Grace Salanitro 

In honor of the New Year, Kaneko is presenting a new exhibit until early May. ‘Human Condition’ features the work of Sunkoo Yuh, a Korean native who currently resides in Georgia where he is a professor at the University of Georgia. Yuh received his BFA degree from Hongik University, Seoul, and his MFA degree from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred, New York. His work is inspired by his everyday experiences in life. The artist draws his experiences in ink and pieces them together in his ceramic work. Most of his work out on display was made from ceramic, whether it was a sculpture or a mural. On display there was ink drawings hung on the wall, ceramic murals and three-dimensional statues of monumental scale. ‘On average, the ceramic pillars weigh around 2,000 pounds.’ said Molly Hobson, an employee of Kaneko. Yuh’s stacked ceramic artwork weighs so much that exhibit had to be moved to Kaneko’s first floor instead of being held in its original second story show room.  The title ‘Human Condition’ is a good fit because through-out the exhibit, there are many different emotional, physical, environmental and situational circumstances being displayed. Knowing that the artist based his work on mundane experiences makes the art much easier to connect with from the outside point of view. The exhibit also is displaying work by artist David Helm, who received his BA in Anthropology from Ithaca College and his MFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago. His display is based on The Face of Another, a Japanese novel. The book is about a scientist who suffers from a tragic event and then has the chance to reinvent himself. Every piece connected in the sense that they all had a ceramic white head lacking facial features. Each piece is an attempt to evoke a different emotion. ‘Doubt’ consists of four heads strategically placed together, green and red lights, and a speaker voicing the phrases “do it” and “don’t do it”. This piece is something I think everyone can relate to, the feeling of doubt or more specifically self-doubt is a common emotion not often discussed among others. ‘For Human Condition, we wanted to look at an artists who utilize their mediums to confront the many complicated aspects of being human.” Molly explained. This display at Kaneko is artwork that I think everyone can relate and connect to in some type of way.