(HACKENSACK, NJ) -- Riverside Gallery presents artist SungMo Cho with  "The Last Pencil on Earth" from June 14-30, 2022. About 30 pencil works from November 2019 (The Last Pencil on Earth) and 30 canvas works that have not been presented since 2018 (Along the love road – Full Moon works, Along the love road works) will be presented in the exhibition.

For over 40 years of his art career, Sungmo Cho has been making canvas works and three-dimensional works on the topic of Civilization, Nature, and Humanity. The core message of his art is about coexistence and consideration – that all human beings and creatures on the planet should live in peace and love each other.

There will be an opening reception on June 18th from 5:00pm-7:00pm.  

Artist Statement, "One day, during fall, while I was performing some carpentry work, I needed a pencil. I immediately went to my studio to look for one, but could not manage to find a standard HB (hard black) pencil. I looked everywhere for one but still could not find one, so I kept thinking to myself, “Why is there no pencil around…” And at that moment, I found myself caught up in a deep thought. My current predicament highlighted the current state of the world.

"Where a pencil was the tool used to facilitate sharing of knowledge and information, as time passed with major advancements in technology and with the arrival and advancement of the digital era, the pencil became the analog and past of the present. With continuous advancements of the digital world, a pencil is very much the opposite of those advancements.

"In George Orwell's 1984, he predicted a dystopian future in which the world was full of misinformation, fabrication, distortion and conspiracy. Ironically, there are some parallels between our society today and that of George Orwell's. The constant misinformation campaign that is pervasive in society causes undue stress for those who are unable to distinguish the truth and facts and are constantly being manipulated.

"The future, which became today as a result of humankind's endless curiosity, desire, greed, and familiar objects or those that we cherished that were always around us – regardless of whether that was an object or a person, things which have always been familiar to us, cherished, touched, seen, and kept close – I would like to remind ourselves of these things we have forgotten or lost, either consciously or unconsciously, through this pencil work.

"Through ‘The Last Pencil on Earth,' I hope that we become aware of the unstable position of being unaware, where we cannot afford to give our hearts and eyes to those around us, and live a life where we feel the greatest love for everything around us today. So for this reason, the subtitle is named ‘Do it well when it is being.' This is in consistency with the idea that love is the balancing power in the love triangle between nature, civilization, and humankind.

Moreover, with the advancement of IT and AI, many tools, jobs, and so forth have disappeared. Without a choice or time to adapt, we have been subject to the vast changes in our civilization and it has become a part of our daily lives. As such, I wanted to symbolize this sentiment with ‘The First Electronic Pen on Earth' artwork that I created."

Robert C.Morgan – Art Critic -Omission- "The artist's manner of showing us the oppositions and compromises necessary to live in this world, which is our everyday world, are convincing and encouraging. There is a dynamic in his series of paintings, titled Along the Road, which needs to be taken into account, and given further attention. It is not only a way of painting, but a way of life, a way of getting into the emotional and physical resources that we need to endure and to live our lives happily with a sense of complete fulfillment. This is the message I get from the paintings of Sungmo Cho."

Riverside Gallery is located inside of Riverside Mall at One Riverside sq. Suite 201 in Hackensack, New Jersey.