Kwon Jin-Hee

South Korean artist Kwon Jin-Hee experiences a new sensibility by reflecting on past situations and taking photographs before starting her oil paintings. The basis of her work is to engage in an emotional exchange that reproduces the emotions of the previous time in which they were taken and later expresses them to the fullest in the present while working, resulting in a perspective shift.

If you’d like to know more about her works, please visit her Instagram.

About:

Born in 1988, Jin-Hee graduated from Mokwon University's Department of Industrial Design and received an MA from Hongik University's Department of Painting. She begins by taking pictures at the earliest stage of the work’s creation but doesn't use the pictures to describe her subjects on canvas as they are. Instead, she remembers, focuses, and reflects on the situation when taking them. These pictures contain the memories, atmosphere, and emotions of the time in which they were taken in an exchange of emotions from the past to the present. Through her artistic process, a newly exaggerated expression of everyday objects makes viewers look at them from a different perspective.

Kwon Jin-Hee, *Hidden*, 2018. Oil on canvas, 1820 x 910 mm.

As Monet expressed everything that changes with the light, Jin-Hee represents nature and the scenery she accidentally encounters in daily life. She captures these changing scenes by sensing the moments in which she sees sunlight and colour moving in harmony. In particular, she pays close attention to moss, which has been established in various ways depending on the shape of things.

Kwon Jin-Hee, *What is visible and what is invisible*, 2017. Oil on canvas, 2330 x 1820 mm.

What is visible and what is invisible (2017) expresses moss in combination with Maurice Merleau-Ponty's philosophy of perception acting as a continuous dialogue between a physical body and the world which it perceives. The moment Jin-Hee looked at the moss, she did not stop at observing the moss with her naked eye, but like Merleau-Ponty’s thought, her whole body fell into the world of moss. As such, her work is deeply related to Western aesthetics. Based on the inspiration she acquires from philosophy, she recreates her daily life from her own perspective.

Kwon Jin-Hee, *Moss forest*, 2018. Oil on canvas, 2330 x 1820 mm.

Further, Jin-Hee doesn't place any importance on imitating nature or expressing it realistically. Rather, she tries to express the power and depression of moss through her work. The moss is a psychological self-portrait and a monologue that reveals one's inner self in between; sublimating the inner self through intentional work activities. No one wants it, but the moss waiting for exploration becomes a forest in itself. Additionally, Jin-Hee breaks away from humanistic ideas by capturing on canvas that humans are part of nature and that humans and moss coexist on Earth.

Jin-Hee currently works as a New York-based painter and presents works that reinterpret street art and her daily life. Learning how to interact with various artists and approach them academically, she is developing her own philosophy through her practice. Apart from her depiction of natural objects that were once the subject of work activities, installation pieces involving audiences are also conducted on the streets of New York.