Kwon YoungJin’s Star: Original Shikishi Artwork in Acrylic Gouache
- artsan
- 15 hours ago
- 3 min read
Kwon YoungJin develops a painting practice grounded in restraint, physical gesture, and material sensitivity. Rather than building images through accumulation, she works through reduction—allowing form, touch, and surface tension to carry meaning.
Her works often appear quiet, but they are the result of a highly controlled process in which technique plays a central role. This approach becomes especially evident in her works on Japanese shikishi boards, where scale, absorption, and resistance directly shape the image.
Star — Original Shikishi Artwork by Kwon YoungJin
Star is a one-of-a-kind artwork created on a traditional Japanese shikishi board (approx. 24 × 27 cm). The composition presents two hands emerging from a dense black field, delicately holding a red string arranged into a star shape.
While the image is minimal, its construction is deliberate. The hands are neither fully modeled nor sharply defined; instead, they are built through layered tonal transitions that preserve softness while maintaining anatomical clarity. This balance between precision and disappearance is central to Kwon YoungJin’s technique.
Technique: Acrylic Gouache and Surface Control
Kwon YoungJin works with acrylic gouache, using the shikishi surface not as a neutral support but as an active participant in the painting process.
Key aspects of her technique include:
Layered matte surfacesThe black background is constructed through successive applications, producing depth without gloss. Light is absorbed rather than reflected, creating a visual silence that stabilizes the composition.
Controlled tonal transitionsForms emerge through subtle modulation rather than line. Edges remain soft, avoiding sharp contours that would shift the work toward illustration or narrative depiction.
Restricted chromatic structureColor is intentionally limited. The red string is not decorative but structural—its intensity calibrated to introduce tension without breaking the overall restraint of the surface.
Engagement with the shikishi boardThe rigidity and absorbency of the shikishi impose resistance on the brush. This constraint encourages precision, discourages excess gesture, and reinforces the economy of means visible in Star.
The resulting surface feels calm yet taut, as if every element were held in balance.
Gesture, Memory, and the Ayatori Motif
The red string subtly references ayatori, a traditional string-figure game associated with childhood across East Asia. Rather than depicting play, Kwon YoungJin isolates the gesture itself—the moment when tension is held between hands.
Technically, the string is rendered with clarity but without emphasis. It neither dominates the surface nor dissolves into it. This equilibrium mirrors the conceptual role it plays: connection sustained through balance rather than force.
Contemporary Use of Shikishi
Within Art San Gallery’s Shikishi Art Project, Star exemplifies a contemporary approach to this traditional Japanese format. The work does not rely on historical motifs or calligraphic conventions. Instead, it responds to the shikishi’s physical properties—density, scale, border, and absorbency—to structure the image.
This makes Star not only a painting, but a contained object: compact, deliberate, and resolved.
Why Star Matters
Star demonstrates how technical discipline and emotional restraint can coexist within a small format. Its strength lies as much in what is withheld as in what is shown.
For collectors, the work offers:
A one-of-a-kind contemporary shikishi artwork
A clearly articulated technique using acrylic gouache
A restrained yet emotionally charged composition
A refined example of Kwon YoungJin’s material practice
Rather than presenting a narrative image, Star functions as sustained visual tension—one that rewards close, attentive viewing.
Comments