About the Participating Artists:

Keumhi Mun makes paintings that depict nature, people, and the traditions prior to westernization, resisting the dominance of masculinity and culture through an embrace of femininity and nature. Mun’s paintings derive meaning and beauty from tradition and carries an environmentalist message opposing the destruction of nature.

Eunhee Kim specializes in Korean traditional color painting in her attempt to explore and preserve the rich heritage found within the Obangsaek and Ogansaek color schemes. Obangsaek, a palette inspired by the five traditional Korean colors, symbolizes the dynamic interplay of Yin and Yang, reflecting the essence of balance inherent in Korean culture. Each color within Obangsaek represents an element in nature and a cardinal direction. Complementing Obangsaek is the Ogansaek, a color scheme born from the fusion of two Obangsaek colors. Kim primarily utilizes meticulous painting techniques on traditional Korean paper, Hanji.

Jaejoong Yu works in steel forging to bring about curvilinear shapes and forms that contain contrast in terms of smooth and rough qualities. The blacksmithing process, which requires the manual pressing of the material with tools and the artist’s hands, is improvisational and playful and has an authenticity that cannot be had by a means of automated or mechanical production through computer input.

RichieJ creates “lucky "art,” which shares a similar concept to lucky charms, such as a lucky clover and two-dollar bills. Her art is a pursuit of “childlike innocence and pleasant energy,” in the hopes of spilling the positivity into reality from the realm of idealism.

Yeul Lee explores the temporal nature of the mirror and the narratives of the times that they accumulate and reflect. She collected the objects from a decommissioned US military base as well as the flea markets within Paris. The mirror “metamorphoses into a gateway for expressing an alternate viewpoint on the world… [allowing the artist to] rediscover… [her] liberated self…” and immerse into an “aesthetic cosmos.”

Onn Young Cho’s works utilize acrylic paint, pencil, and woodblock printing techqniues to depict the Dancheong, which is a unique decorative pattern in Korean architecture combining vibrant red and blue colors and often used to adorn the roofs and ceilings of palaces and traditional buildings. The artist seeks to capture the harmony in the circulation of nature and the energy of life through the traditional architectural style, which frequently incorporates natural forms such as water lily, pomegranate, and feather.

Eunmi Lee relies on abstract landscape painting to reflect on her own sense of being and identity. The fantasy she held to become a westerner since her childhood encounter with an American TV show in 1972 began to peel away when she came to America for her graduate studies. She began to embrace her own Korean identity and applies her observations and intuitions onto the canvas in the act of painting.

Yoonoh Hong makes paintings of nature and the landscape, taking on an environmental position on the separation between nature and people living in a modern society.

Steven Leo conceives of his art as a contemporary interpretation of traditional Korean beauty. The artist embeds words such as “quantum,” in his works, which may carry scientific, pseudo-scientific, or spiritual ideas and connotations. His current body of work involves the depiction rabbits, who constitute symbol of wisdom and survival.

Mikyung Hwang is an artist who utilizes fluid acrylic painting to capture expressive colors and forms that prove to be idealistic and energetic, opening up the possibility of “change and freedom in the joy, anger, pleasure, and sorrow of that life.”

Insun Ha captures the simple yet profound moemnts encountered in everyday life through slowly drawn strokes on Hanji paper. “The paper reveals various stains, almost like telling stories of its own.” Ha seeks to show an interconnected world with elements that exchange light, “becoming the stars that shape” the world.

Euisun Hwang explores the anti-capitalist and anti-development sentiment and vision with a sense of mystery and a longing for the old and the past. Hwang begins her work with a focus on animals and plants, which may prove to be anti-humanist and more so post-humanist or eco-feminist.

HyunKyoung Shin makes art about ecofeminism and the female goddess through a feminist and woman’s perspective. Her depiction of the godddesses and the mother of Buddha resist the male-centric narratives and perspectives in religion and society.

Jinyeo Lee is a Korean shaman who bridges the divine with the everyday in her art. She paints maji, which are shamanic portraits, to greet her deities.

Keumhi Mun - Cappadocia with mysterious Strange Rocks and Bizarre Stones, 29.1 x 18.5 inches, Korean painting color on Korean paper, 2020

Jaejoong Yu - Iron drawing: Memories of an organism gathered #1, 47x23.6 inches, forged iron, 2023

RichieJ - Finding Lucky Charms, 26 x 23 inches, acrylic on canvas, 2023

Yeul Lee - Mirror Painting, 16 x 14 inches, mixed media, 2023

 Onn Young Cho - The Energy of Life 4, 30 x 22 inch, acrylic and pencil on printmaking paper, 2022

Eunmi Lee - Finding myself from the root: This summer at Bulguksa in Gyeongju, 57.24 x 71.57 inches, oil painting on canvas, 2023

Yoonoh Hong - Dandelions blooming in dystopia, 13 x 16 inches, acrylic painting, 2022