Jaeho Jung (b. 1971) is an artist who captures the process of urban development and decline during Korea's modernization, as driven by state initiatives, through painting. He meticulously observes and portrays urban landscapes over extended periods, including Seoul's nightscapes, areas threatened by redevelopment, and newly constructed buildings.

Jaeho Jung has consistently depicted urban landscapes on his canvas, beginning with his first solo exhibition in 2001, where he showcased panoramic nightscapes of Seoul. Since 2004, the artist has sought out old apartments, houses, and buildings constructed during the 1960s and 1970s.

The Cheongun Monument (2004) series was the first apartment-themed work he presented, set against the backdrop of Cheongun Citizen Apartments in Jongno-gu. There, Jung discovered traces left by the residents who had lived in and departed from the building due to redevelopment, alongside the aging exterior of the apartments.

Jaeho Jung meticulously and realistically depicted the traces of time and the remnants of people's lives left behind in the apartments, almost as if recording them. In this process, he used traditional Korean painting materials like hanji (Korean paper) and ink, capturing the faded, profound atmosphere characteristic of Eastern painting to emphasize the fleeting existence of buildings that still stand but are soon to disappear. Simultaneously, he employed acrylic paint, a Western medium, to render the textures of old stains and grime on the walls with great precision.

Beginning with Cheongun Monument, Jaeho Jung delved deeply into the architectural and urban history of Seoul, continuing his work on various citizen apartments in the city. In 2005, he presented the results of his exploration in the exhibition “Old Apartment Building” at the Kumho Museum of Art.

The new apartment works displayed in this exhibition revealed a shift in tone by aligning the facades of buildings with the large-scale canvases. For instance, the Riverside Hotel - Joongsan Pilot Apartment (2005) series filled the horizontal frame with the full front facade of the apartment building, extending across the width of the canvas. This approach marked a departure from his earlier apartment works, which utilized diagonal compositions or included background elements.

Through his paintings of apartments, a symbol of modernization, Jaeho Jung developed a deep interest in the hidden side of urban landscapes shaped by rapid economic growth driven by state-led development. Viewing his paintings as a kind of "paper monument," Jung sought to commemorate and document old apartments that had been disappearing under the logic of redevelopment. Starting in 2005, these paper monuments began to take the form of reliefs or three-dimensional works.

Jung’s work on old apartments is also intertwined with his personal memories. While continuing these projects, the artist often recalled the old apartment where he spent his childhood. The scenes he encountered within the aging apartment complexes at risk of disappearing were reflections of his past, the present of those he knew, and their shared future.

Meanwhile, Jaeho Jung's Ecstatic Architecture (2006–2007) series, first unveiled at Kwanhoon Gallery in 2007, focuses on decades-old buildings in Seoul's Jeong-dong district that were constructed during the city's modernization period. Through this series, the artist sought to express the sense of ecstasy he felt from the traces of time embedded in these buildings, which were on the brink of disappearing from history.

The four buildings featured in Ecstatic Architecture—Cheonggye Tower, Modern Arcade, Jongno Building, and Yongsan Hospital—are based on real structures but meticulously reimagined through the artist's detailed observations and brushstrokes. For instance, the vibrant polka-dot patterns covering the facade of Modern Arcade (2007) were entirely added by the artist. In this way, Jung deeply engaged with urban architecture, building a sense of connection through prolonged observation and interaction, which he then expressed in various artistic forms.

In 2009, Jaeho Jung introduced the Father's Day series, an extension of his previous works that explored old buildings destined to vanish from history. This series took a step further by reimagining spaces and objects that existed during his father's generation but have since disappeared.

Drawing inspiration from images of buildings from the 1950s to the 1980s, the artist recreated them through his paintings. However, rather than simply restoring them as they once were, Jung employed a process of editing and reconstructing based on various contextual details about the time and place where these buildings existed. The result was a depiction of an ambiguous, fictional time-space that blends memory, history, and imagination.

Jung’s Planet series, presented at his 2011 solo exhibition at Gallery SoSo, also incorporates images sourced from the internet. At the time, Jung focused on landscapes from 1960s Korea, a period when the nation dedicated itself to economic revival in the aftermath of the war. To achieve this, he utilized a wide range of visual materials, including official archival photographs, corporate promotional images, advertisements, personal photos taken by U.S. military personnel stationed in Korea, and video clips from Korea News (Daehan News).

The images he collected reflect traces of corporate economic activity and Korea's dependency on the West during that era. Subjects included the Sewoon Plaza, Korea's first mixed-use residential and commercial building; scenes of Hyundai Motor's Ulsan factory in its early days; the shop window of a prosthetics store; and astronaut models displayed at a science exhibition.

Jaeho Jung combined and arranged various images scattered across different times and spaces to compose a single scene, or transformed these landscapes into depictions of decay or ruin. He also added color and painterly textures to the originally black-and-white photographs. These interventions and modifications by the artist emphasize that the history represented is not merely a frozen moment in time but an essential past that continues to underpin and influence the present. Through this process, Jung highlights the enduring relevance of these historical narratives.

Jaeho Jung's reconstructed paintings, based on archival materials, are often referred to as "archive paintings." This series reflects how his interest in old buildings expanded to encompass the social and historical contexts of the periods during which these structures were erected. 

One notable work, Youth (2012), is inspired by a black-and-white photograph from the late 1970s depicting young men detained for having long hair, awaiting haircuts during a crackdown. In Jung's painting, the four youths are reimagined wearing space helmets, standing on the surface of the moon. By juxtaposing such disparate contexts, the artist presents a fragmented yet evocative representation of a period when personal freedoms were suppressed.

After a series of archive paintings, Jaeho Jung focused on the fact that the government encouraged the citizens of a developing country to dream of a bright future through advancements in science and technology. A Ball of a Dwarf (2018), shown in the “Korea Artist Prize 2018” exhibition hosted by the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, captures a view of Seoul from Sewoon Plaza, built between the 1960s and 1970s.

At the time, Sewoon Plaza was regarded as a utopian space and a symbol of capitalist industrialization. The shops and buildings lining Cheonggyecheon, with Sewoon Plaza at its core, have now become dwarfed by the towering skyscrapers that surround them. Jung captures this ruinous landscape at the heart of Seoul, while an unrealistic “rocket” is drawn in the upper part of the canvas.

The rocket soaring into the sky symbolizes a collective dream that cannot be realized in today’s reality. This landscape is not just a representation of Seoul’s streets but a portrait of Korean society, transitioning from an era of dreaming the impossible during economic growth and crisis to one that now dreams of what is possible.

In this way, Jaeho Jung has discovered the continuity of the past within the present, capturing it in the landscapes of our society and documenting it through his unique pictorial language. His work portrays past events, buildings, objects, and people, prompting reflection on history while also showing how it relates to the current reality.

"Rather than having a specific subject to paint, I hope that 'something'—something that cannot be reduced to a single meaning, perhaps something like infinity—can be contained in my work." (Jaeho Jung, Artist's Note)

Jaeho Jung graduated with both a bachelor's and master's degree in Eastern Painting from Seoul National University. He is currently serving as a professor in the Department of Painting at Sejong University. Jung was nominated for the Korea Artist Prize in 2018 by the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art. His solo exhibitions include “How long have I been I here” (CHOI&CHOI Gallery, 2023), “Spear and Heap” (Sahngup Gallery, 2020), “Heat Island” (INDIPRESS, 2017), “Planet” (Gallery SoSo, 2011), and “Father's Day” (Gallery Hyundai, 2009).

Jung has also participated in numerous group exhibitions at institutions such as the OCI Museum of Art (2017), Cheongju Museum of Art (2016), Ilmin Museum of Art (2015), Arko Art Center (2014), and Buk-Seoul Museum of Art (2014). His works are housed in major collections, including the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, Seoul Museum of Art, Busan Museum of Art, Jeju Museum of Art, Kumho Museum of Art, and OCI Museum of Art.

References

• 올해의 작가상, 정재호 (Korea Artist Prize, Jaeho Jung)
• 한국문화예술위원회, 작가 조사-연구-비평 : 정재호 (Arts Council Korea, Artist Reserch-Study-Critique: Jaeho Jung)
• 월간미술, 우정아 - 정재호의 헤테로토피아
• 한국아파트신문, 친구 같던 아파트가 사라졌다, 그를 위해 붓을 들었다 [아파트, 예술이 되다 ②], 2022.07.10
• 국립현대미술관, 정재호 | 황홀의 건축-청계타워, 현대오락장, 종로빌딩, 용산병원 | 2006 – 2007 (National Museum of Modern and Contemproary Art Korea (MMCA), JUNG Jaeho | Ecstatic Architecture-Cheonggye Tower, Modern Arcade, Jongno Building, Yongsan Hospital | 2006 – 2007) 
• 현대화랑, 아버지의 날 (Hyundai Hwarang, Father’s Day)
• 갤러리소소, 혹성 (Gallery SoSo, Planet)
• 국립현대미술관, 정재호 | 난장이의 공 | 2018 (National Museum of Modern and Contemproary Art Korea (MMCA), JUNG Jaeho | A Ball of a Dwarf | 2018)