LEE Jeongbae (b. 1974) creates works that mirror the image of nature among the city's landscapes, which are privatized and tailored to conform to human needs and desires. Prior to this, the artist experimented with various mediums, including painting, photography, video, and installation. In 2016, LEE began to take an interest in representing deteriorating landscapes that had gradually lost all original meaning through the encroachment of capitalism. These segmented images, which become objets, each act as a landscape that portrays various scenes from nature. LEE Jeongbae's works, which examine the daily life of the city, capture fragments of mountains, rivers, and the sky that peer through the cityscape. These images are separated by geometric forms and expressed through the use of artificial materials such as FRP and aluminum panels. Nature, which has been torn apart by capitalism and materiality, is recomposed by LEE into atypical forms and painted over with color. Completed through a delicate process of painting the surface of the sculpture hundreds of times, these works represent new abstract landscapes expressed through LEE's perspective.
 
Since LEE Jeongbae's first solo exhibition at Munhwa Ilbo Gallery (Seoul, Korea) in 2005, he has shown at Artside Gallery (Seoul, Korea); Window Gallery at Gallery Hyundai (Seoul, Korea); 16 Bungee at Gallery Hyundai (Seoul, Korea); Seodaemun Prison History Hall (Seoul, Korea); Pibi Gallery (Seoul, Korea); Goodspace Gallery (Seoul, Korea); and the Seoul Metropolitan Government (Seoul, Korea). LEE has also participated in various group exhibitions at the Busan Museum of Art (Busan, Korea); Korean Cultural Center in Brussels (Brussels, Belgium); Buk-Seoul Museum of Art (Seoul, Korea); Seoul Olympic Museum of Art (Seoul, Korea); Arario Gallery (Seoul, Korea); CAN Foundation (Seoul, Korea); Whanki Museum (Seoul, Korea), and more. In 2011, LEE was awarded the "JoongAng Fine Arts Prize," organized by the Seoul Arts Center (Seoul, Korea). His works are included in many significant collections such as MMCA, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (Seoul, Korea); Seoul Museum of Art (Seoul, Korea); Arario Museum (Seoul, Korea); Joongang Ilbo (Seoul, Korea); CAN Foundation (Seoul, Korea); Whanki Museum (Seoul, Korea); and ART OMI Collection (New York, USA).

I am constantly in search of people and places that bring me a sense of stability. In life, I am always confronted with certain thresholds where I long for steadiness. At those boundaries, I find myself seeking environments and situations that help me maintain a calm emotional state. Most of these are familiar to me: my family, my home, my room, and the surroundings that have held me for a long time. When I ask myself where the process of being filled and forming a sense of self first began, I cannot leave out home and family. I hold close to my heart the softness and warmth of these things, and the precious moments at home where I can express my feelings honestly. In doing so, I try to preserve a quiet emotional balance. It was only natural, then, that the act of painting and the choice of what to paint began with what was closest to me. As I step into the home and room marked by my own traces, I find myself covering over the unstable emotions I could not express outside, and recovering a sense of calm and peace. I capture in my paintings the blue wallpaper close to my body, the scattered blue clothes, the blue blankets and pillows—objects that bear the touch of my hand. Along with them, I try to hold within the painting the tactile sensations of these things against the skin, as well as the emotions of those moments: the comfort, warmth, and tenderness that arise from familiarity.

The feeling of fur brushing between my toes,
the rush of air when my father lifts the blanket high and lets it fall while I am lying down,
the snug warmth of tucking the blanket tightly around my body,
the feeling of touching the cool temperature that has settled into the pillow because of the wind outside,
the soft texture of an old blanket worn thin with holes,
a pair of socks turned inside out on the floor,
the faint sunlight slipping through the blinds,
the sunlight and brightness that reach me as I lie down,
the moon visible through the window before sleep...

I gather these emotions and sensations from my own place and wrap them together, trying to paint their atmosphere and energy. In the process of expression, the act of applying materials softly onto hanji, or tearing its surface to reveal its delicate fibres, has itself become a process through which I find emotional calm. Through the repeated gestures of laying down thick layers of paint and scraping them away, or raising the surface of the hanji, I attempt to convey indirectly a kind of fluffy, tender warmth even through the material surface itself.
Ultimately, I hope that a painting, shaped by the attitude revealed in both the subject I look at and the process of making, can become a bearer of warmth—something held close at one’s side—and that the scope of this warmth may gradually expand.

Disorn Duangdao (lives and works in Kanchanaburi, Thailand) focuses his interest on the situations that arise from his surroundings, including the use of raw materials derived from the experience of overlapping and parallel contexts of ambiguity and reality. His practice involves a combination of constructing sets of symbolic language within objects and finding meaning within twisted structures. Disorn’s aesthetic opens up a diverse dialogue ranging from nature, society, and politics, to history, all under the realm of an exchange area for reform and reconstruction.

Heejoon Lee creates abstract paintings from images of the natural world. In 2012, he earned a bachelor's degree in Fine Arts and Sculpture from Hongik University, and a master's degree in Fine Art from the University of Glasgow School of Art in 2014. In this way, the artist collects, edits, and brushes the accumulated experiences and daily images obtained from travels from close surrounding to distinct locations, and incorporated them into geometric shapes. The composed instant images add the texture and time of the accumulated paint to generate a new space on the canvas. In addition to the photo collage and thick matière geometric shapes in <The Tourist> in 2020, the artist shifts his focus from minor objects to the surrounding landscape and extends the visual experience beyond abstract painting to the experience of space in which architecture and painting coexist.

Born in Seoul in 1988, Jaeyeon Yoo received her B.A. in Western Painting from Ewha Womans University and her M.F.A. in Painting from the Royal College of Art, UK, and has been working between Seoul and London. She builds landscapes in which everyday life and fantasy coexist, focusing on the time and place of 'night' to unravel the large and small events of everyday life and the individual's imagination and thoughts that originate from these events. She expresses the ambivalent aspects of the world in her paintings by nostalgically visualizing her childhood experiences and memories, and introducing disturbing situations or unclear objects. Through the subtle emotions generated by private memories and fantasies, she aims to draw attention to the 'gap' between the dual worlds of society and the individual, past and present, phenomenon and reality, fear and dream, inner and outer, existence and perception, etc. 
The work Night Walker expresses a dual state of isolation and freedom through the depiction of the landscape of the "blue night," sensed via the light that manifests in the darkness—such as the moon, meteor showers, and the screen of a mobile phone. It captures the figure of a solitary night walker on a late-night stroll.




 Artist MAWZ has been drawn to Disney animation films and cartoons since childhood. While studying Fine Arts at Chung-ang University, the artist created a character to represent himself and painted the world through its eyes. The artist’s artistic stage name, MAWZ, is named after the character from his early work. His birth dream of sharks and the movie <JAWS> inspired its naming. 

 

The artist's work explores surrealism and symbolism, conveying messages of reality's absurdity, personal concerns, social situations, and aspirations. His work conveys social, cultural, and personal concerns through the use of symbolic imagery, featuring poetic symbolism and animated expressions. The symbols used include envelopes, ribbons, and eagles, and their meanings can be interpreted in different ways based on the viewer's perspective. His recent work revolves around exploring the absurdity of reality and social issues. He continuously experiments with new materials and conducts thorough research on the subject's background or history to add more depth to his work. 

 

The artist’s defining characteristic is his use of Matière, which is conveyed through simple and implicit expressions with cheerful colors and thick brushstrokes of paint. Before starting any artwork, the artist meticulously documents the content or stories he intends to convey. He draws inspiration and motivation from his imagination, surroundings, and personal experiences to depict his unique perspective in his work. His recent work emphasizes background and three-dimensional elements over characters and icons from his earlier pieces, adding depth and highlighting the message. His animated style and expressions capture deep concerns across diverse subjects and allow for varied interpretations among viewers.

 

The artist is experimenting with various mediums to refine and develop his style and expressed a desire to expand into creating more three-dimensional work, in addition to his current focus on two-dimensional paintings. The artist previously collaborated with various brands, including McDonald's, Volkswagen, Cass, and SM Entertainment, to communicate with the public. MAWZ uses the process of creating art as a means to illustrate his personal exploration of the future unknown. He seeks to share his journey with the audience to spread positive energy and convey optimistic promises of life. 

Working across a range of diverse media, Tada Hengsapkul investigates the tensions between control and dissent, establishing his practice as a mode of radical resistance in itself. First reaching critical acclaim for his photographic and video works, Hengsapkul’s oeuvre has long been underscored by extensive political research. Engaging with official archives, informal discourse, and popular media, he has sharply addressed the themes of nationalism, democracy, and military control. Though grounded in political history, his works are also intimately autobiographical, often citing personal relationships and sites from his hometown in Northeast Thailand that were affected by war and authoritarian power. In recent years, Hengsapkul has pivoted towards a dynamic abstract approach, combining en-plein-air and pyrotechnic methods. Employing smoke bombs, fireworks, and gunpowder, the works allude to its materials’ centrality in global protest culture, forming provocative yet melodic imagery. Despite the variance of his chosen materials, his practices is united in their advocacy for freedom and agency. Hengsapkul’s works ultimately extend beyond their roots in Thailand and its history, maintaining universal relevance in a contemporary landscape where censorship and omission are becoming increasingly rampant.

Kwon, Soon-young (b. 1975) majored in Oriental Painting in Dankook University (B.F.A) and Hongik University (M.F.A). She held a number of solo exhibitions including The Land of Ghosts (The SoSo, 2023), A Journey of tears (Gallery SoSo, 2017), the milk of sorrow (Gallery FACTORY, 2014), Flashback (Kwanhoon gallery, 2007), and participated in group exhibitions such as The SoSo special (The SoSo, 2022), CHILDREN CROSSING THE NIGHT (Seoul National University Museum of Art, 2022), The Adventures of Korean Painting: I Will Go Away All by Myself (National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Cheongju, 2019), STILL ACTS (Art Sonje Center, 2016), Journey to a fluid Island (Kumho Museum of Art, 2016). Selected for the grant program of Korea Arts Management Service Center, Kwon has been a special artist representing Gallery SoSo since 2022.  
Kwon, Soon-young has been creating her own world of cruel fairy tales with characters representing young beings in agony. (···) Kwon’s work is not about the fantasy itself, which evaporates in an instant, but instead focuses on innocent characters who console the harsh reality, those who await it even though it will only end in vain. Their naïve wishes, endlessly delayed and never coming true in reality, evolve into more powerful fantasies in the artist’s imagination, and with it, the pain in real life gets worse with their ever-growing anticipation. Because the fantasy created by Kwon is inseparable from reality, the more beautiful and gloomy it is, the more pitiful it gets. – excerpted from Eunju Lee, “Fantasy of sympathy and console”

Chanida Voraphitak is a distinguished illustrator deeply rooted in the realm of graphic design. Having honed her skills as an art director within the fashion magazine industry and mastering the art of animation, she has discovered an ardent devotion to crafting intricate illustrations imbued with an animalistic allure. Her creative process is marked by meticulous research and recollection, resulting in an inimitable amalgamation of line patterns. With an unwavering embrace of limitless imagination and unrestricted material choices, Voraphitak’s manifests captivating works across an array of mediums, spanning drawing, illustration, product and textile design, as well as installations.

Park Younghwan has sustained a painting practice grounded in the tradition of East Asian landscape painting, combining imagination with architectural composition. Through variations of ink on hanji including cheongmeok (bluish ink) and dameok (dense, fully-loaded ink) he lends subtle chromatic strata to black-and-white surfaces, juxtaposing nature and geometric form, figures and symbols, within a single scene. Perfect black spheres, Western buildings in modern styles, tangled stands of trees, and figures recalled from memory all find their place on the picture plane, where a fictive order and the artist’s personal temporality are realised simultaneously within the landscape.
The sphere (gu), the artist’s basic unit, appears as the most emblematic object in the work, distributed across the surface in differing sizes and gradations of ink as though tracing the arc of elapsed time. It becomes, at once, the artist himself present in the many times and spaces of a life’s journey and the record of a process moving toward the most ideal form of living to which he aspires.

Lucio Fontana was an Argentine-Italian artist known as the founder of Spatialism. The movement focused on the spatial qualities of sculpture and paintings with the goal of breaking through the two-dimensionality of the traditional picture plane. He was best known for his monochrome canvases known as Concetti Spaziale that he would cut or puncture, leaving distinctive gaping slash marks and holes that imbued the finished work with an almost violent energy. In his seminal writing, White Manifesto (1946), the artist traced ideas for creating a new medium that blended architecture, painting, and sculpture.

A little light shines brighter in the dark. Beings with little light, a tree of light held dearly by a dog, fish in a fishbowl seen by a duck, and the subtle glow of the moon contained in a water bottle are things that are hard to see under the dazzling sun. She said, “A ray of light illuminating the darkness reveals many things. It makes me hear the breathing of things that were always next to me but I passed by without notice and reminds me of their importance, like the air.”
A little light becomes hope. A shy step toward the light makes the frozen time flow and the air move. The air becomes wind and passes by the surroundings, instantly pushing the crescent moon hanging overhead far away. And then it soon returns, carrying gifts like the smell of grass, the scent of flowers, the moon halo, and the voices of countless friends who passed by. These are peaceful scenes at night where darkness and light embrace each other.

Matthew Antezzo (1962, USA) in the 90s made a substantial body of work which took as their models photographic reproductions that he found in magazines, catalogues, monographs and publications dedicated to contemporary art, particulary art from the late Sixties and the early Seventies, the era that witnessed the birth of the most radical neo-vant-garde movements of the postwar period.

Daniel Wheedong Kim uses the metaphor of 'GHOST' to describe contemporary images that are endlessly replicated across mediums. Embracing 'Hyper-Ghostism,' he creates paintings reflecting on the role of art in an era where reality and existence are increasingly blurred.

Hyeon-A Cho is currently working in Seoul and made her debut in 2014 with a short story series titled <Water tank> on Naver Webtoon's Rookies's short stories. The following year, she posted another short story, <Lunar New Year's Eve>, on the same platform. In 2018, she received the 2019 Today's Our Comics Award and the China Jinlong Award for Foreign Comics for her work <Your Letter>. Currently, <Your Letter> is being produced as a theatrical animation and plans are underway to publish a North American comic book version soon. While drawing advertisements and cover illustrations for young adult novels, she is preparing for her next work, <Santa Scout>.

Jongheon Bae (b. 1969) discovers artistic values in ordinary things with deep thinking and lyrical sensibility, and expresses them through visual media. He creates his own works without restrictions on form and material. He majored in painting at Gachon University and its graduate school, and completed a doctorate in fine arts at Kyungpook National University. Jongheon Bae held a total of 17 solo exhibitions, including Gallery SoSo's 《Trying Nothing》. He also participated in several group exhibitions at home and abroad including Animamix Biennale(Shanghai), Busan Biennale(Busan), Changwon Sculpture Biennale(Changwon), Jeonnam International Ink Biennale(Mokpo), Daegu Photo Biennale(Daegu), the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Sungkok Museum of Art, Arko Art Museum, SFAC Galleries in San Francisco, ArtN space in Shanghai, and DUMBO Art Center in New York. He published a massive book, 『Bae JongHeon_JagUpZipSeo』(2015, Seoul: Monocle), which is a compilation of his artistic world, including artist's notes summarizing his artistic thoughts, work records, and catalogs. Bae Jongheon won the Goam Art Award in 2014, and his works are collected in the Arko Art Museum, Seoul Museum of Art, and Gyeonggi Art Museum. Following the Glenfiddich Artist-in-Residence in Scotland in 2021, he is working as an artist-in-residence at the Changdong Residency at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in 2023. In there he is expanding the scope of his work through inspiration from new spaces and life.

Haafiz Shahimi (b.1986) known as APIS, whose interdisciplinary work spans through printmaking and performance art. APIS began exploring pyrography print in 2014, developing a unique style rooted in Malaysian print and textile traditions. Inspired by batik printing, he created metal matrices depicting cultural and mythological imagery, heated and applied to surfaces like canvas and jute. His experimental approach to temperature variations led him to explore new pyrographic techniques, blending art with scientific principles of thermodynamics. APIS’s work often delves into dualities—science and mythology, East and West, physics and philosophy—establishing him as a boundary-pushing figure in contemporary Malaysian art.

Through his innovative techniques, including pyrography, inverted burn, and direct chemical and petrol burns, APIS has introduced a unique fusion of traditional and industrial materials to his practice. Recently, he combined automotive paint with pyrographic methods to produce vibrant, reflective pieces for Art Central Hong Kong, creating visuals with accidental markings and intentional deconstruction. After a decade, he also returned to the meticulous process of rod-based pyrography to evoke the appearance of charcoal lines, as seen in his recent work, "Desire", which showcases the culmination of his 13-year journey. APIS's impact lies in his transformative approach, which continues to challenge conventional art practices and redefine the scope of Malaysian contemporary art.

The nature in Jaewon Jung’s paintings encompasses not only nature, which grows on its own without human touch but also nature that has been changed and catered for human preferences and desires. To her, nature is not just an object of contemplation or nostalgia for the lost landscapes, but something that incorporates time, memories, desires, new environment, and experiences that transcend beyond the visible spectrum. Nature continues to change in the past and present, reflecting the relationship between individuals and society, nature and humans, and appears in the most ideal form of that era. As we go back and forth between what's real and what's ideal, we reflect on changes in our perception of nature and ask ourselves what is “true” landscape painting in this era. Beyond realistic and illusory descriptions, she is trying to reproduce nature more sensibly.

Blue Peak

hug #36

hug #35

home - 이불

home - curtain

home - jujube tree

home - camellia tree

hug #37 - bedroom

hug #41

home - persimmon tree

hug #38

hug #40

hug #39

home #11

home - carpet

Rock in the center of MeKong River

Avatar

a piece of the cosmic explosion in time

Orchids and Haze

Utopia

Beyond the Horizon of a Black Hole

The Orbit of a Red Comet

Floating Lane

Machine's Score

Night Garden 04

Weeping Brushes_Tropical Dream

Late Night Incident 04

Weeping Brushes_Painter’s Luck

The Spell 01

The Spell 02

Through The Woods 1 숲의 게임 1

Late Night Incident 03

Through The Woods 2 숲의 게임 2

Through The Woods 3 숲의 게임 3

Weeping brushes

Memo piece_ Help yourself

Memo piece_ Weeping brushe

Memo piece_ Dream

Weeping Brushes_Slow Dance

Weeping Brushes_Shower

Night garden 05

Still Life 13

Deep sea 2

A Bird and a Girl

A Lollipop

Deep sea

Landmark

Resting 2

Still Life 9

Curtain Call 2

Still Life 14

Sculpture

The Winter of Hongjecheon

Deep Sea 3

Bottom

Baptism

Force

Pieta

My Friend 12

Holy Hole 5

Holy Hole 4

A Still Life 5

A Still Life 6

Contemplation

at the cliff

We in White Memory

When I Sank Down

Aside

Each other

warmth

Ruminating (반추)

Concetto Spaziale, Attese

Nam June Paik, Video Time - Video Space {Edition Cantz, 1991), p.31

Pocari

Jiwon

Hallway

Spring

Gas Stove

1, 2, 3, 4

Train

Pudding

Jung Eun

Pachinko

Hokkaido butter

Rico

Moment

Icicle

Lavons

Michiyo 2

Jiwon 2

Cheeun

Your Letter

Ethereal Mountain_30P2250024

Trying Nothing_cement wall decorated by a plasterer, crack, peeling paint, scratches

Ethereal Mountain_30P2250023

A Garden without Doing Anything

Trying Nothing_Concrete Cracks, Plasterer's Trowel, and Unknown Native City Plants

Trying Nothing_Concrete Cracks, Plasterer's Trowel, City Dust and Uneven Spotty Cement Surface

Featured Artists on Artue