Leekyung Kang

The Hope College De Pree Art and Gallery will host the multimedia exhibition “Ecstasy on the Surface,” featuring work by the college’s 2019 Borgeson Artist-in-Residence, Leekyung Kang, from Wednesday, Aug. 21, through Friday, Sept. 27.

Kang will deliver an artist’s talk on the exhibition’s final day, Friday, Sept. 27, at 4 p.m. in Cook Auditorium of the De Pree Art Center and Gallery. A closing reception will follow in the gallery on Friday, Sept. 27, from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

The public is invited to the exhibition, artist’s talk and closing reception.  Admission to each is free.

Leekyung Kang creates spatial illusions by capturing unseen architectural spaces between the second and third dimensions. Influenced by her training as a painter and printmaker, the work focuses on the materiality of each medium.  In the exhibition at Hope, she applies to the digital realm her ongoing interest challenging the conventional understanding of space that focuses on physical state, history and transformation.

“For the past few years, I have been obsessed with the structural framework and components that make up the urban landscape,” Kang said.  “My work has focused on exploring both exterior surfaces and interior infrastructure of the cities I have lived in, including architectural imagery of unfinished scaffold facades through mixed media. The goal of this work is to expose the unseen and hidden spaces by capturing the raw and unfinished state of our present environment.”

“Recently, through the exploration of digitized surfaces, my perception and perspective of reality has been altered.  When navigating the digital world, I often wonder what actually lies beneath the web cursor. The seamless surface does not reveal the infrastructure of the hidden space, nor can one see the materiality and responses of data components in ‘real time,’” Kang noted.  “In my work, I attempt to excavate each layer and explore the unseen space by rearranging components through digital language manipulation and photo editing.”

Kang earned her MFA from Rhode Island School of Design and BFA from Seoul National University. She has taught at Rhode Island School of Design, Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar, and Idaho State University. She has participated in several residencies internationally including the Fountainhead fellowship at Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar and the Vermont Studio Center. Kang’s work has been exhibited in South Korea, Doha, Qatar and throughout the U.S.

The Borgeson Artist-in-Residence program is hosted by the college’s Department of Art and Art History, and was created through the generosity of Hope alumni Nancy and Clarke Borgeson. The 12-week summer residency supports the creation of new work through provision of a stipend as well as studio and living space on Hope’s campus. The artist-in-residence meets with department students and alumni, and concludes the residency with a solo exhibition and artist’s lecture at the De Pree Art Center and Gallery.

The De Pree Art Center and Gallery is located at 275 Columbia Ave., between 10th and 13th streets.  The gallery is open Mondays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sundays from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.