The world of contemporary art is in constant flux, with artists who make a splash soon slipping out of favor. But originality bestows an artist with lasting value that transcends any particular era. Hyunsun Jeon is an emerging artist in Korea who has gained the attention of the international art world. She has won the hearts of artists and young collectors for her highly original approach to painting that tests the boundaries of figurative and abstract art. In 2023, Jeon became the first Korean artist to receive an exclusive contract with world-renowned gallery Esther Schipper, entering the ranks of the next generation of Korean artists who will represent Korea going forward. Jeon’s accolades include the Chong Kun Dang Fine Arts Prize in 2017, the SongEun Art Award Excellence Prize in 2020, participating artist of the Art Spectrum exhibition at the Leeum Museum of Art in 2022, and the winner of the Ahngook Art Prize in 2023.

Jeon’s paintings are distinguished by their bold colors and original compositions. Figuration and abstraction coexist on canvases where reality and fantasy intersect and space changes fluidly, producing unique visual sensations. Rather than pushing a single narrative, she seeks an open-ended kind of composition that allows viewers to interpret her works in their own way. The organic connections between the elements in her paintings invite viewers to discover their own meaning through exploration. Jeon’s audience has been gradually growing. In March, she held a solo exhibition in Paris; in June, she is expected to showcase a major piece in the Unlimited sector of Art Basel, one of the world’s biggest art fairs. Unlimited is a special sector for ambitious and experimental contemporary art in an array of media, including large-scale installations, sculpture and video art. Selection for the sector represents an opportunity to experiment in a space much larger than that offered by conventional galleries.

For this year’s Unlimited sector, Jeon will build upon her typical elongated compositions by laying her panels flat and integrating curves. The resulting boat-like structures are designed to be a painterly recreation of the digital visual elements she observed in computer games as a child. Despite being such a sought-after artist, Jeon was gracious enough to sit down with MorningCalm and field our questions.

You’ve been feted as part of the next generation of Korean artists who represent the future of K-Art.

All that praise can be a little embarrassing. Right now, I’ve been focusing on my own work without getting hung up on flashy accolades or comparisons with others. In my twenties, I used to fall asleep reading books by my favorite artists, studying how they worked on their pieces. But nowadays, I have a stronger sense about what I want to express than ever before, and I’m trying to focus on achieving that.

The painterly quality of your work is part of its biggest appeal. That makes people curious about the story.

I love painting. It’s the oldest form of visual art, and yet a canvas has inherent limitations. But I find those limitations appealing — I take purpose in pushing beyond them. What I want to convey through my paintings isn’t a message, but an experience. Rather than viewers understanding my work immediately, the process of being confused at first and then slowly discovering the meaning is important. I’d also rather people interpret my work in their own way than rely on my intentions.

The canvas serves as a compass, pointing in a direction but not forcing an interpretation. There’s no gravity, no fixed position, no definite relationships. Instead of thinking, “Oh, that’s a horn there,” I want viewers to experience wrestling with the horn’s placement and the relationships it forms within the painting. Completing a piece is important, of course, but it’s also really fascinating when a painting expands beyond the boundaries of the canvas. What I ultimately see as important is how a piece takes on new meaning and language in a particular space.

There is evidence of “Koreanness” in your work.

While I’m open to the concept of “Koreanness,” I’ve made an effort to distance myself from its connotations. Even so, I think the traditional Korean paintings that I encountered from an early age have unconsciously influenced my work. I’m a particular fan of the genre of chaekgado or chaekgeori, a category of still life that depicts bookshelves and the various items, books or otherwise, stacked upon them. I may have studied Western painting, but I didn’t directly interact with Western paintings during my formative years.
That’s why the treatment of objects and items in chaekgado feels so special to me. Composition of that kind disregards traditional perspective and time, placing more importance on the recording and compilation of items than on their factual representation. That can lead to some awkwardness of form and distortion of space, which is similar to the space I want to actualize in my work. My artwork represents a place that’s not recreated but rather shaped through overlapping memories and records. That makes it very similar to the fluid composition of time and space in chaekgado.

You often use the color green. What’s the significance of that?

Just seeing the color green puts me in a good mood, and painting with that color brings a feeling of freedom as well. As a painter, you can’t help feeling intimidated when you sit down in front of the canvas. But when I think of the color green, it brings a sense of relief, as if I were capable of doing anything. My work started with reinterpreting old stories such as folk tales, Bible stories and myths. Those narratives generally have a natural setting — a forest, a mountain or a field. The natural settings I paint are not so much actual landscapes, and more the backdrop of stories. In my paintings, I’m not depicting a specific forest, for example, but imagining a scene in the story unfolding there.

Rather than one big story, you give voice to the little details scattered throughout your work.

The experience of blurring boundaries is what I find most interesting about painting. This actually goes back to experiences we often have in everyday life. For example, sometimes you could be so focused on something and suddenly realize it doesn’t even matter. Or it can be in moments we experience conflicting emotions, like “inside and outside” or “happiness and sadness,” dissolve.
That breakdown of barriers is a theme you can subtly incorporate in a painting. I also want my paintings not to clobber people with some kind of message, but to serve as a visual language that anybody can interpret freely. These tendencies are reflected not only in my work, but also in the way I experience life and growth. When I’m trying to understand the world, I find it difficult to go from the big picture to the details. I’m the kind of person who finds more meaning in small concrete experiences than in big abstract concepts.

Hyunsun Jeon Solo Exhibition
June 12, 2025 – July 19, 2025

Since its opening in 2007, Gallery2 has been showcasing a wide range of contemporary Korean art. This exhibition marks Jeon’s first solo exhibition in Seoul in three years and will feature new works that respond to the gallery space.

• gallery2.co.kr

Art Basel Unlimited
June 19, 2025 – June 22, 2025

Art Basel, which began in 1970 in Basel, Switzerland, is one of the most influential contemporary art fairs in the world. Unlimited is a special exhibition section exclusive to Art Basel, curated by renowned curators and dedicated to showcasing large-scale installations and experimental media art. Hyunsun Jeon is expected to present installation paintings that go beyond painterly expression.

• artbasel.com