1. An apparatus for recognizing a gesture, comprising: a sensing unit which detects first and second sensing values using an infrared sensor; a control unit which recognizes a hold motion based on the first sensing value, and performs gesture recognition in accordance with a predetermined recognizing mode based on the second sensing value, the control unit recognizing the hold motion when the first sensing value is in a predetermined hold region, the hold region being smaller than a total sensing region of the sensing unit, the hold region being set in advance at the center of a display; and a storing unit which stores the predetermined recognizing mode when the gesture recognition is performed, wherein when the predetermined recognizing mode is a first recognizing mode, the control unit begins the gesture recognition automatically, wherein when the predetermined recognizing mode is a second recognizing mode, the control unit begins the gesture recognition after the hold motion is recognized, wherein the control unit calculates a first variation of the second sensing value on an x-axis and a second variation of the second sensing value on a y-axis, determines one of a left, right, up, and down motion based on the first and second variations, and recognizes a gesture from the determined motion, and wherein the control unit determines the up or down motion only when a sum of top signals and a sum of bottom signals shows an opposite tendency.