▲ Curator Sookja Gwon

Gwon’s works are reflections of inner world. She says she is not interested in pursuing fame, achievement and trend but in figuring out her state of mind. She delivers this ‘figuring out’ onto canvas with images she drew in her head. She devoted her life to art and education for 40 years and never looked back. It was 2015 that she retired from education and started a new phase of life by opening the Angeli Art Museum in Yongin City.

Gwon was weak and sickly when a child. She went to the point of death at one time and saw a beautiful heaven (so she said). The beautiful heaven became her ‘ideal world’ ever since and it is dominant theme appears in all her works. In that dark world, the extreme sadness becomes a path to reach to this beautiful world. A man in her works is just a tiny dot compared to magnificent nature. And she crosses over the border of life between man and nature through imaginative and lyrical charm.  

Following her exhibition <A Stroll on Gwon Sook Ja’s 40 Years of Art World – Garden of Memory> in 2018, she recently held <Re-Stroll on Gwon Sook Ja’s 40 Years of Art World – Bursting Life>. Both exhibitions deliver joys and sorrows of her life in various forms of images and they attracted a great attention and praise from the viewers.

“Holding exhibitions for me is not the end of a phase but a start of a phase. Through the exhibitions, I found another inner world of mine and brought it up to the light through the canvas.”

“People tattoo on their skin hope, dream and freedom and never stop searching them. As one of the people, I share with them mystery of life and sublimity of life. I’m thoroughly alone in my work but thoroughly with them in the process. At the end of the day, I always realize I’m but with them.”

At the Angeli Art Museum, we can meet works of young artists as well as children who are determined to be an artist one day even if it is a whim on the day. 300 children and their family joined the fest of the 4th Children Art Contest held at the museum this May. 

“I dreamed of opening an art museum for 20 years and I finally made it. I am fully intended to use this place for exhibition, education, communication and healing through various programs and events. Please come and see what you can find.” 

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