W e T h e P e o p l e : An International Group Exhibition of Contemporary Art Toward Ending the Korean War
March 16 – May 24, 2018Opening Reception: March 16 6-9pm (Performance 6-7pm*)
Closing Reception: Friday May 24 7-9pm
Hours: Monday-Friday, 1-9pm and By Appointment
O Z A N E A U X Art Space 515 W 20th Street, #4E, NYC 10011
Contact Heng-Gil hhan@kafny.org or 347-840-1142
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 1, 2018, New York, NY — OZANEAUX ArtSpace is pleased to host Korea Art Forum’s newest exhibition We The People, an international group show of Contemporary Art. This exhibition brings together artworks that have rarely or never before been seen in New York, featuring works by Ki Chol Kim, Kyungbo Han, Sung Gwang Hong, and Youngjun Hwang (North Korea); Jihoe Koo, Suh Yongsun (South Korea); Emmanuel Faure (France); Alicia Grullon, Nina Kuo, Gregory Sholette, and Hank Willis Thomas (United States), among others. Though diverse in theme, motif, medium, scale, and genre, the artworks in this exhibition all bring to light a unique sense of meaning to the phrase “we the people”. Some works in this exhibition represent images of protests while others represent individuals that make up people.
A poignant, self-evident relationship, between state and people, that immediately confronts us today is the talk of a ‘preventive strike’ on North Korea by high level U.S. politicians—the ramifications of which could lead to insurmountable global disaster. To whose benefit does “locked and loaded” and “fire and fury” truly serve? The exhibition intends to remind us that it is ‘us,’ “we the people”, the individuals, who suffer the consequences of choices made by state agencies. As citizens of the globe we are called on to recognize that real and lasting change comes from the creation of new possibilities. Artists and creative thinkers bring much to the table in helping to solidify and confront collective ideas of surmounting xenophobic fears, and with such focus and dialogue, bring forth new possibilities for a better way.
This exhibition affirms an alternative model of transforming this dangerous conflict between the U.S. and North Korea. It is also a call to the international community, to support inter-Korean art exchanges as well as art exchanges between North Korea and the United States, because Art is a bridge to progress. The exhibition also offers access points to new perspectives of contemporary art, in which radically different artworks co-exist, compensating one another in relation to our full sense of reality and the unity of the world.
We The People is generously supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in Partnership with the City Council and is co-hosted by OZANEAUX ArtSpace. Supporters of Korea Art Forum include The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and the Mennonite Central Committee U.N. Office, as well as individual donors.
OZANEAUX ArtSpace is a philanthropic, artist-run exhibition/project space created by Nikki Schiro and Frederic Ozaneaux in 2009. It hosts Contemporary Art exhibitions for Artists and Curators in the couple's community. The exhibitions highlight Artists from underrepresented demographics as well as foreign exchange. The gallery is planted in the back end of an accounting office, in the heart of New York City’s Gallery District.
