Many of the recent headlines shaking up the art world center around young artists. As artists in their 30s and 40s sign exclusive contracts with major international galleries or hold solo exhibitions at globally renowned museums—even those unfamiliar with art would recognize—the excitement grows that, much like the early days of K-pop, talented artists discovered in Korea may soon be at the center of the global art market.

Born in 1989, Hyunsun Jeon is one of the most prominent MZ-generation artists receiving such attention. Last year, at Frieze Seoul 2023, she was selected as one of the three emerging artists in the “Next” category of the “Now & Next” project, jointly presented by Frieze and Chanel Korea. That same year, she participated in the group exhibition “Flip” simultaneously held in Seoul and Berlin by the major German gallery Esther Schipper. Earlier this year, she announced her exclusive representation with Esther Schipper. And next month, she will hold a dual solo exhibition with world-renowned installation artist Ugo Rondinone at Esther Schipper in Berlin. While it would be inaccurate to say she became a star overnight—she has steadily climbed step by step—the speed of her ascent is undeniably formidable. To explore the world of this globally recognized young artist, Seoul Economic Daily visited her studio in Jeju.



An MZ Artist in High Demand, Settling in Jeju

Jeon’s studio is located in a townhouse complex in Aewol-eup, Jeju. She lives and works here with her family. Her daily routine now revolves around her two-year-old child. “Before having a baby, I used to work all day, whenever ideas came to mind. But since becoming a mother, the amount of time I can devote to work has decreased significantly,” she said. But it’s all about perspective. She doesn’t feel that her child has taken away her work time. “Before giving birth, time felt infinite, but now I’m actually more focused,” she said. “After dropping my child off at daycare, I work from 9 to 5, and I use that time with high quality.”

The artist’s husband is Jaemin Jang, an artist represented by Hakgojae Gallery. The family’s move to Jeju was both spontaneous and ordinary. While staying in Seoul’s Eunpyeong District and sharing a studio with her husband, Jeon visited Jeju for an exhibition and found herself captivated by the idea of living there. “The biggest advantage of our job is that we can choose our working location freely,” she said. “We wanted to enjoy that flexibility while our child was still young.” A spontaneous yet artistically authentic decision. “I always try to change my working environment,” she added. “I was curious to see how my work would evolve when both location and atmosphere changed.”

However, life isn’t as free and easy as it sounds—not because of the child, but because Jeon is now a highly sought-after artist. She is currently immersed in preparing for her solo exhibition at Esther Schipper Berlin, opening on September 13. As her career advances globally, she spends her painting-drying intervals studying English. “I want to have tea in a big chair in a larger studio,” she said, “but I don’t even have time to look outside. Of course, I’m grateful, but being in a new place makes me even more eager to try new things.”



Paintings Hung on Walls Now Meet the Audience on the Floor

Hyunsun Jeon transforms geometric shapes into a unique painterly language expressed on canvas. The central images in her work are often geometric forms like horns, cylinders, and octagons. These shapes, abstract in nature, carry no inherent social context. Asked why she paints such forms, the artist said it’s about “deferral.” “When something difficult happens in life, I can’t grasp the whole at once, so I try to approach the problem by understanding little by little what I can at the moment,” she said. “The shapes are a way of deferring those difficulties, and my painting is a journey of asking questions while drawing what I can around those forms.”

Her studio is filled with large-scale paintings, each about two meters tall. She produces these large works quickly and prolifically. “When an image comes to mind, I want to paint it right away, which is why I chose watercolor instead of oil,” she said. “There’s no better medium than watercolor for realizing the images that come to my mind.” That doesn’t mean her work is rushed. She repeatedly layers additional paint over the original image, slightly altering its shape each time. She continues this process until she achieves a satisfying result. “When I paint quickly, sometimes the result doesn’t please me, but I force myself to keep painting anyway,” she explained. “Eventually, the painting might look different or connect with another image on the canvas to produce something newly luminous.”

She installs these large-scale paintings vertically, like folding screens. Breaking the convention that paintings should hang on walls, she treats them as installation pieces. At her solo exhibition at Johyun Gallery in Busan last July, ten large paintings were installed in a curved formation rather than a straight line, drawing considerable attention. Thanks to this arrangement, visitors were seen walking around the 10-meter-long works, crouching down to view the lower parts, and actively engaging with the paintings in diverse ways.



The First Korean Artist to Join Esther Schipper, Embarking on the Global Stage

Perhaps it's this boldness and freedom that make Hyunsun Jeon so appealing to museums. Her works are already in the collections of major Korean institutions including the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul Museum of Art, and Suwon Museum of Art. Starting with her upcoming solo exhibition at Esther Schipper Berlin, she plans to expand her international presence more actively.

From September 13, she will present her solo exhibition 《When you understand my secret, it becomes a ghost》 in the gallery’s “niche” space. Esther Schipper—representing global figures like Philippe Parreno, Ugo Rondinone, and Liam Gillick—has focused on discovering Korean artists since opening its Seoul branch in 2022. After receiving a strong response from a group exhibition of Korean artists held simultaneously in Seoul and Berlin earlier this year, the gallery selected Hyunsun Jeon as its first exclusively represented Korean artist.

The “niche” space, located at the entrance of the Berlin gallery’s main exhibition area, has hosted experimental projects and small-scale solo exhibitions by artists like Ugo Rondinone, Nathan Carter, Annette Kelm, and Julius von Bismarck. During the same period, the gallery’s main space will feature a solo show by Ugo Rondinone. The opportunity to see the work of a long-established artist alongside that of newly joined Hyunsun Jeon offers a meaningful juxtaposition.

In addition to this, Jeon has been selected as one of the three finalists for the Jean-François Prat Prize in Paris and is preparing for solo exhibitions at various European institutions, including Esther Schipper Berlin, as part of her expanding international career.

Though busy with exhibitions, Jeon has recently been dedicating time to drawing in an effort to return to her roots. “My work is built by spontaneously layering forms on a blank sheet of paper without preconceived ideas,” she said. “But over time, habits form, and I found myself repeating certain shapes.” Through drawing, she hopes to return to the spontaneity that characterized her early practice.

References

• 벽에서 바닥으로 내려온 그림, 병풍처럼 관객을 감싸다
  Paintings Descending from the Wall to the Floor, Surrounding the Viewer Like a Folding Screen)