March 29 - May 10, 2025
From Erin Cluley Gallery:
“Erin Cluley Gallery is pleased to announce Infinite Echo, an exhibition of new light sculptures by Baltimore-based artist Chul-Hyun Ahn. Utilizing mirrors and changing LEDs, Ahn’s hypnotic works bridge the gap between the simplicity of geometric shapes and the aesthetic sublime. In effect, his work creates infinite worlds contained within a light box: through the construction of mirrors and light, viewers can peer into but not access Ahn’s receding spaces. Infinite Echo features recent sculptures from Ahn alongside an installation work, continuing his exploration of how to represent boundlessness in art and spiritual allusions to Zen Buddhism. Ahn combines technology and refined craftsmanship to create his ostensibly simple illusions. His high level of craft streamlines the work so as not to interrupt their fantastical environments and our experience of them. Ahn’s clean white and black frames contrast his LEDs vivid colors. Their shallow depth contributes to the illusory void seen only from the sculpture’s front. Inside the glass, Ahn’s sculptures create bright environments out of classic shapes, i.e. squares, circles, and triangles. These shapes are then reflected against each other, replicating the shapes endlessly as they disappear into a black void like space.
Though his works create aesthetically utopian environments, Ahn’s inspiration comes from everyday objects and architectures. The artist describes his “mirror pieces” as “[representing] nature and/or futuristic cityscapes, i.e. the horizontal of a classical landscape, the verticality of skyscrapers, the tubular quality of subway tunnels, and buried pipes.” In essence, Ahn reimagines natural and industrial compositions into spiritualistic experiences for viewers. Drawing from elements of Korean Zen Buddhism like “youn woi” (transmigration),”mu guk” (endless, infinity), “Mandala,”, and “gong” (Emptiness), his light sculptures manipulate the liminal towards subliminal. In Infinite Echo, Two Squares (2024) features a larger boarder around an internal square. Moving between magenta, violet, yellow, and lime green, the colored LEDs suggest the eponymous shape’s drift toward a limitless expanse. Both meditative and exhilarating, Two Squares showcases the crucial elements in Ahn’s work: light, shape, and movement. In his newest solo presentation at Erin Cluley Gallery, multimedia artist Chul-Hyun Ahn creates a series of enlightening mirror-spaces. His light sculptures reference the raw and built environments around us, and, through manipulation of mirrors and color, imagine new ways to understand the concept of infinity. Conversely, Infinite Echo gauges how viewer’s define boundaries. At the limits of vision, Ahn pushes light and shape further into the boundless and improbable. Infinite Echo will be the artist’s third solo presentation with Erin Cluley Gallery. It will be exhibited concurrently with continuous nurture, an exhibition of new work by Texas-native, North Carolina-based artist Sarita Westrup.
Chul-Hyun Ahn (b. 1971; Busan, South Korea) is a sculptor working primarily in light art based in Baltimore, Maryland. He received a BFA from the Chu-Gye University for the Arts in Seoul, Korea and an MFA from the Mount Royal School at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. Chul-Hyun Ahn creates sculptures utilizing light, color, and illusion as physical representations of his investigation of infinite space. His interest in the gap between the conscious and subconscious compels him to construct illusionistic environments providing a space for contemplation. The resulting light sculptures urge the viewer to consider man’s boundless ability for physical and spiritual travel while exploiting illusions of infinity and the poetics of emptiness. Ahn is an artist of international acclaim, with works in numerous public and private collections including the Margulies Collection at the Warehouse, the Hearst Foundation, Movado Group, and the Jordan D. Schnitzer Family Foundation.
Erin Cluley Gallery is a contemporary art gallery representing emerging, mid-career, and established artists from Dallas and the United States. The gallery presents a provocative program of artists working in both traditional and alternative forms including painting, sculpture, new media, photography, sculptural installation and public intervention. In 2014, Erin Cluley Gallery ignited a creative movement in West Dallas acting as a hub for visual arts and community engagement. After nearly five years on Fabrication Street, the gallery has moved its operation to Riverbend – a development in Dallas’ Design District celebrating the intersection between culture and commerce. From April 2021 to November 2024, Cluley opened and operated Cluley Projects – a satellite location in West Dallas acting as an incubator space focusing on regional artists and providing a platform for discovery and mentorship. For all press inquiries contact [email protected]”
Reception: April 9, 2025 | 11 pm – 1 am
150 Manufacturing Street, Suite 210
Dallas , 75212 Texas
214-538-1148
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