Taewoo’s solo exhibition, 好虎時節 (Hoho Sijeol), now welcomes its fifth season at Gallery Belle Vie. Developed in close connection with the gallery, the 好虎時節 series has gradually deepened and expanded within the artist’s distinctive landscape. Gasooho (家守虎) — the guardian tiger first born as a being that protects the family — has also moved beyond a simple symbol, becoming another persona that reflects the artist’s gaze and heart.
The title 好虎時節 (Hoho Sijeol) carries several layered meanings. It brings together the character 好, meaning “good,” and 虎, meaning “tiger,” suggesting “a good season for the tiger.” At the same time, the repeated sound “hoho” evokes a gentle laugh, expressing the hope that peaceful and warm moments may settle within our lives. Rather than grand happiness, the phrase calls to mind those quiet instances when a small smile unexpectedly appears.
In 好虎時節 (Hoho Sijeol) 5, Gasooho (家守虎) seeps even more quietly into the landscape than before. Born from the artist’s love and sense of responsibility toward family — from the wish to protect and care for one another — Gasooho (家守虎) and Nupsae no longer appear merely as distinct symbols within the picture plane. Instead, they drift among mountains and water, clouds and trees, dwelling together within the breath of the landscape. Across the exhibition, not only tigers but also birds, fish, deer, rabbits, butterflies, and other small unnamed lives mingle with wildflowers to form a single ecosystem. These scenes reveal how a feeling that began within the intimate bonds of family gradually expands into a broader story of coexistence, in which many beings live together in quiet harmony.
On Taewoo’s canvases, the texture of ink-like absorption, emptied spaces, and repeated brushstrokes allow the sensibility and contemplation unique to East Asian painting to flow in stillness. His landscapes are not so much representations of actual nature as inner landscapes, where memory, emotion, and contemporary sensibility overlap. Yet Taewoo does not allow this Eastern sentiment to remain heavy or bound to classical conventions. Through the humorous expressions of his animals, compositions that seem to drift and flow, and his distinctive warmth of color and rhythm, he reinterprets traditional landscape painting with a playful contemporary sensibility. In this way, viewers encounter the aesthetics and emotions of the classical tradition without distance, naturally within the context of today’s life, and come to experience the spirit of wayu (臥遊) — traveling while reclining.
At the threshold of early summer, Gallery Belle Vie hopes that the time spent with 好虎時節 (Hoho Sijeol) 5 will remain as a moment to pause and breathe, and as a season in which one may once again turn toward the inner landscape that had been quietly forgotten. As if reclining for a gentle journey through Taewoo’s slow-moving landscapes, may viewers take their time and allow their hearts to rest.
