Opening (1): March 8, 2018
ONE AND J. Gallery +1
33, 11 Ja-gil, Dongho-ro, Jung-gu, Seoul, South Korea

Opening (2): March 10, 2018
Space One
95-9 Shinheung-ro, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, South Korea

“Pink noise” is a specialized frequency with a specific relationship to human biorhythms that is said to increase focus and productivity. This concept provides the aesthetic criteria and an instigator for interaction in Pink Noise Pop Up—a research project initiated by Instant Coffee that embraces colour and sound as conduits for emotional connection.

grunt gallery presents the upcoming exhibition by Instant Coffee with four Canadian artists showing in South Korea for the first time: Jeneen Frei Njootli, Krista Belle Stewart, Ron Tran and Casey Wei. Installations and performances by Korean artists will also be featured. Pink Noise Pop Up is curated by Vanessa Kwan (Curator of grunt gallery) and Inyoung Yeo (Director of Space One)

Pink Noise Pop Up will unfold simultaneously at Space One, an artist-run center, and ONE AND J. Gallery +1, a commercial space for emerging artists. Working within the context of both mainstream and alternative sites (in addition to the neighourhoods they occupy), the exhibition combines the aesthetics of consumer display with the improvisational play of social interaction.

Instant Coffee is a service-oriented artist and curatorial collective based in Winnipeg and Vancouver, Canada. Since establishing in 2000, Instant Coffee has had numerous solo exhibitions, including “UDT” at the Art Gallery of Ontario; “Take the Easy Way,” MKG127, Toronto; and “The hero, the villain, the salesman, the parent, a sidekick and a servant,” Teck Gallery at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver. Instant Coffee recently launched “Colours,” a public artwork in Burnaby, Canada, in 2015, and recently concluded a Fieldhouse Studio residency with the City of Vancouver. The collective has presented special projects and installations as part of Vancouver’s 2010 Cultural Olympiad, at Subdivision in Hamburg, as part of the Encuentro International Medellin 07 in Colombia, at Hotel Maria Kapel in The Netherlands, the Toronto Sculpture Garden, the Vancouver Art Gallery and the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria. Instant Coffee's current members are Jinhan Ko, Jenifer Papararo and Khan Lee; recent members include Kelly Lycan (2005-2015), Kate Monro (1999-2014) and Cecilia Berkovic (2000-2014), previous members include Jon Sasaki, Emily Hogg, Timothy Comeau and Stephen Crowhurst. 

Jeneen Frei Njootli is a member of the self-governing Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation and is a co-creator of the ReMatriate Collective. Based between the Yukon and unceded Coast Salish territories, she works collaboratively with artists, communities, youth and the land. Sound, performance, fashion, workshops and barbecues are some of the ways Frei Njootli’s practice takes shape. She was recently the recipient of the 2017 Contemporary Art Society of Vancouver Artist Prize. 

Krista Belle Stewart is known for her ability to draw out the complexities of archival material that allow for both intimacy, coincidence and an atemporal meeting of histories across time. Working with video, photography, design, ephemera and textiles, Stewart straddles the gaps between personal and institutional histories through transparent mediation. Her work has been exhibited at the International Studio and Curatorial Program (ISCP), Brooklyn, NY; Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art, Winnipeg; Vancouver Art Gallery; Presentation House Gallery, North Vancouver; Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver; and Mercer Union, Toronto. Stewart holds an MFA from Bard College, New York. She is a member of the Upper Nicola Band of the Okanagan Nation and is currently based in Vancouver. 

Ron Tran employs a wide range of media, including sculpture, photography, video, performance and installation, as a means to blur the boundaries between public and private space and authorship and identity. Tran was born in Saigon and moved to Vancouver in 1987. He holds a BFA from Emily Carr University of Art + Design, Vancouver. Tran has participated in group and solo exhibitions in Canada, Europe and Asia. He was the recipient for the Mayor’s Arts Award and the Künstlerhaus Bethanien Berlin residency. His work is featured in Art Cities of the Future: 21st Century Avant-Gardes, published by Phaidon Press. 

Casey Wei is an interdisciplinary artist, filmmaker and musician based in Vancouver. Her practice has evolved from filmmaking (Murky Colors in 2012, Vater und Sohn / Father and Son / 父与子 in 2013), into works that cross over between art, music, and the community at large (“Kingsgate Mall Happenings” in 2014, “Chinatown Happenings” in 2015, the “art rock?” series 2015 – present, and the “Karaoke Music Video Free Store” in 2017). In 2016, she began Agony Klub, a music and printed matter label that releases material under the framework of the “popular esoteric.” Her music projects include Kamikaze Nurse, hazy and Late Spring. She is currently recording hazy's second album and working on a documentary about the Vancouver music scene. 

Ga Ram Kim uses installation, performance and new media to uncover cultural and social issues of different societies through playful experimentation. Kim received her MFA from the Chelsea College of Arts and has participated in multiple solo exhibitions including “UPDATE” at KT&G Sangsangmadang, Seoul; “AGENDA hair salon” at Corner Art Space, Seoul; and “ACS#2: AGENDA hair salon” at Filmwerkstatt, Düsseldorf. She was recently in the group show “#Selfie – The people who take picture by themselves” at the Savina Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul; and “THE VOICE” at Coreana Museum of Art (Space*C), Seoul. She is currently an artist-in-residence at Seoul Art Space Geumcheon. 

Yaloo is a South Korean-born artist working with video installation. She received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2015. She was the first recipient of the Lyn Blumenthal Memorial Scholarship from Video Data Bank. She received the Gold Prize from the AHL Foundation (New York). She received a full fellowship from the Headlands Center for the Arts (San Francisco), the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts (Omaha), La Bande Vidéo (Quebec) and the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum (Fukuoka). Her works have been included in solo and group shows in Chicago, New York, Seattle, Santa Fe, Vancouver, Quebec City, Malmö, Dresden, Fukuoka and Seoul.

Krista Belle Stewart

Detail of "Potato Gardens Band" 2017. Site¦specific installation and live performance in the basement of the Hudson Bay Company, as part of "STAGES: Drawing the Curtain" at Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art, Winnipeg¥ Manitoba§ Collaboration with Jeneen Frei Njootli and Laura Ortman. 

Courtesy of the artist

Photo by Karen Asher

Ron Tran

"Smoke/Fire" 2018

Courtesy of the artist

Casey Wei

hazy performing at SWARM16 in Projections at the Perel Building, in 2015.

Courtesy of SFU Galleries

Ga Ram Kim

"4ROSE poster wall", 2017

Poster (Digital print), Dimensions variable

Courtesy of the artist

Yaloo

Video still from Red Ginseng 3, 2018, from the Red Ginseng Series.

Courtesy of the artist

From: www.artspaceone.org