of the gallery's philosophical explanations about human consciousness and mortality might seem complex, the paintings themselves communicate directly through their visual poetry. Li's work expresses profound ideas through familiar subjects, making this exhibition an excellent introduction to contemporary art for viewers of all ages.
The exhibition exposes the gap between accessible subject matter and deeper artistic expression, which in many ways undercuts the power of the images. The artist’s statement seems needlessly profound whereas the images, in their simplicity, carry a power that was incapable of being encapsulated by the artist’s intellectualizing. His brush was mightier than the pen. offering an educational experience that encourages viewers to look beyond the surface and develop their own interpretations.
