South Korean Art Personalities

Amidst all the tension cycling throughout their region, South Korea remains as one of Asia's most influential countries in the areas of tech, business and arts. Their taste for the post-contemporary side of art has evolved into a local influence that spans across multiple generations in the nation's diverse society.



Within the realm of arts, there are some who have bridged the gap between stundent and maestro- orchestrating works that can capture the eye's atention and grasp the respect of the masses in their multitude.

Jeongmoon Choi, a graduate from Sungshin University in 1990, is a korean artist who plays with
light threads", weaving an almost mathematical stream of visual arrangements into reality. She has since then moved to reside in Germany, displaying her some of her more notable works at the Moeller Fine Art in Berlin and at the Karst Project in Plymouth. Choi illustrates an joining of mediums, through her intense, psycho-sensual works that are now appreciated all over the world.







Choi's works use different allocations of media, such as various lighting forms, and UV thread that resembles the afterlight of glowworms found in nature. This bold series that she has created through her style, touches on the merging of inspirations in her design process. Some works acquire muses from what appears to be spider-web formations, while others can be related to abstract formulae and graphs put in a different light, literally.

Younger, but similarly impactful artists like surrealist JeeYoung Lee, posts bouts of curiosity to the modern world though her strange, yet illuminating collection of photographs that depict the boundless extent of human imagination. Lee's works often explore worlds that could be taken to be purely fantastical- with a grounding element that can bring the audience back to some form or memoir of reality. She herself, is often placed within her pictures, but never facing the viewer, possibly to send an abstract message to whoever seeks to interpret her works.









Aside from being exhibited worldwide, Lee has also acquired honors and recognitions, such as the Sovereign Art Prize in 2012. She, alongside a select group of artists, constitute the growing and evolving circles of contemporary art in South Korea today.

Xooang Choi is another artist from the region, who stands on the cusp of post-contemporary art. His creations although miniature during the earlier years of his career, have grown in side, depicting thought-provoking subjects that have been criticized to evoke very strong reactions from the base of his fans. Some of his more large-scaled pieces have been noted to look nightmarish and epic- in such ways that may strike both fear and curiosity in the minds of patrons.







Choi's famous work "The Noise and Sheddings." is a pair of two setups. The first involves a ring of 70 human heads that each possess very different expressions. These pieces form in a way that put the viewer at a mildly distant view, though still centered in their gaze. The second makes use of different body-part forms, piled in ways that would ask to be mentally re-assembled within the boundaries of human interpretation and limit.

Such works indeed ask the question- what kind of art constitutes as contemporary in South Korea? Is it the type that scares? or maybe those that elicit unbelievable reactions from commentators of their exhibitions. Art cannot fully be explained in its own right, so we can only seek to push farther into its unknown definitions and expectations to come.

Sculptures and Artwork Photography Credit to their Respective Artists (Jeongmoon Choi, Xooang Choi & JeeYoung Lee)