INTRO
The Mark of Time presents abstraction not as a singular style or a linear art historical outcome, but as a way of thinking that emerged simultaneously across different cultural contexts. Rather than positioning East and West in opposition or simple comparison, the exhibition traces how artists working within distinct environments and traditions have shared fundamental questions surrounding time, material, and action.
In this exhibition, abstraction is understood not as a formal solution, but as a method of recording and accumulating experience. What appears on the surface is less a finished image than a residue of time spent, gestures repeated, and decisions made and unmade.
The exhibition unfolds through two interconnected dialogues.
The first dialogue brings together the practices of Ed Moses and Cho Yong Ik, examining abstraction as a trace of time. For Moses, painting is not a means of representation, but an event shaped by action and choice. His canvases retain not only visible brushstrokes, but also erased gestures, hesitation, and the duration of the painting process itself. Similarly, Cho Yong Ik’s work is formed through repetition, restraint, and a disciplined, almost meditative approach. His paintings do not arrive at an image all at once, but gradually accumulate density through sustained and deliberate acts. For both artists, abstraction becomes a vessel that holds the sensation of time rather than a depiction of visible form.
The second dialogue connects the works of Kim Kang Yong and Jimi Gleason, extending abstraction into a constructed world of material. Kim Kang Yong’s brick paintings are the result of accumulated labor, weight, and time layered meticulously onto the canvas. While they resemble physical structures, they function not as representations, but as painterly investigations into material, structure, and illusion. Jimi Gleason similarly builds his surfaces through repetitive gestures and layered paint, allowing resistance, reflection, and material tension to shape form. In their works, abstraction does not signal an escape from reality, but a means of forming memory through material presence.
Through these parallel conversations, The Mark of Time reveals abstraction as neither a regional invention nor a culturally isolated phenomenon. Time leaves traces, materials hold memory, and actions continue to resonate beyond the moment of their execution.
Opening Gallery Chang’s 2026 exhibition program, this exhibition serves as a point of departure for reconsidering abstraction’s shared origins and the depth of human thought that transcends geographic and cultural boundaries.
