1. Geometric Knife Drawings series
Technique: scraping off the top layers of emulsion with the tip of a knife following a ruler
Media: Knifing on a super glossy polyester-based color photograph
Geometric Knife Drawings are a series of photographs that I have manipulated by scraping off the top layers of emulsion with the tip of a knife. Each photo has thousands of these linear cuts in its surface, made with varying degrees of depth and pressure. The depth of the cut determines the color that is revealed and therefore the appearance of the final product. I make the photograph's original image more of less irrelevant through a high degree of manipulation. These prints have a direct relationship to painting traditions, with their bands of color and geometric abstraction.
2. Two Dimensional Spatial Drawing series
Technique: outline objects (mainly ready-made) with fluorescent acrylic and covering the rest of façade with black matte gesso. Seen in black light they glow like a 3-D geometric painting
Media: installation and color photographs
I have been developing work that transforms actual, three-dimensional space into a flat illusion. I curtain off a space and outline objects inside with fluorescent red acrylic. Their forms seen in black light glow like a 3-D geometric painting. Their filling is removed by the blackness, only the lines remain visible to the eye. The illusion gets further enhanced by forcing the audience to look from a certain perspective, deceiving them to believe that they are acknowledging the actual space as a 2-dimensional surface just like paper or canvas.
Byungwang Cho was born on March 3, 1969, in Seoul, Korea. He graduated from high school at Sunwha Art School. He earned his BFA at Seoul National University in 1992 and achieved MFA at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY which has led him to his current research developing work that transforms an actual, three-dimensional space into a flat illusion.
After graduating from Pratt Institute in 2000, he had his first exhibition at the Asian American Arts Centre in New York, titled 2 Far 2 Close. The art critic Holland Cotter wrote in The New York Times (October 27, 2000), "The single best-looking piece is by Byungwang Cho, who has curtained off a corner of the gallery and outlined objects inside with fluorescent red paint; their forms seen in black light glow like a 3-D geometric painting."
Through the development of the light installation project, Byungwang's interest in the perception of space have deepened. Through both photography and drawing, tools used to document his installations, Byungwang hopes to translate many of his abstract concepts into concrete works of art.Byungwang's aesthetic inquiries were further recognized when he participated in Artist in the Marketplace Program at the Bronx Museum of the Arts, NY and awarded a NYFA Fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts in 2001. In 2002, he also participated in Sculpture Space residency program at Utica, NY, and he had his first solo exhibition at im n il Gallery at Brooklyn, NY.
Since 2002 he has been involved in geometric knife drawings which he tears off a photograph's surface very carefully with the tip of a knife and creates a very thin horizontal line, much like the lines of a print. In 2004 he had a solo show at White Columns, New York, NY of the Geometric Knife Drawings series. From 2006 to 2007, he participated in Art Omi International Artists Residency program and Kyungan Residency at Youngeun Museum in Korea. Recently he has participated in many international group exhibitions including PS 122, New York, NY; Momenta Art, Brooklyn, NY; Sculpture Center, Long Island City, NY; White Box, New York, NY; Christchurch Gallery, Christchurch, New Zealand; Depot Dortmund, Germany; Brick 5, Austria; and National Museum of Contemporary Art, Kumho Museum, Youngeun Museum, and Kyeonggido Museum of Art in Korea.