Hyong Nam Ahn 안 형남

BiographyHyong Nam Ahn is a teacher and artist working primarily in painting and sculpture. He was born in Seoul, Korea and received both his BFA in Painting & Experimental Art (1978) and MFA in Sculpture with a specialization in Kinetics (1980) at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Ahn's practice engages with histories of Kinetic art and the intersection of art and technology but also with abstract expressionism. From 1980-81 he was a Professor of Sculpture, Drawing & Three Dimensional Design at the University of Minnesota; In 1979, he was a lecturer at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He was also the recipient of a Fulbright Award in 1984-85. (August 2016, OC)

Artist StatementIf someone is in love, longing makes lovers die every day and every hour. I would rather create a useful lie until I die – not a longing, lover’s lie – so that I am able to live out every day and every hour of my life. The central point of artists is often riveted on the exhilarating, dynamic aspects of their surroundings. The kinetic, ever changing character of our environment has always interested me. I constantly search for visual idioms capable of expressing this dynamic. My use of mixed medium or controlling devices is my means of vividly expressing my inner thoughts. My works express my feelings of sympathy for human relationships in our technology-oriented world – a world that has used, without conscience, force to conquer our natural environment. Human relationships have been changed by this phenomenon, yet the underlying laws of the universe remain constant – the velocity of light has not changed since Creation. Most of my recent works are based on subliminal objects inspired by natural occurrences such as moonlight and migrating birds. This natural source inspires my core. I often use sound and light to solve formal aesthetic problems. I explore the way in which sound and light function as both the subject matter and the material basis of contemporary art. (August 2016, Artist website)