Installation view of 《Cold Flame》 (ThisWeekendRoom, 2020) © ThisWeekendRoom

How to paint and what to paint

At our first encounter in a studio, Jiwon Choi, the artist told me that How to paint and what to paint has always been at the heart of her work. The artist, who focuses more on these two rather than just object and why, came up with names of Luc Tuymans, Michaël Borremans, and Alex Katz when she was asked about one of the typical studio interview questions on her favorite artists. When I said you like figurative artists, she told me that it’s not always the case.

Her answer made me wonder where her affection and respect toward these three “senior” artists come from. Then, our first conversation came to my mind: She cares How to paint what object. Probably, while the artist was looking at the paintings from these three artists, she has enthusiastically been following ‘objects’ that are recreated on canvas with each unique brushstroke of the artists and their gaze that was met with the objects.

Choi started to paint ceramic dolls-like figures since last autumn nearly comes to an end. To be more specific, she added smooth and glossy characteristics that can be seen in surfaces of human-shaped china doll to her figurative paintings. The artist wants to depict emotions of people in ‘these days’ where everything is consumed easily and lightly and disposed quickly. She has added visual characteristics of beauty and fragility that a ceramic doll has into objects and created figures with insensitive expressions who are not frightened by explosion of fireworks and able to dully walk even in the deep and dark forest. The artists did not particularly study production process or prosperities of material in depth. To be honest, these are not essential parts of her concerns. ‘How’ to paint was the only concern she had, and it gave birth to ‘smooth and glossy ceramic doll figures’ which deliver emotions of ‘these days’ in full and smart manners.

Installation view of 《Cold Flame》 (ThisWeekendRoom, 2020) © ThisWeekendRoom

I have witnessed in recent exhibitions that young artists tend to indulge in showing impressions from ‘incidents’ and ‘phenomena’ (in their paintings) and treat canvas not as a medium itself but rather an instrument. However, Choi focuses more on painting as a medium, and act of painting, thereby identifying herself more as a ‘painter’. Her works are far from ‘trendy paintings of young artists in her age’. Rather, her attitude and responsibility toward medium and canvas are closer to those of senior artists.

“I have always been interested in how you can depict suffering without being heavy-handed.” said Marlene Dumas. She got impression in a split second from daily-collected images in her archive. Her portraits depicted with abstract-like brushstroke in restricted manner always call out deep emotions. Dumas built multiple layers with watery and transparent colors on blurry lines of figures that even seem like watercolor expressions. By doing so, the artist shared layers of emotions with audience that could have been dismissed as an emotion of a stranger. Resonating the audience with emotions of objects using her own painterly language and an attitude of reaching beyond the images might be an answer to Jiwon Choi from the senior artist who already has tried to find an answer to her question.[1]

How to paint and What to paint. It may sound like an obvious concern that every artist should have, but there is some special attraction from the works of Choi who always keeps this basic in mind. She will be exhibiting her works to the audience as an answer to her question. Much expectation is given to her canvas that will be more mature and stronger as we have more answers from her.



[1] Jiwon Choi also collects images just as Marlene Dumas does. Dumas clips printed photographs, images from magazines and newspapers whereas Choi filled her laptop with digital images that she has found as references for her figurative paintings. If we can say while the archive of Dumas shows her to the objects including human beings, the young artist’s endless endeavor to achieve her expression of how can be found in Jiwon Choi’s archive.


Amy Gahyun Lee (CCO, eazel)

References