Introduction
SHANE GUFFOGG: WHERE PAST AND FUTURE ARE GATHERED
GALLERY CHANG, SOEUL, SOUTH KOREA
Gallery Chang in Seoul, South Korea, presents Shane Guffogg: “Where Past and Future are Gathered” a solo exhibition featuring Guffogg’s Still Point paintings, a body of work deeply engaged with themes of time, transcendence, and the ephemeral nature of existence. While this marks the artist’s first exhibition in South Korea, the fundamental principles of his work—his balance of time, space, and form—are inherently aligned with the aesthetics of Korean art.
Guffogg’s paintings serve as confessions of time, transforming unseen forces into tangible marks. His brushstrokes trace energies that mysteriously move into our world, capturing the presence in layers of light and movement. The viewer, as a receiver, is invited to witness these ephemeral forces through an immediate sensory (visual) experience.
A key inspiration for Guffogg’s Still Point series is T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets – a meditation on time, impermanence, and spiritual awakening. Each painting draws its title from stanzas of this poem, where the passage of time is examined through the elements—air, earth, water, and fire.
Guffogg’s work does not illustrate Eliot’s poetry but rather embodies a visual language akin to calligraphy, where color and movement become expressive gestures of form and emotion. Through thousands of layered brushstrokes, his compositions unfold like wordless poems.
The exhibition’s largest painting, “At the Still Point of the Turning World – The Surface Glittered out of the Heart of Light”, echoes Eliot’s meditation on time as both linear and cyclical, a concept deeply rooted in Korean philosophy. Korean art embraces impermanence and the importance of the present moment. Guffogg’s paintings, with their shifting luminosity and depth, reflect this philosophical understanding, existing between presence and absence, solidity and fluidity, stillness and motion.
Guffogg’s process is a meditation in itself—he paints daily, working 8 to 10 hours in solitude, surrounded by nature at his ranch. Written in charcoal on the walls of his studio are stanzas from the poem, which Guffogg internalizes over long periods of time, until colors are sensorially connected to the words. Then the title informs the painting. His paintings emerge as moments in time that are seemingly without time as they are visually moving while still, revealing traces of his meditations through color and form.
Another significant piece, “At the Still Point of the Turning World – Into the Rose Garden”, is a multi-colored variation of reds, purples, and ribbons of white. The title references Eliot’s symbolic garden—a place of purity, transformation, and the passage of time. In Korean culture, gardens similarly serve as spaces of contemplation, where nature becomes both a teacher and a metaphor. Rather than depicting these themes directly, Guffogg creates an abstract experience where color, line, and movement evoke transformation.
Guffogg’s technique involves no preliminary sketches, and no assistants—only the repetition of intuitive movement. Each painting is made up of thousands of brushstrokes of glazes mixed with oil paint, creating an extraordinary depth that appears to suspend time itself. This meticulous process aligns with his belief that each brushstroke is a summoning of memory, a mark that bears witness to the unseen forces of existence.
His synesthesia, the ability to perceive color as sound, further deepens this interplay. His paintings become silent symphonies, their tonalities resonating internally with the viewer. Guffogg’s use of color is never jarring; instead, his complementary hues create a sense of balance, inviting introspection rather than demanding interpretation. His works do not depict existential crises—they pose questions, seeking revelations of beauty and the unknown.
In Guffogg’s work, color is not merely pigment—it is a presence, vibrating beyond the visual into something sensorial, emotional, and spiritual. His mastery of light and shadow recalls the Old Masters, yet he reinterprets their techniques for the contemporary world.
At a time of constant acceleration, Guffogg’s paintings offer a rare moment of pause—a space for contemplation and transcendence. His work is deeply connected to art history, influenced by Kandinsky, Monet, and Turner, yet distinctly his own.
Though this marks Guffogg’s first exhibition in Korea, it is not an introduction but a reconnection. His paintings, infused with rhythm, light, and emotion, align with the artistic and philosophical traditions of Korean thought. They invite us to engage with the essence of life itself—a dance of being—a luminous stillness within the turning world.
By. Victoria Chapman