Solo Exhibitions (Brief)

She has held 13 solo exhibitions until now(2022). She presented her works in various exhibition space such as Toyota Photo Space(Busan, Korea), SPACE 22(Seoul, Korea), Index Gallery(Seoul, Korea).

In 2008, She held solo exhibition after selected for Emerging Artist Award at Gallery Lux(Seoul, Korea). She held an exhibition to commemorate winning at the Ilwoo Photography Award under the title of 《The Roots of Coincidence》 at Ilwoo Space(Seoul, Korea).

Recently(2021) at Gallery Jinsun(Seoul, Korea), her solo exhibition 《Serene Days》 presented a new work that contains the gaze facing today’s chaos after the global epidemic.

Group Exhibitions (Brief)

KP Gallery(Seoul, Korea), UARTSPACE(Seoul, Korea), Seoul Museum of Art(Seoul, Korea), Dong-gang Museum of Photography(Yeongwol, Korea), Daegu Art Factory(Daegu, Korea), The Central Academy of Fine Arts(Beijing, China), Verkligheten Gallery(Umeaa, Sweden)

Awards (Selected)

She was awarded the 5th ILWOO Photography Prize(ILWOO Foundation, Korea).

Collections (Selected)

Her works are in collections of various museums such as National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Bank(Gwacheon, Korea), Government Art Bank(Gwacheon, Korea), ILWOO Foundation(Seoul, Korea), Goeun Museum of Photography(Busan, Korea).

Originality & Identity

Jeong Kyungja straightly captures the moments and things that accidentally happen and events in typical situations of one’s everyday life. The things that catch the artist’s impression without a specific motive are recorded delicately, and the objects that are not inside the daily context are captured in the frame of an image, so they become unique existential beings. Jeong Kyungja sees the world around her sensitively, and she thinks about the meaning of random moments, such as the cycle of life and time.

“The images of the world cut out and recorded by the camera are a part of the world and an expression hidden outwardly.”

The artist films ordinary and familiar objects in beautiful and poetic sceneries. These are just simple moments, but they are addressed with inevitability. Even if those do not have a specific meaning, the objects deliver some impression of a city or particular space. According to the artist, things that do not function properly can be characterized as almost near death, and she names these ‘things like similar to me’. The artist’s view is vivid but calm and captures even the desperation of reality.

Jeong Kyungja’s snapshots are full of stillness and unstable unfamiliarity. The objects and spaces in the photo screen are unpredictable and even have weird structures. The subject is familiar, but information about the background or location remains ambiguous. The subject matter and perspective of the photograph are also different. The audience tries to find out the context of the photo or the intention of what the artist filmed; however, it is difficult to point out. Instead, the audience will create their own story by following the arrangement of the works that are curated differently in each exhibition.

The audience’s experience in Jeong Kyungja’s photographs is the same as what she illustrates in her series exhibition 《So, Suite》 (2018). The hotel that she mentioned is about a ‘space where new stories are created by piling up infinite different stories of various anonymous people.’ It is also a ‘space that always provides an organized space to prepare for the next.’ The audience experiences a new ‘present’ in a place where meaning is absent, like a white sheet that is changed every day.

The discontinuous fragments of the present and memories are individually combined and edited with thousands of meanings. The memories and realities that are not well-defined make us realize that there is no meaning. Existence is meaningless, and there is no reason to exist. The audience looks at it with cautious, sensitive, and friendly views.

Style & Contents

Jeong Kyungja explores the origin of things that were accidentally placed somewhere. She does not have a specific meaning, but she photographically records the extremities of the vivid sensations she experienced and shares them with the audience.

In the exhibition ≪Origin of Coincidence≫ held after winning the Ilwoo(一宇) Photography Award, the artist introduces photographs she filmed for 5 years, starting from studying abroad in the UK until after her return. She presented a series of three photographs: ‘Language of Times’ (2013-2014), ‘Speaking of Now’ (2012-2013), and ‘Story Within A Story’ (2010-2011).

She takes photos like a tree pierced by electric wires, a friend fighting with an illness, an electric plug appears like blood vessels, the bare wire of a hanger, or cherry blossoms hanging over the ivy. Kyungja Jeong visualizes landscapes approaching death and the relationship with accidental objects with her consideration of life circles and the surrounding world.

Since 2016, Jeong Kyungja has started to explore the experience of people who are losing their memories. In her solo exhibition 《Boundaries of the Senses》 (2019, Space22, Seoul), she shows the series ‘Drifting’ (2016~2019) and ‘Elegant Town’ (2014~2015). Sadness or unfamiliar emotions and atmosphere are illustrated in her past works; on the contrary, her recent works capture the strangeness of sensual and exotic landscapes.

The artist takes photos of city buildings and suits in hotels that do not have enough depth and strength to endure the time flow. The hotel room is a place with a unique temporality and where guests stay and leave. The days passing by are not remembered, and only the present exists.

Jeong Kyungja presents a new work 〈 Nevertheless 〉 (2020~2021) with 〈 So, Suite 〉 in her exhibition named 《Quiet Days》 held in 2021. The photos of indoor plants, landscapes and natural outside the windows, snowy mountains and the sea, artificial botanical gardens, and indoor spaces were arranged in different sizes and heights, and monotone and colourful tones mixed together. A day passes like today, and nature changes slightly.

The artist configures the artificial and nature together and thinks about life that continues and repeats daily life amid a pandemic.

Constancy & Continuity

Jeong Kyungja’s photographs are not only intuitive and aesthetic but also express detailed realistic texture, so it feels surreal. Surprisingly, all these aesthetic and present scenes are composed in the traditional photographic way without any retouching or manipulation.

Awarded the Ilwoo Photography Prize in 2013, her works got an assessment pursued a complete understanding of the artist’s emotion and photographic way with high-ended arts.

The artist’s capacity and skills are outstanding in breaking the world’s elements into parts. Jeong Kyungja barely searches for a particular subject or social issue to discuss in her works. Even if she only takes pictures of what passes by with minimal equipment, Jeong Kyungja’s photographs never remain as simple records or representations of reality.

It captures the abstract thoughts about the world, crossing daily life and objects, such as city and nature, life and death. What “suddenly popped up reality” (referred to Taewoo HEO) and “ventilative talent” “pressing the artifacts of reality” (referred to Youngsil SON) shows “an image with vague meaning but a clear sense.”(referred to Eunjeong JUNG).

The artist captures the reality through photographs, even in a pandemic situation. Nevertheless, time is sustained without any meaning. Besides, Jeong Kyungja’s artworks give a healing time and space for the next step.

The audience may be questioning ‘what will be on her photos?’ There might be an assumption; it will be a portrait of objects commonly shown in the street or the house, in nature or the city.