Maria Chang (b. 1981) is a contemporary artist who emphasises materiality through richly layered matière and vibrant, dynamic colour. She majored in Textile Art at Hongik University and creates relief-like, dimensional paintings using materials such as plaster, sand, and gel stone.

아르투(Artue)는 동시대 예술 현장의 역동성을 자양분으로 삼은 역량 있는 예술가들의 작품을 엄선하여 생동감 넘치는 미술의 본질을 세계에 알리는 데 헌신하고 있습니다. 예술가들을 위한 플랫폼 구축은 갤러리, 컬렉터 및 미술 애호가들을 연결해 지리적, 물리적 경계를 넘어선 총체적 경험을 제공하려는 아투의 핵심 미션과 연결됩니다. 아투를 통해 매력적인 미술의 세계를 발견하고 그 어디에서도 만날 수 없는 기회를 경험해 보시기 바랍니다. 

Artue is dedicated to bringing the vibrant essence of art to the world stage, presenting a curated selection of works by talented artists who embody dynamic contemporary scenes. By creating a platform for these artists, we foster connections among galleries, collectors, and art enthusiasts, offering an immersive experience that transcends geographical boundaries. Discover the captivating world of contemporary art through Artue and unlock unparalleled opportunities for growth, exposure, and success. Join us in celebrating the diverse and remarkable contributions of artists to the global art community.

Artue - Korea

In Between - Spring series (Gray cream)

“Translation does not repeat the original; it expands its possibilities.” by Walter Benjamin
This statement by Walter Benjamin describes precisely how Hwang Hyeyoung’s Nana’s Wonderland operates. Borrowing the structural framework of Alice in Wonderland, the artist brings it into her own pictorial universe, opening new imaginative possibilities.
At the center of the exhibition, the fairytale book and the paintings mirror one another, forming a “living story” that the viewer enters rather than reads page by page. Nana’s Wonderland is not a simple variation on a narrative; it is a process in which text and image build a world together. Nana’s journey becomes the first scene through which the artist reveals how her artistic world expands and reconstructs itself.

| Elevate Artists to the Center of Culture |
Since its opening in 2019, Gallery Collast has consistently presented a diverse and unique range of solo and curated exhibitions. The name "Collast" is a meaningful fusion of "Collaboration" and "Artist," reflecting our commitment to creating creative works that spark a new wave in contemporary art through deep partnership with artists.

Located in the vibrant and youthful district of Seongsu-dong, Seoul, we aim to introduce contemporary art to a broader public. Our mission is to facilitate multifaceted communication between artists and collectors, contributing to a virtuous cycle within the art market. Moving beyond the traditional "white cube" gallery format, we pursue a new gallery identity that rawly captures the artist's passion and energy.

As an open space for everyone, we prioritize interactive exhibitions over one-way displays and actively support bold, adventurous artistic endeavors. We respect the diverse currents of contemporary art and believe that natural dialogue and an intimate atmosphere between artists and visitors can dismantle the barriers to the art world.

Gallery Collast seeks new dimensions in contemporary art, moving forward with the conviction that freedom is the ultimate driver of innovation.

COLLAST

HIDE AND SEEK

〈Night of the Hunt〉
The beast within me, and the shadow outside me—
each searching for the other.

Colorbeat presents curated exhibitions centered on the works of contemporary artists, serving as an experimental exhibition space where current sensibilities and social contexts are articulated through art. Rather than being confined to specific media, the gallery organically highlights a wide range of practices—including painting, sculpture, installation, and video—while offering in-depth insight into the attitudes and critical perspectives of artists living and working in our time. In particular, Colorbeat actively discovers and supports emerging artists who work freely across media, providing ongoing exhibition opportunities and fostering critical discourse to encourage their long-term growth. By focusing not only on completed works but also on artistic processes and trajectories of thought, the gallery enables visitors to engage with art in a more layered and immersive way. Beyond mere appreciation, each exhibition functions as an open platform for collectively exploring the possibilities of contemporary art.

Gallery COLORBEAT

Night of the Hunt

〈What Remains Only After Vanishing〉
Light spilled from her fingertips.
It glimmered, but it was not warm. It lit the path before her, but told nothing of its end.
Where should she go? Was it to pass through the forest, or to remain within it? She could not
tell— yet the light in her hand kept her moving.
Where had it come from? Would it vanish if she opened her hand? Had it ever been hers? And if
she let it go— what would she become?
The trees that had stood for centuries, and the small leaves beneath them, had never opened
their eyes.
The forest did not answer. The light was weightless, and unbearably heavy.

What Remains Only After Vanishing

SPACE OUT

MY LITTLE HOUSE

MIRROR

〈Shell of the Waning Moon〉
A handful of wind shakes a worn scrap of paper. The child’s star trembles, ready to break.
Perhaps this night is filled with things I wish to abandon.
The shadows left by noon’s fierce light chase one another’s tails, and words that never found a
place rot away, slowly.
We sink into the shell of the waning moon.

Shell of the Waning Moon

ALICES

ALICE'S HAT

ROSE KEY

ALICE

Between Spring

LITTLE GIRL

SMALL TALK

HEART HEAD

〈Refuge〉
A place no one can find. The only place to live, or to vanish.

Refuge

“Translation does not repeat the original; it expands its possibilities.” by Walter Benjamin
This statement by Walter Benjamin describes precisely how Hwang Hyeyoung’s Nana’s Wonderland operates. Borrowing the structural framework of Alice in Wonderland, the artist brings it into her own pictorial universe, opening new imaginative possibilities.
At the center of the exhibition, the fairytale book and the paintings mirror one another, forming a “living story” that the viewer enters rather than reads page by page. Nana’s Wonderland is not a simple variation on a narrative; it is a process in which text and image build a world together. Nana’s journey becomes the first scene through which the artist reveals how her artistic world expands and reconstructs itself.


LITTLE WINDOW

Hwang Hyeyoung develops her practice around the central figure of the “girl.” In her work, the girl is a symbolic being who transcends specific gender and age.
Through this figure, Hwang reflects her own fragility, immaturity, and honesty, unfolding stories that resonate with her personal journey of growth. She expresses deep empathy for those experiencing the turbulent waves of adolescence, portraying the moments of growth encountered over time by both the girl in her paintings and the artist herself in reality. The forest in which the girl resides symbolizes the trials of adolescence; the expression of diverse emotions, the courage to confront threats and anxieties, and the adventurous spirit to explore new challenges and unknown worlds are all depicted as integral parts of the process of growing up.

Floating Selves, a Solidarity of Resonance
I do not trust the notion of a fixed self. Although the self is often defined in psychology as a unique and coherent identity, such a concept is fundamentally insufficient to capture the complexity and fluidity of the human inner world. Within the rapidly shifting currents of contemporary society, modern identity is continuously dismantled and dispersed, leaving us to drift through the world without a clear outline. In this process, fragile emotions are frequently fragmented, and coherent temporality and narrative lose their boundaries, often becoming powerless. Thus, the core and backdrop of my work is the visualization of the process through which incomplete beings of our time gather their own fragments—a “psychological safe zone.”
This psychological safe zone is not a simple refuge where all pain and conflict are resolved, nor a complete utopia. Rather, it is a place where beings that remain incomplete choose confrontation over avoidance, flow over closure, and bear their own rhythms as they pause, exploring transformation and recovery.

This space is realized as an unfamiliar and heterogeneous landscape inhabited primarily by anomalous life forms. These settings are not actual places but multidimensional spaces onto which inner sensations are projected—complex structures in which memory and imagination, fear and desire, are interwoven. The beings that appear possess organic, hybrid forms and identities that are never fixed. Figures wearing animal masks, unfamiliar beasts, and winged mammals all symbolize the fragmentation and reassembly of the self, actively driving their own narratives. Rather than isolating and defending themselves from the external world, they form spaces as open fields of relation where emotions and existence connect. Within these spaces, the self is once again experimented with, and resonance aligns itself with reality in solidarity.

The beings that appear in the work carry no fixed meanings. They are less identities than possibilities of identity, or states that the artist senses within lived reality. Through these scenes, the viewer is invited not to find comfort or definitive meaning, but to enter an unstable condition reliant on sensation. Selves pass through intermediate points toward a more complete form of being. This is not a process of healing but of individuation—a provisional space that allows one to form personal boundaries through resonance with the surrounding world. This space does not seek to establish a private order, but to explore the very possibility of order itself. It is always precarious. Yet it is precisely within this precarity that the hope emerges that the self may finally be contemplated.
“How far did the boundary extend before complete collapse, and in what form might it be rebuilt?”
The work offers no clear answers. Instead, within landscapes that hold this question, beings continue to move and transform. I remain within this space.

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