Professor Kye Nak-yeong of the Department of Fine Arts will hold his sixth solo exhibition, which also commemorates his retirement next year, at the Insa Art Center in Seoul from October 10 to 15.

At this exhibition he will present new works that embody an illusory realism under the title 'Spatial Play,' together with works produced over the past 30 years.

His work stems from an interest in organic, everyday forms that are easily overlooked in daily life. He always keeps in mind the 'meaning of life'.

His series adopts an approach that seeks 'origin' and 'essence' through the simple depiction of objects. By experimenting with visual illusion and spatial play, his work appears to have freed itself from the weight of subject matter and the constraints of granite as a medium.

Since his first solo exhibition in 1977, he devoted ten years exclusively to wood sculpture, and in 1986 he turned to stone and concentrated his artistic activity on that medium.

The massive weight of granite, unlike wood, has simplified his sculptural forms and helped structure their rhythmic qualities. The stone's clearer materiality makes it an ideal medium for more effectively conveying the artist's sculptural vision.

Art critic Yoo Jae-gil, professor at Hongik University, commented, 'The artist expands our visuoperceptual experience through the simultaneity of the material properties of stone, the dematerialization that initiates a "melting-point change," and "spatial play." Thus, in his later work, based on a spiritual inquiry into the dematerialization of early materials, he increasingly revels in the spatial play of illusory effects, and his sculptural world has grown more mature.'

Professor Kye Nak-yeong was born in Seoul and graduated from the Department of Sculpture at Hongik University College of Fine Arts and its graduate school. He has held six solo exhibitions and participated in over 350 group shows. His awards include the Donga Art Award at the Donga Art Exhibition (1986), the Grand Prize at the 1st Seoul Contemporary Sculpture Competition (1986), and the Encouragement Award at the Today's Korean Art Exhibition (1992). His works are held in numerous collections, including the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, the Jeollabuk Provincial Museum of Art, Jeju Museum of Contemporary Art, Gwangju Culture & Art Center, and the Hongik University Museum of Modern Art.