condensed eternity

Space 776 is pleased to present Condensed Eternity – a solo exhibition of mixed media works by Hijo Nam whose work spans various genres, including painting, installation, and sculpture. The show combines traditional Korean techniques and materials with contemporary art.

Nam is inspired by learning and experiencing various cultures, the urban landscape, nature, outer space, time, and space. She does not limit herself to specific materials and techniques; instead, she embraces a wide range of approaches to reinterpret the world’s beautiful cultural backgrounds and expresses not only what is visible but also their philosophical and spiritual aspects. She does the arduous artistic activity of painting, attaching fabrics, breaking stones, cutting wood, welding iron, and using special pigments for various metals. Raw ore is one of the materials used in creating her artworks, becoming alloys when melted with heat. The repetitive process of combining oxygen with molten metal alloys, changing into another substance when impurities are separated, and combining with oxygen again over time – to regain its natural appearance – is a metaphor for life events such as creation, growth, extinction, and rebirth.  Hijo Nam often uses circles in her work to represent cycles; the idea that death and birth happen at once from a cosmic perspective, that past, present, and future exist simultaneously, and repeat in more cycles of creation and extinction is a recurring theme in Nam’s work.

Hijo Nam’s worldview as a contemporary artist centers around overcoming difficulties and combating loneliness collectively. She creates her art with a profound sense of motherhood and friendship, aiming to share love, peace, and joy with others. In Journey 3, 2022 Nam expresses a deep connection that people experience throughout their lives, an idea she condensed down to simple, yet complex, aerial views of urban and natural landscapes. Most of the fabrics used in the work are fabric woven by the artist’s grandmother and mother, and express the artist’s deep ties with baby gowns, blankets, spiritual leader’s robe, cassock (soutane), and linens.

Hijo Nam (South Korean) Holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Fine Art from Pratt University, New York. Showed extensively in New York and Seoul, and Internationally with solo exhibitions at the National Archaeological Museum of Greece in 2015 for the first time as an Asian woman, and a solo exhibition at the Beijing Today Art Museum in 2017 and more. Nam is a winner of many awards. Most recently, in 2019 and 2020, she won the International Grand Prize Award at the Shininten International Competition, in Tokyo, Japan. In 2022 Ms.Nam participated in the Venice Biennale represented by Saphira Ventura Gallery, in New York. Also in 2022 received a Grand Prize from ‘Korean people who made 2022 Shine’, Seoul