Originality & Identity

Yiji Jeong has continuously recorded fleeting moments from her daily life through painting, with an affectionate gaze toward personal relationships and people close to her. Works such as Terminal (2019) and A Barbecue Party (2019), presented in the exhibition 《Short Cut》(Uhjjuhdah Gallery 2, 2019), capture small but meaningful moments born from relationships with those around her, visualizing the emotions and romantic atmosphere embedded within them.

Over time, her practice has expanded from intimate sentiments rooted in everyday life toward exploring the flow of life and the perception of time. In works like Two Seasons (2020) and Buan (2019), she connects memory, reality, and imagination through specific places and objects, integrating reflections on the ephemerality of life and the persistence of emotions onto the canvas.

The exhibition 《My Salad Days》(Sahng-up Gallery, 2022) delves further into themes of youth, daily life, and the accumulation of time. Through works such as to see a world (2021) and In a Grain of Sand (2021), she metaphorically expresses the brilliance and uncertainty of a formative period, embedding notions of identity and time into the finest particles of everyday moments.

In the group exhibition 《Ziggy Stardust》(N/A Gallery, 2022), the structure of relationships reflecting oneself through others is more clearly articulated. Works such as One Is (2022) and Two Is (2022) embody the relational concept of "I am you, and you are me" through repeated and segmented compositions, fluidly exploring the boundaries between self and others

Style & Contents

Yiji Jeong's paintings have evolved through referencing photography while reinforcing painterly characteristics via brushwork density and color modulation. In Terminal (2019) and A Barbecue Party (2019) from 《Short Cut》, the snapshot-like compositions and lively brushstrokes intuitively convey intimate moments. Rather than emphasizing the contours of the figures, she prioritizes harmony between the subjects and their surroundings, constructing emotional atmospheres with simplified color fields.

In works such as Two Seasons (2020) and Buan (2019), experiments with light, shadow, and the accumulation of time become more prominent. Dramatic contrasts of light and limited tonal palettes create ambiguous landscapes where memory and emotion overlap.

In to see a world (2021) and In a Grain of Sand (2021) from 《My Salad Days》, her approach transitions away from concrete depiction toward abstraction. Notably, to see a world (2021) emphasizes the diffusion of light across the night sky, dissolving the boundaries of time and space through silhouettes and empty spaces. Portraits from this period employ the Cut-up composition method, fragmenting scenes and condensing the density of time onto the canvas.

In 《Ziggy Stardust》, the repetition and segmentation of a single figure become a means to experiment with the persona structure within painting. Works such as One Is (2022) and Two Is (2022) borrow cartoon frames and cinematic compositions to expand the canvas into layered structures of time and introspection. Her recent work Secco 3 (2025) more boldly experiments with cropping and enlargement, juxtaposing fractured densities of perception and fleeting emotional states.

Topography & Continuity

Yiji Jeong has translated personal emotions and surrounding relationships into a pictorial language, contributing to the expanding narrative of intimate storytelling in contemporary Korean painting. In 《Short Cut》, she captured relational moments and inner sentiments; in 《My Salad Days》, she intricately wove together themes of youth, time, and personal narrative. Through 《Ziggy Stardust》, she actively explored persona and identity, restructuring the boundaries between self and others in fluid, evolving ways.

This trajectory has continued through her recent work Secco 3 (2025), where she experiments more boldly with deconstructing compositions and compressing time, expanding the potential of 'cuts' and narrative within painting. Grounded in themes of everyday relationships, youthful emotions, and personal stories, Jeong continues to deepen her structural experiments and emotional density in her paintings. In particular, by persistently exploring fluid relational structures and the fleeting nature of pictorial moments where self and others intersect, she is expected to further establish a new current of relational narratives within contemporary painting.