Exhibition Information

			Gallery Joeun is pleased to present the duo exhibition “Lovely Journey” by Jeong Seong-Joon (b.1981) and Oh Young-hwa (b.1981) from April 18 to May 11. The two artists express the environmental theme of our society, the coexistence of humans and animals, with their unique artistic language.

Jeong Seong-Joon humorously depicts the journey of rare and endangered animals such as polar bears and emperor penguins in a realistic urban landscape. Compared to the cheerful and energetic animals, the colorless people in the city pay no special attention to them. At first glance, they seem to coexist, but the gray cityscape unfolds as if it overlaps with the lively and colorful animals. In the face of today's pollution and global warming, the animals, who are in search of an unrealistic 'utopia' that may never be found, are somewhat naive but happy and active compared to the humans hiding in the gray cities. This may be the optimistic esthetic attitude of the artist, who hopes that one day all living creatures in his paintings will coexist in vibrant colors instead of dealing with environmental problems through a catastrophic future in black and white colors.

In this exhibition, the artist plans to show for the first time the work "The Paradise", a romantic journey of humans and animals escaping the city and crossing the vast ocean on a ferryboat, as well as his existing representative series "Tram" and "Starbucks"

Jeong Seong-Joon, the first foreigner to graduate with a master's degree in oil painting from the Central Academy of Art in Beijing, China, works in China, Hong Kong and Korea. In addition to one of his tram series acquired by the Louis Vuitton Foundation in France, a large elephant painting (200 x 650 cm) was collected by Wanker, the largest real estate company in China, and a total of four works were recently acquired by the PARKSEOBO Foundation in Korea, cementing his reputation in the national and international art world. A solo exhibition is planned in Beijing in October this year.

While Jeong Seong-Joon focused on animals facing extinction, Oh Young-hwa's "The Road Cat" offers a lyrical and warm landscape of coexistence as it happens in our daily lives. For the artist, who felt lonely during her studies in China due to the lack of cultural and linguistic communication, "The Road Cat" was a friend and a family, and she herself lived as a stranger in a strange land. The artist, who made "The Road Cat"," who was comforted more than any other living creature, the subject of her work, places the road cat on the shining boundary between light and shadow, who loved sunlight more than anyone else but always had to wandered in the dark.

From "Beautiful World"," in which the alley cats enjoy the café patio with the humans on a warm spring day, to "The Scent of Summer"," in which they move in the shade of the hot sun, to "The John's Chair"," in which the cat enjoys the sunshine beyond the window from the comfort of its owner's chair, the alley cats in her paintings are no longer socially shunned, but precious and welcome objects of coexistence, sharing their daily lives with the humans in the sun.

Oh Young-Hwa, who studied at the Beijing Academy of Central Art together with Jeong Seong-Joon, continues her artistic activities in both China and Korea. Starting with the group exhibition "THE FORTIES; ALLURING MOMENTS 5th" at Joeun Gallery last year, the artist is stepping up her activities in Korea and will participate in Art Busan in May and hold solo exhibitions in Beijing in October.


(Source = Gallery Joeun)