Vanguard Gallery is pleased to launch its first pop-up exhibition “Nights after Days” in Seoul on August 27, 2022. The exhibition features selected works of Antoni MUNTADAS and TANG Chao. The exhibition will remain on view through October 30, 2022.

Antoni MUNTADAS (b.1942) is an internationally acclaimed pioneer of conceptual art, whose exploration and reflection on moving images continue to the present day. The work selected for this exhibit, Actions (1972), Muntadas’ earliest but emblematic creation, proposes a set of experiences articulated around perceptual sensitization – touch, smell, and taste – through the contact and recognition of materials and bodies. Actions demonstrates Muntadas’ perpetual intention in activating the viewers’ sub-sensorial potentials, which transform the spectators into active subjects during the cognitive process.

TANG Chao (b.1990) is considered one of the leading artists of his generation, who works primarily with video while integrating performative or theatrical approaches. Tang articulates the tone and rhythm of his works through a succinct and fluid language: Shimmer (2021) composes an illusory universe where the viewers are enabled to discover trivial things shimmering in corners of everyday life, from natural creations to inventions and constructions of the human world; In Black Pearl (2021), Tang edits pixelated video game clips into a historical montage, with the imagery of fire as an reoccurring narrative thread. All the materials of the two works are sourced or generated online, then rearranged, reprocessed and converted into lo-fi collages to stimulate the viewer’s own interpretation.

This duo exhibition suggests an intense dialogue between the two artists, who are of different generations but echo each other in a multitude of approaches and perspectives. Underlying this interaction is the artists’ never-ending endeavor in making visual composition with shadow and light, nights after days.