Unexpected Light: Works By Young-IL Ahn

The first solo exhibition of Young-Il Ahn, a Korean-American artist at LACMA, features 10 large oil paintings from his Water Series, including five new artworks. Young-Il Ahn has lived and worked in Los Angeles since 1966, and the city’s landscape has profoundly affected his work. The Water series (1983 – ongoing) takes inspiration from his experience of being lost in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Santa Monica. In 1983, Ahn was aboard a small fishing boat when he was caught in a fog so dense that he could not see his hands in front of his face; suddenly, the fog cleared, revealing sunlight on the water all around him. This vision and experience shaped his practice for decades to come.

In the show curated by Virginia Moon, assistant curator of Korean art at LACMA, Ahn has attempted, in each water painting, to interpret the infinite ways in which light, water, and fog interact on the ocean. From a distance, the paintings appear static, each canvas a flat surface rendered in a single vibrant colour. Up close, however, the paintings appear to be shimmering and mosaic-like. Small squares of thickly applied paint conform to an uneven grid but threaten to spill over their boundaries, casting shadows on the canvas and creating the impression of movement. Bright flecks of colour interspersed throughout the paintings’ surfaces lend a prismatic quality to the works, mimicking the refractive effect of light on water.

About the Artist

Korean American artist Young-Il Ahn was born in 1934 in Gaeseong, historically known as the capital of the Goryeo Dynasty (912–1392) and geographically located in North Korea today. While acknowledged as a child prodigy, Ahn was at his most prolific after his arrival in Los Angeles in 1966. Since then, his works have consistently focused on his interest in the local surroundings rather than the country he left.

The show is on till 21 January 2018, at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.