“According to myth, people become stars after death. Stars illuminate people’s ordinary days on Earth and represent life beyond. I wish to embrace the fullness and the emptiness of the cosmos and the universe.”
Stars Upon Departure was a fundraising exhibition in collaboration with ELOREA, NYC.
The exhibition was Wanki Min’s first solo exhibition in New York.
Wanki Min's photographs blend celestial and urban landscapes, exploring the interplay between light, space, and human existence. Through experimental photography, he juxtaposes the cosmos with everyday scenes, blurring boundaries of time, scale, and place.
Concerned with possibilities of the afterlife and the eternal, Min’s artistic practice began by investigating astronomy and the time-bending travel of starlight. His techniques merge stargazing and photography, transforming and layering film to meld disparate images. By scratching, drilling holes, pouring alcohol, and burying film in soil, Min points to the chemical and photosensitive characteristics of film while pushing the boundaries of traditional photography.
Stars Upon Departure was a fundraising exhibition in collaboration with ELOREA, NYC.
The exhibition was Wanki Min’s first solo exhibition in New York.
Wanki Min's photographs blend celestial and urban landscapes, exploring the interplay between light, space, and human existence. Through experimental photography, he juxtaposes the cosmos with everyday scenes, blurring boundaries of time, scale, and place.
Concerned with possibilities of the afterlife and the eternal, Min’s artistic practice began by investigating astronomy and the time-bending travel of starlight. His techniques merge stargazing and photography, transforming and layering film to meld disparate images. By scratching, drilling holes, pouring alcohol, and burying film in soil, Min points to the chemical and photosensitive characteristics of film while pushing the boundaries of traditional photography.
Stars Upon Departure
“Light collapses time, space, and history. Starlight offers traces of intergalactic life and existence, projected from thousands of years in the past, and photography provides a means to access and record it.”
Artworks Curatorial Statement
Civil Art collaborated with ELOREA and Yori Chunsa to host Night of the Senses, a multi-sensory fundraising event. Night of the Senses proudly debuted artist Wanki Min’s solo exhibition, Stars Upon Departure, in ELOREA’s NYC showroom.
Surrounded by Min’s artworks, which merge astronomy and photography to create rich visual landscapes, guests were introduced to ELOREA’s new line of perfumes and a diverse Korean culinary experience through Yori Chunsa’s partnered chefs. We were pleased to celebrate AAPI Heritage Month with a monumental event that empowered our community and showcased the diversity of Asian art and culture.
Night of the Senses was graciously sponsored by Meju, Little Banchan Shop, Soogil, Cote, Coqodaq, Le Gratin, Kisa, and C as in Charlie, with donated silent auction prizes from partnered sponsors, ELOREA, and Wanki Min.
Thanks to the generous support of our donors and guests at Night of the Senses,
Civil Art raised $3,000 for Yori Chunsa to provide culinary mentorship programs for orphans in Korea.
Civil Art raised $3,000 for Yori Chunsa to provide culinary mentorship programs for orphans in Korea.