See Them Everywhere

October 17, 2008  - January 23, 2009

OPENING: Friday, October 17, 2008, 3-6pm, Won Seok Lim in Attendance

“Four dots.  Accident?”  Art Beatus (Vancouver) Consultancy Ltd. is pleased to present new paintings by local artist, Won Seok Lim in a solo exhibition titled, “See Them Everywhere”.  As seen through the eyes of the artist, the works present something extraordinarily simple, and leads viewers to witness the metamorphosis of something, upon first glance, that we might not really see or understand.  “See Them Everywhere” will open with an afternoon reception on Friday, October 17 from 3pm to 6pm.  The artist will be in attendance and the public are encouraged to attend.

Currently living in Vancouver, Won Seok Lim, also known as Sok, was born in 1966 in the heavily populated region of Seoul, Korea.   A theology major from Chong Shin University (Korea), writer, and self-taught painter, the artist shares his discovery and the basis of his recent works.  Somewhere between an idea and the physically visualized, Sok did not seek out his subject – he feels his subject presented itself to him.  It was always around him in the here and the now, but was not previously noticeable.  With time, his subject [and soon to be subjects] became more visible, and he was seeing them everywhere and in every thing.

The new series starts with a pattern of four black dots on a roughly painted canvas of white. Sok’s almost unrecognizable figures are formed in brisk, repetitive patterns with aggressive paint strokes.  With each painting, viewers are offered a glimpse of what becomes steadily more apparent.  The transformation into something more recognizable quickly manifests and similarly with the progression, the artist’s painting style evolves.  While his technique is still very dark and bold, the figures become more clearly defined, and are then revealed with softer, feathery brushstrokes and black-as-ink backgrounds. 

The repetition in Sok’s new paintings brings one back to his earlier works: scenes of Korean shanty houses, rooftops, and office buildings clustered and overlapping one another in mesmerizing and seemingly endless patterns bound only by the perimeters of the canvas.  While there is this specific similarity, the new – all untitled - series, offers a somewhat darker aesthetic yet also one of fascination for viewers who see the progression of change in not only the subjects, but within the technique of the artist.  “See Them Everywhere” runs from October 17, 2008 to January 23, 2009.