Kyung Jeon
Kyung Jeon
KYUNG JEON: WATERLILIES Waterlilies consists of a series of ambitious new work by Kyung Jeon. The exhibition includes a mural-sized triptych as well as smaller vignettes each of which explores diverse narratives. The artist's stories are animated by both fact and fiction, real life and fantastical stories from the past and present, as well as Jeon's personal biography as a first generation Korean American, all of which are brought together into a whimsical fairytale. Jeon s work draws on diverse influences ranging from children s fairy tales, traditional Korean genre paintings and the works of canonical painters such as Hieronymus Bosch and Henry Darger. Jeon has developed a recognizable style of painting which is immediately inviting. She presents a light-hearted and innocent world depicted in pastel-toned images of semi-nude girls and cheeky little boys. However, upon closer look, the works reveal an alternate reality brimming with acts of violence and earthly pleasures. The dark and light themes are woven together in dynamic compositions to draw the viewer in and allow them to reconsider their own nostalgic reality. Her Waterlilies capture an arcadian world inspired by Claude Monet s seminal series Water Lilies. The gentle setting is framed as a paradisical microcosm for children only to slowly betray its more sinister identity as a place for wickedness and sorrow. From swimming and playing to drowning and separation, Jeon presents numerous stories within the series. Each of the stories are based on a combination of personal or historical references which have been transformed into a fictional narrative. These narratives should be seen in light of the fact that her family was divided by the Korean War as her grandparents escaped and left behind their entire families in North Korea, thereby creating gaps in her family history. Jeon, hindered from finding out the full story by either language barrier or possibly because of embarrassment, or trying not to open closed wounds, finds that the past remains a mystery and stories are lost-in-translation. Through the Waterlilies paintings, Jeon explores storytelling by a means of filling-in, reinventing, and re-sorting gaps in her history. Interwoven into a complex web that has no beginning or end, the disparate stories embody paradoxes between innocence and wickedness. The characters portray narratives based on a complex marriage of fear, trauma and conflict as well as childlikejoy and emotional maturity. They touch upon universal human experiences which frame the world in a much larger setting by drawing attention to the hidden and the visible, the past and the present, and reality and fantasy. Kyung Jeon was born in 1975 in Jersey City, New Jersey. She studied art and philosophy in Boston College and received her MFA from the School of Visual Arts, NY. Jeon is the recipient of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant (2009) and was < (Waterlilies)>. (triptych). 1,. (Hieronymus Bosch) (Henry Darger)...,.. < (Waterlilies)> < (Water Lilies)>.,..,..,,. < (Waterlilies)>,..,.. 1975.,. 2009 - (Pollock-Krasner), (Joan Mitchell).,,,.. the Associate Artist in Residence at the Atlantic Center for the Arts, funded by the Joan Mitchell Foundation (2009). She has held numerous solo exhibitions including Savannah College of Art and Design, and participated in group exhibitions in museums and galleries in Asia, U.S.A., Europe and South America, including Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art in Seoul. Jeon lives and works in NYC.
1. WATERLILIES PINK PARACHUTE
2. WATERLILIES GLIDING PARACHUTES
3. WATERLILIES BIG SPLASH
4. WATERLILIES WHIRLPOOL
5. DEEP BLUE RESCUE 6. WATERLILIES PARACHUTE
7. WATERLILIES ESCAPE BIG SPLASH 8. WATERLILIES CPR
9. WATERLILIES UNRAVELED 10. WATERLILIES GIRL PORTRAIT
LIST OF EXHIBITED WORKS 1 WATERLILIES PINK PARACHUTE 2012 watercolor, gouache, pencil on rice paper on canvas wooden panel 51.2 x 40.5 cm 6 WATERLILIES PARACHUTE 2012 watercolor, gouache, pencil on rice paper on canvas wooden panel 62 x 45.5 cm 2 WATERLILIES GLIDING PARACHUTES 2012 watercolor, gouache, pencil on rice paper on canvas 151.1 x 274.3 cm 7 WATERLILIES ESCAPE BIG SPLASH 2012 watercolor, gouache, pencil on rice paper on canvas wooden panel 36.5 x 45.5 cm 3 WATERLILIES BIG SPLASH 2012 watercolor, gouache, pencil on rice paper on canvas 151.1 x 274.3 cm 8 WATERLILIES CPR 2012 watercolor, gouache, pencil on rice paper on canvas wooden panel 28.7 x 35.6 cm 4 WATERLILIES WHIRLPOOL 2012 watercolor, gouache, pencil on rice paper on canvas 151.1 x 274.3 cm 9 WATERLILIES UNRAVELED 2012 watercolor, gouache, pencil on rice paper on canvas wooden panel 51.5 x 40.6 cm 5 DEEP BLUE RESCUE 2012 watercolor, gouache, pencil on rice paper on canvas wooden panel 76.2 x 101.6 cm 10 WATERLILIES GIRL PORTRAIT 2012 acrylic flashe paint on rice paper on cnavas wooden panel 25.4 x 20.3 cm
BIOGRAPHY Kyung Jeon (Korean-American) John Zorn presents The Obsessions Collection: Works Gallery, NY, NY Mansion, San Francisco, CA Born 1975, Jersey City, New Jersey by Artists of Extreme Interest, Cavin-Morris Gallery, 2005 Mas Isto Tambem e?, Léo Bahia Arte Girls and Guns, LA Part 1, NY Part 2, The Lives and works in New York, New York NY, NY Contemporanea, Santa Lúcia, Brazil Proposition, NY, NY www.kyung.com The Big Show, Silas Marder Gallery, Desenhos, Theodor Lindner Galeria de Arte, Rio de Exhibit & Silent Auction to benefit Richard Bridgehampton, NY Janeiro, Brazil Foreman's Ontological Hysteric Theater, Marianne EDUCATION 2009 Faces & Facts: Korean Contemporary Art in New The Empire of Sighs, Curated by Andrea Pollan, Boesky Gallery, NY, NY 2005 School of Visual Arts, M.F.A. Fine Arts, NY, NY York: Into the Life, Sylvia Wald & Po Kim Art Numark Gallery, Washington, DC Domicile: A Sense Of Place, Curated by: Jim 1997 Boston College, B.A., Double major in Studio Art Gallery, NY, NY First Peak, Curated by Miki Wick-Kim, O'Donnell, Mike Sweney, Don Hudgins & Dino & Philosophy, Chestnut Hill, MA Two Degrees of Separation, Gallery SATORI, NY, Entenhalle, Zurich, Switzerland Martini, Center on Contemporary Art, Seattle, NY Close Proximity, Hun Gallery, NY, NY WA SOLO EXHIBITIONS Pretty Tough: Contemporary Storytelling, Curated by Sentiment, 2x13 Gallery, NY, NY Happy Art for a Sad World, Curated by Hélianthe 2010 Belle Rascal, Tina Kim Gallery, NY, NY Monica Ramirez-Montagut, The Aldrich Museum The 4th Young Overseas Artists Exhibition, Curated Bourdeaux-Maurin, Spike Gallery, NY, NY It s a big, pretty world, Sabina Lee Gallery, Los of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, CT by MinSeok Seo, Hangaram Art Museum 4th Blameless, Curated by Rachel Gugelberger, Visual Angeles, CA Team Painting: Stimulus Package, Curated by James Room, Seoul, Korea Arts Gallery, NY, NY 2009 Mischief and Melancholy, Pinnacle Gallery, Siena, Mark and Margerie Pabst Gallery, Atlantic Above the Trendy, the Down and Out, The Blind Pilots, Curated by Tim Evans, Linc Real Art, Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, Center for the Arts, New Smyrna Beach, FL Proposition, NY, NY San Francisco, CA GA; Trois Gallery, Savannah College of Art and New York 9+one, Cais Gallery, Seoul, Korea. The Last Show MFA Fine Arts Thesis Show, Blind Pilots, Curated by Tim Evans, The Design, Atlanta, GA I Stepped Into the Room, Tina Kim Gallery, NY, NY Curated by CANADA Gallery, SVA Visual Arts Proposition, NY, NY 2008 a story, Tina Kim Gallery, NY, NY Obsessions, Curated by John Zorn, MEM, Osaka Gallery, NY, NY SCOPE New York Art Fair Featured Artist The 2007 Delicate Division, Teo+Namfah Gallery, Bangkok, Japan Psionic Distortion, Curated by Tim Evans, Plum Proposition, NY, NY Thailand Lost and Found, Curated by Jiyoon Lee, Rokeby Blossoms, NY, NY supersalon, Samson Projects, Boston, MA 2006 The Impulse Garden, The Proposition, NY, NY Gallery, London, UK Characters: Scene II, Curated by Hélianthe 2003 Amigos, An Art Showcase on the Lower East Side, 2005 Kyung Jeon: Paintings/Drawings, Joyce Goldstein Delineations, Ad Hoc Art, Brooklyn, NY Bourdeaux-Maurin, Silvermine Guild Arts Center, Associated Projects, NY, NY Gallery, Chatham, NY 2008 Ces Étranges Enfants (Those Strange Children), New Canaan, CT Innocence and Transgression, Curated by John Zorn, 2004 Chang-nan Minor, The Proposition, NY, NY Curated by Douglas Ferrari, The Shore Institute of Characters: Scene I, Curated by Hélianthe Project Room, The Proposition, NY, NY the Contemporary Arts, Long Branch, NJ Bourdeaux-Maurin, Shore Institute of TWO PERSON EXHIBITIONS A Peopled Vision, art sites gallery, Riverhead, NY Contemporary Arts, Long Branch, NJ AWARDS & RESIDENCIES 2012 Kyung Jeon Eemyun Kang, Kukje Gallery, Seoul, 2007 Inner Child: Good and Evil in the Garden of Temperature/artists from the flat file, The Artist 2009 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant Korea Memories, Curated by Kristen Accola, Hunterdon Network, NY, NY Associate Artist in Residence at the Atlantic 2008 Kyung Jeon & Negar Ahkami, A Precious Passing, Museum of Art, Clinton, NJ Paper Deviations, The Proposition, NY, NY Center for the Arts, funded by the Joan Mitchell Miki Wick Kim Contemporary Art, Zurich, Floating Worlds, Branch Gallery, Durham, NC 2004 SCOPE Miami Art Fair Featured Artist The Foundation, New Smyrna Beach, FL Switzerland Hye-Rim Lee, Kyung Jeon, Hideaki Kawashima, YP: Proposition, Miami, FL, Dec 2005 Scope Emerging Artist Prize 2004 Kyung Jeon Paintings and Drawings & Cara Lea Group Show Part II, Kukje Gallery, Seoul, Korea Green Light, Gallery Korea, NY, NY 2003 Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture Cole Photographs, DUST Gallery, Las Vegas, NV 2006 Who Are You, Kumho Museum of Art, Seoul, Psionic Distortion, Curated by Tim Evans, Super Residency and Fellowship Korea Deluxe, Tokyo, Japan GROUP EXHIBITIONS ArtSpectrum 2006, Leeum Samsung Museum of Balancing Acts, The Korea Society, NY, NY 2011-2 Reenacting Sense, Yace Gallery, Long Island City, Art, Seoul, Korea International Underground, Curated by the Wild NY Body: The Facets of the Human Body, Asian Fusion Banana Project, Whitney Young Cultural Center
This catalog was published to accompany the exhibition of Kyung Jeon Eemyun Kang at Kukje Gallery. Kyung Jeon 23 August 23 September, 2012 Kyung Jeon would like to thank Mrs. Lee, Charles Kim, Suzie Kim, Tina Kim, Mr. Kibeom Lee, Jeesun Park, Kukje Gallery and Tina Kim Gallery. Exhibition Planning by Jeesun Park Exhibition Assistance by Bokyoung Yun Published by Kukje Gallery Essay by Jeesun Park Edited by Nick Herman Translation to Korean by Bokyoung Yun Catalog Design by Yeong-Jun Kim Printed & bound by Shin-Myung Printing, Seoul, Korea Photography by Park Hong Soon, Young-ha Cho All Images and works Kyung Jeon Catalog Kukje Gallery No part of this publication may be used or reproduced without written permission from the copyright holders. ISBN 978-89-92233-57-6 All rights reserved. KUKJE GALLERY 54 Samcheong-ro Jongno-gu Seoul Korea 110-200 +82 2 735 8449 www.kukjegallery.com
KUKJE GALLERY