Tracing the Unseen: Kang Haechan's "Flowing Moonlight" at Unaw Gallery

Engaging the Ephemeral

From July 3 to August 23, 2025, Unaw Gallery invites visitors to transcend the ordinary with "Flowing Moonlight," a captivating solo exhibition by Kang Haechan. Through 31 evocative paintings, including newly created pieces and previously unseen drawings, Kang infuses the gallery with an ethereal exploration of atmospheric elements—light, air, water—that exist beyond our perceptions yet intimately touch our sensibilities.

Kang's artistry is a meditation on the tactile and the intangible, drawing from the subtle dance of moisture in the air, the brush of dampness on skin during a summer's day, and the luminous spectrum of light refracted like a rainbow. This exhibition is a meticulously woven narrative that captures these sensory layers in a delicate, transparent manner, challenging our understanding of visual experience.

A Painter of Sensations

Described as a "painter of sensations," Kang reconstructs incidental encounters into a visual language that interrogates the layers of light and air. His paintings dismantle the ordinary landscape genre to reveal the nuanced interplay of perception and reality. Rather than depicting a mere place, Kang articulates the density of moments—air, temperature, shadows—creating a bridge between experience and memory.

In his previous work "Twilight Echoes," Kang positioned solitary figures amidst expansive landscapes, inviting viewers to ponder the spaces between day and night, reality and dreams. The interplay of light and shadow in his nightscapes offers a resonant study of time slowing just before it tips into darkness, a recurrent motif in his works.

Navigating the Grey

Central to Kang's artistic process is his innovative use of interference pigments, which shift color and sheen based on the viewer's perspective. These pigments not only capture the inherent fluidity of time and emotion but also highlight the evanescent quality of human perception. Like in his series "Reflective Shadows," Kang's manipulation of paint constructs a dimension where the mundane transforms into something otherworldly, drawing parallels to contemporary practices of sensory immersion.

"Flowing Moonlight" aligns itself as an extension of Kang's thematic exploration—inviting visitors to inhabit spaces where the visible wavers and the unseen edges closer into view. Each canvas invites not a narrative but a resonance, leaving the viewer with a contemplative stillness.

Engaging with the Intangible

This exhibition challenges the boundaries of landscape art by embracing the immaterial aspects of perception. Kang reimagines scenes as emotional landscapes, reflecting the texture of lived experience rather than concrete images. Through his deft layering technique, Kang captivates the viewer, drawing them into a dialogue with elemental silence—the quiet before the dusk settles, the humidity at dawn.

"Flowing Moonlight" is not just an exhibition; it is an invitation to explore the emotional traces of time and the introspective depth of memory. Kang’s method transforms these perceptions into tangible encounters, subtly urging us to revisit the overlooked thresholds of our own daily lives. His chromatic compositions are not simply scenes to be viewed but atmospheres to be felt, posing questions about the narratives nestled in the spaces between.

Kang Haechan reminds us that the beauty of art lies in its ability to evoke rather than explain, a theme resonantly captured in "Flowing Moonlight" at Unaw Gallery—a true testament to the enduring allure of the unseen.