▲ Artist Ki Ok-ran

Famous for her themes ‘trans-human’ and ‘neo-nomad’, artist Ki Ok-ran is holding an invitational exhibition at Gwangju Veterans Hospital Gallery until 31st May under the title ‘Encounter of Trans Human and Galaxy’. Her works have been appeared in around 300 invitational and group exhibitions home and abroad and she has participated in around 50 international art fairs. She is often called as ‘Korean Picasso’ and ‘Korean Jean-Michel Basquiat’. <Latin America, Beyond Incomplete Yearning>, the photo exhibition last year followed by 20 works of landscapes combined with artificial devices, wowed visitors with fresh images and styles. 

The exhibition with music
On the opening day of the exhibition on 3rd May, soprano Lee Seung-hee, cellist Yoon So-hee and pianist Ban Su-jin gave congratulatory music performances with popular songs such as Salut d’amour by Edward Elgar, Nella Fantasia by Ennio Morricone, the Lake part of the Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saens, My Mind by Kim Dong-jin, Turkish March by Mozart, and Die Forelle and Erlkonig by Schubert. 

Soprano Lee obtained a master’s degree from Manhattan School of Music, New York and a doctor’s degree from Stony Brook University, New York. She made her debut in New York by appearing in the opera La boheme. Back in Korea, she performed with Gwangju Symphony Orchestra and Mon Amour Symphony Orchestra. 

Cellist Yoon completed master performance courses at Leipzig College of Music and at Weimar College of Music. She performed with Kyoto Symphony Orchestra and has held numerous invitational performances in the Netherlands, France and Japan alongside 5 times recitals. 

Pianist Ban finished master performance courses at National Superior Conservatory of Music and Dance of Paris and won prizes at the International Competition of Music and Dramatic Art Leopold Bellan and at the Scriabin International Competition.

“It is meaningful to have an exhibition at Gwangju Veterans Hospital Gallery. Men of national merit and their families are the ones who built a foundation for democratic society we enjoy today. I hope my works will give joy and comfort and a new experience like you are drinking fresh and clean water of a spring in a deep forest.”

Exhibitions in Paris, London and Brussels
Prior to the current exhibition, Ki held an invitational exhibition at Gallery OHSONG in Paris last February and March, and at Vittel Biennale at Paris International Conference Hall and at the Independent Exhibition at Rmn-Grand Palais in July last year. After the invitational exhibition at Gallery OHSONG, she displayed her works at a number of art fairs held in London, Brussels, Hong Kong and Dubai. In June this year, she is joining the Plas-Contemporary Art Show held at COEX, Seoul, followed by Singapore Bank Art Fair in September and invitational exhibitions in Gwangju Gangdeok Gallery the next month and in New York autumn this year and at Chonnam National University Art Space Gallery in May next year. Meanwhile, her photo exhibition <Time, Space, Nature and Artificial Intelligence> is being held at Rynn Gallery in Yeosu City from May 3rd to 16th.