“Then and Now, Part 2” Bowery Gallery, 2021
http://www.bowerygallery.org/then_and_now_part2.html
The earlier work Il Ponte Sisto, an outdoor painting, expresses the exuberance of living in Rome as a young painter which is reflected by the seeming spontaneity and festive color palette; the recent work Orestes as wanderer, a studio composition, expresses a more sober and thoughtful elegiac scene. Putting aside the differences of subject matter and time span of four decades, my painting process remains driven forward with the effort to make a fresh statement in each painting.
“Process of discoveries” Bowery Gallery, 2021
https://www.artsy.net/artwork/younghee-choi-martin-electras-offering
The two paintings appear closely related: a vulnerable recumbent figure with a standing woman occupying the central position, which is framed by large drapes that separate the interior space from a view outside. The compositional form began with fragmentary ideas suggesting scenes from Orestia (Aeschylean trilogy). The motivic development starts with rhythmic lines throughout, followed by bits of shapes, patches of colors, an array of textures, etc.
The process is in a constant revision: searching for forms that feel right; weighing relationships between parts; enlivening the canvas surface with brush work, patches of color smears; erasing and recapturing the lost forms; keeping the entirety fresh and open.
Both paintings share the same subject matter, motif, and compositional ideas but conceived of in a different color scheme. Each work reverberates with very different expression and meaning.
