Jeong Juwon (b. 1992) has translated her personal narratives onto canvas by observing the place she stands and the circumstances surrounding her. In particular, through her experience of living in a four-generation household, she has metaphorically expressed complex emotions and reflections on human life and death, growth and aging, care and dependence.

Jeong Juwon’s paintings begin with observing herself and her surroundings. The stories within her works are not merely about ordinary daily life but rather about universal situations one encounters through different stages of life—and the complex emotions that accompany them.
 
For example, her solo exhibition 《Sorry, Mom. I Do Art》 (Gallery3 and YEEMOCK Gallery, 2017–2018) captured the worries and anxieties she experienced as a young artist just beginning her career. Through this autobiographical yet universally relatable exhibition, Jeong posed a question to herself, her audience, and her contemporaries: how can one continue making art without feeling sorry toward one’s mother?

The exhibition also reflected the young artist’s contemplation and effort to figure out what attitude she should maintain in order to continue painting in the future. As her first attempt not to feel apologetic, the artist sought to prove her sincerity by producing a total of twenty-four size-10 paintings—one each day—for this exhibition.
 
Her second effort was to support her family by selling her drawings. The series ‘Drawings That Help the Household’ consisted of thirty-six 10×10 cm works, each priced uniformly at 19,900 KRW. During the exhibition, visitors could take a drawing and leave 19,900 KRW in cash in a ziplock bag at its place, with 50 percent of the proceeds given to the artist’s mother.

Lastly, the large-scale painting I’m Good at Apologizing embodied the artist’s reflections on art, as well as her feelings of anxiety and guilt. Although the work serves as a collection and record of personal insecurities, through the act of recording them, those anxieties remain within the painting. In doing so, the artist—while still feeling sorry—finds a sense of freedom in her determination to continue making art nonetheless.

While 《Sorry, Mom. I Do Art》 told the story of “myself” as a young artist pursuing art, her 2021 solo exhibition 《Go Up to Your Neck in Love》 at Onsu Gonggan focused on “myself” as someone caring for a loved one.
 
The exhibition stemmed from the artist’s reflections on love that arose when her daily life, once centered solely on artmaking, was interrupted by the need to devote time to childcare and caregiving. At the time, she was caring for her nephew while also tending to her parents after their surgeries. Through this experience, she began to contemplate what it means to love—particularly to endure sacrifice willingly—and sought to capture such scenes of love within her paintings.

Although rooted in autobiographical experience, the works in the exhibition portrayed the various forms of love in an anonymous, universal manner. Jeong Juwon explains that she approached the elusive notion of love as a kind of energy. For instance, the circular figures in her paintings—with faintly expressive faces—appear to be bitten yet smiling, burning and falling, or thrown into the sea and onto the ground.
 
In this way, the artist takes a step back from her subjects to capture scenes of love that have no clear answers, no definite shape, and no guaranteed return for the time and care invested. Through her works, she reflects on the selfless, sacrificial nature of love and channels that energy into her paintings.

During this process, the artist explains that she repeatedly painted the unknown with an equally uncertain state of mind. Unlike her previous working methods, she painted, overpainted, sanded, washed with water, repainted, and covered the surface again with gesso—an ongoing cycle through which she sought to approach the elusive subject of love, which always seems to be almost understood yet never fully grasped.
 
She also likened the feeling of love to a soft stone that keeps rolling while constantly changing its shape. The sculptural stone-tower form, which served as both a support structure and the artist’s first experiment with three-dimensional work in this exhibition, embodied that very idea.

Her 2022 solo exhibition 《Immortal Crack》 at GOP FACTORY reflected Jeong Juwon’s ongoing material experiments and her exploration of texture as an expressive element. Trained in traditional Eastern painting, Jeong sought to overcome the limitations of its conventional materials—such as restricted color range, surface flatness, and thinness—by creating her own paint mixture combining white clay (baekto) and animal glue (agyo).
 
Traditionally used as preparatory materials for Buddhist paintings or thangkas, white clay and glue were reinterpreted in her work as agents for generating the texture of the paint itself. The resulting water marks, clusters, and cracks formed as the mixture dried became defining visual characteristics of her recent paintings.

Her exhibition 《Immortal Crack》 originated from Jeong Juwon’s initial unease with the natural cracks that appeared during the painting process. At first, she perceived these cracks as a collapse of perfect form and a symbol of future uncertainty—flaws that needed to be erased. Over time, however, she began to view the cracks from a new perspective and structured the exhibition around the idea of coexisting with them rather than eliminating them.
 
Through these natural traces left by the paint, Jeong discovered the beauty of imperfection and the passage of time. Just as aging leaves marks on the body, cracks, water stains, and smudges on the painting’s surface became integral elements carrying their own narratives.
 
This realization brought a profound shift to her artistic practice. Her developed surface techniques, shaped by these cracks, have evolved into an ongoing exploration of the tension between permanence and transience.

For example, in the 2024 solo exhibition 《Lukewarm Comfort and Good Bad Jokes》 at Artspace Boan, Jeong Juwon explored the passage of time through painting, focusing on the keywords “flesh” and “tree.” Having long worked with surfaces that reveal temporality, she noted that her paintings share a resemblance with the textures of tree bark and human skin, both bearing the traces of time.
 
Accordingly, the works presented in the exhibition metaphorically depict the human body and aging through the forms and textures of tree bark.

At the entrance of the exhibition, the works Wrinkled Buttocks (2024) and Three-Legged Race (2024) were installed side by side. One depicts an upright-standing child, while the other takes the form of a tree, revealing a striking formal similarity.
 
The plump, wrinkled body of early childhood brims with vitality, hinting at boundless growth. In contrast, the tree branches, intertwined and supporting one another, subtly convey aging: the passage of time, the deviations from normative forms, and the inherent marginality that comes with it—without explicitly referencing the parched exterior.
 
At the same time, both the tender, fledgling strength of a child just learning to stand and the support-dependent strength of intertwined branches share a fundamental trait: they are beings that require care and attention.

In this way, Jeong Juwon has focused on the parallels between humans and nature, studying the surfaces of paintings that connect the temporality of human skin, tree bark, and the painting’s own surface. Her new works presented in 《Young Korean Artists 2025: Here and Now》 at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA) continue along this trajectory.
 
The works in the exhibition were organized into three main series. The first, a large-scale painting titled A Serene Grave (2025), depicts a tall tree at the moment of death and the hill supporting it. Within this scene, no distinction is made between subject and object or protagonist and supporting figure; instead, only relationships of mutual support and care are emphasized.

The second series, ‘Things That Stand’ (2025), features upright forms supported not by the conventional straight wooden supports used in painting, but by wooden supports that function like supports for aging bodies. Jeong Juwon explains that she intentionally staged the structures to appear unstable and precarious, so as to convey the image of fragile entities leaning on and relying upon one another.
 
From the conceptual stage, she considered forms that would look most vulnerable yet remain physically stable. She incorporated wooden supports shaped with natural curves and imbued with the symbolic meaning of longevity—so-called longevity trees—making them both formally and conceptually suitable for the work.

Finally, in the series ‘Shells, Faces, and Wrinkles’ (2025), Jeong Juwon connects the textures and patterns of natural surfaces—such as wood grains and ripples—with human skin, rendering them as patterned compositions on hanji, traditional Korean paper. While her previous flat works conveyed temporality through layered, built-up surfaces that were subsequently scraped or sanded to create textured depth, this series explores a new approach: instead of generating thickness or depth directly, she represents it through flat, pattern-like drawings.

In this way, Jeong Juwon regards painting as a medium most intimately connected to the body, portraying situations and concerns she feels closely aligned with. While her work begins from deeply personal experiences, it is imbued with a profound care and affection for humanity.
 
The fragile and precarious yet mutually reliant figures in her paintings evoke the inevitability of care in our lives—how we will one day both give and receive it—leaving a tender, lingering impression.

 “When I sit in front of the canvas, I aim to paint the issues that feel closest to my own skin, the ones that resonate the most. I believe painting is the medium most intimately connected to the artist’s body, and I strive to create works in which no sense of estrangement exists between the artist and the work.”    (Jeong Juwon, Artist’s Note)

Jeong Juwon graduated from the Department of Oriental Painting at Hongik University and completed her Master’s program in the Department of Visual Arts at Korea National University of Arts. Her solo exhibitions include 《Metabeta》 (Pockettales, Seoul, 2024), 《Lukewarm Comfort and Good Bad Jokes》 (Artspace Boan, Seoul, 2024), 《Immortal Crack》 (GOP FACTORY, Seoul, 2022), 《Go Up to Your Neck in Love》 (Onsu Gonggan, Seoul, 2021), and 《Sorry, Mom. I Do Art》 (Gallery3, YEEMOCK Gallery, Seoul, 2017-2018).
 
She has also participated in numerous group exhibitions, including 《Young Korean Artists 2025: Here and Now》 (MMCA, Gwacheon, 2025), 《Amateur》 (Nook Gallery, Seoul, 2025), 《Images Swallowed by the Heart》 (Museum Hodu, Cheonan, 2024), 《Landing Point》 (ARARIO GALLERY SEOUL, Seoul, 2024), 《Perigee Winter Show 2023》 (Perigee Gallery, Seoul, 2023), and PERIGEE UNFOLD 2023 《Three Yesterday Nights》 (Perigee Gallery, Seoul, 2023).
 
Jeong Juwon has participated in residency programs at Studio White Block (2022–2024) and Seoul Art Space Geumcheon (2016–2017).

References

• 정주원, Jeong Juwon (Artist’s Instagram)
• 국립현대미술관, 작가인터뷰 | 정주원 | 젊은 모색 2025: 지금, 여기 (National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA), ARTIST INTERVIEW | Jeong Juwon | Young Korean Artists 2025: Here and Now)
• 아트스페이스 3, [서문]  엄마, 미술해서 미안해 (Artspace 3, [Preface] Sorry, mom. I do art)
• 온수공간, [서문] 목젖까지 던지세요, 사랑에 (Onsu Gonggan, [Preface] Go up to your neck in love)
• 아트스페이스 보안, [서문] 팽팽한 위로와 안 웃긴 농담들 (Artspace Boan, [Preface] Lukewarm comfort and good bad jokes)
• 포켓테일즈, [서문] 메타베타 (Pokettales, [Preface] Metabeta)
• 국립현대미술관, [리플렛] 젊은 모색 2025: 지금, 여기 (National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA), [Reflet] Young Korean Artists 2025: Here and Now)