Woo Jong-taek’s work does not begin with the representation of visible forms. Rather than depicting what lies before the eye, his paintings and installations seek to attune themselves to the invisible currents that flow beyond appearance. What he calls Qi Abstraction is not an abstraction achieved by eliminating form, but a contemplative practice that reveals the vital energies that exist before form emerges and after it dissolves. His pictorial field is not a surface upon which an image is completed, but a site where body and nature, matter and spirit, intersect, leaving traces of time in their passage.

Wondrous Existence Through Beginningless Eternity extends this artistic vision from the plane of painting into the realm of space. The Buddhist term Beginningless Eternity (無始曠劫) evokes an immeasurable expanse of cosmic time without origin or end, while Wondrous Presence (妙有) refers to a mode of existence that is empty yet unmistakably present. Rather than directing our attention toward visible objects, the exhibition invites us to encounter the invisible flow of time, vital energy, and the profound depth of being that lies between them.

At the heart of the exhibition stands a monumental natural stone. Bearing within it the silence of geological strata, the memory of the earth, and the weight of immeasurable time, the stone becomes the gravitational center of the space. As visitors slowly walk around it, they experience its distance, mass, surface, and silence through the movement of their own bodies. The work is no longer an object to be viewed from a distance, but a place of contemplation that gradually unfolds through walking, breathing, and dwelling.

This spatial experience gives physical form to what the artist describes as “deep perspective.” If the traditional East Asian concept of Shenyuan (深遠) created depth within the pictorial space, here that depth is generated through the viewer’s movement in real space. Depth is no longer an illusion of perspective but an accumulation of time experienced through the body—a distance in which contemplation takes root.

For Woo Jong-taek, nature is neither an object to be represented nor something to be mastered. It is not an external world separated from humanity, but a field in which body and spirit, matter and vital energy continually permeate one another. The brushstroke and the empty space, wood saturated with ink, ancient stones, the surrounding architecture, and silence itself all become channels through which energy gathers and passes. Matter may appear silent, yet its silence is never empty. It is a place where immense stretches of time have settled, and where the invisible briefly reveals its presence.

Wondrous Existence Through Beginningless Eternity is an exhibition in which painting, installation, nature, space, and the visitor’s own body converge to complete a single act of contemplation. Walking around the stone becomes an experience of moving through layers of time, while encountering matter and silence becomes a way of sensing the invisible vitality that permeates existence. Here, time appears still yet endlessly unfolds; presence remains empty yet profoundly full. Within this space, the subtle reality of Myo-yu comes alive once again as a living experience of the present.

Exhibition Title | Wondrous Existence Through Beginningless Eternity 
Artist  | Woo Jong-taek
Exhibition Period | Jun 26, 2026 – Aug 2, 2026 (Opening Hours. 10:00 – 17:30 / Closed on Monday, holiday / 12:00 – 13:00 Break time)
Venue | Gallery KKI (521-2, Hoedong-gil, Paju-si, Gyeonggi-do) 

Curated by  |  Total Museum of Contemporary Art
Host/Organizer |  Gallery KKI
Sponsor |  Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism / Arts Management Support Center