Facing the Grain

There are moments when landscapes that do not explicitly symbolize emotion nonetheless stir something familiar within us. Such resonance may arise not from what is depicted, but from the grain of sensation embedded in the image. Soyoung Jeon’s paintings do not aim to represent a specific place. They emerge from moments of bodily encounter, when she stands before a scene and absorbs it through texture, air, humidity, and scent. For her, seeing is not merely visual perception but a synesthetic experience. These accumulated sensations are translated onto the canvas through layered paint and textured surfaces, shifting the act of viewing into one of almost touching and sensing. Her ongoing “Plant” series reflects a sustained inquiry into vitality. To be alive, she suggests, is to hold blooming and withering simultaneously. Rather than depicting nature, her works reveal layered time formed through attentive relationships with living things. The new “Water_River” series turns to the river as a site where surface and depth intersect. Flowing water reflects light while revealing what lies beneath, allowing the visible and invisible to coexist within a single gaze. Here, surface and interior, moment and duration, continuously cross. The exhibition title, Grain, evokes the textures of wood, water, and skin, while also suggesting the traces of time that linger unseen. By building coarse grounds and layering paint, she cultivates the canvas as a way of remaining in close contact with the world. Amid the rapid flow of time, the exhibition offers a quiet return to overlooked sensations, the temperature of wind, the grain of water, the breath of plants, and to the subtle vibration of being alive.