Intérieurs

In her solo exhibition "Intérieurs", Sunah Choi playfully continues her exploration of themes such as sculpture in space, interior design, architecture and materials for instance glass, wood, color and light. Choi’s working process is always characterized by logic and intuition: first, ideas and experiences accumulate alongside precise research, followed by an absolute reduction to the essential, resulting in an austere yet highly poetic aesthetic. Her research into Korean "Chaekgeori" painting has inspired her for recent years. Indeed, these traditional paintings present depicted shelves filled with books and objects in an illusionistic and decorative style. It suggests an influence of the European “cabinets de curiositiés”. These spaces, which appeared during the Renaissance and were intended for study and reflection, were also places of collection, exhibition and representation. In "Intérieurs", the artist expands the interest in subjects of interiors. She stages an installation scenario in which we encounter objects that, at first glance, recall the classical furniture installed in interiors. In the exhibition, we find furniture such as a table, stool, sideboard or shelf. Between a notion of functionality and sculpture, these works are at the same time pictures, compositions and useful objects of our daily life. They resemble also fictional architectural models whose scales change our perception and understanding of space. The title of the exhibition, "Intérieurs", evokes the sometimes thin separation between our feelings of being inside or outside of a given space. The "Vitres", reminiscent of windows, face the gallery walls and the pieces of furniture are sometimes hung instead of placed on the floor. Models, the "Maquette", allow us to observe private spaces from above. Constantly tossed between a felt interior and a fictitious exterior, Sunah Choi uses our everyday reference points to offer us an exhibition of recent artworks. The steel and wooden structures of the artist’s works form an unshakeable geometric base that serves as a solid foundation for the floating glass elements. When the sun appears, the semi-transparent windows light up, shadows and reflections overlap and spatial references blur in this iridescent chromatic space. What seems stronger between these opposites, wood and steel or the intangible omnipotence of light ? Born in Korea, Sunah Choi lives and woks in Berlin. Her solo shows include Intérieurs, Galerie Mezzanin, Geneva, 2023, Rosa, Galerie Johann Widauer, Innsbruck, Austria, 2022, Studiolo, RL16, Berlin, Germany, 2022, Knotenfänger, Kunstverein Reutlingen, Reutlingen, Germany, 2021, Vitres, Vitrine Rathaus Tiergarten, Berlin, Germany, 2021, Banco, Kunsthall 3.14, Bergen Norway, 2020, Skala, Museum Nikolaikirche, Hannah-Höch-Förderpreis, Berlin, Germany, 2018, Kolla, Galerie Mezzanin, Geneva, 2017, Sunah Choi, Galerie Mezzanin, Vienna, 2014. Recent Group exhibitions include Exercises in Respect, RIBOCA 3, Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art, Riga, Latvia, 2023, Divided We Stand, Busan Biennale, Museum of Contemporary Art, Busan, Korea, 2018, A Tale of Two Cities: Narrative Archive of Memories III, National Gallery of Indonesia, Indonesia, 2018