Seo Eun Kim, who earned her Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Toronto this year, was honoured with a gallery opening on June 1, 2017.

I interviewed her about the broad concept of the meaning of art, both in the eyes of the artist, and the eyes of the beholder. Her views are refreshing.

"A lot of artists are concerned with artists' statements. I understand that in the process of getting grants, you need to explain what you are doing. It's not unnatural, but it is backwards," she said.

She places the paintings first, the linguistics second. "It feels like you have done so much work to put it on canvas, it's a bit disappointing because you want people to take the responsibility to extract what he or she wants. You can have a dialogue without explicit input from the author. Discussing what reactions or receptions should be seems counter intuitive."

Sunny, as she is called, is a Korean-born artist who has given a lot of thought to what she terms "the linguistic articulation of painting." She laments that "I feel I'm the only one who missed the point."

As an expert on art, I can say her views are in fact quite correct. While they may not be politically correct, that ground can shift and she will come out the winner.

 

Her art can be viewed at Yumart Gallery, 401 Richmond Street West, Suite B20, Lower Concourse, Toronto.

www.yumart.ca

 

Photos with this article copyright Dr. C. Cunningham