Avenue des Champs-Élysées

This painting represents a Japanese bar viewed from outside. While the very close figures invite the spectator to join the table and immerse himself in the scene, the clear plastic sheets and wooden fence add some distance and evoke a feeling of distant memories. Time passes and some faces fade out. These blank faces now belong to the viewers who gradually recreate them in their minds. A personal memory becomes a story to share with more people on the canvas. It becomes a meeting place for the intimate memories of individuals.

Three Generation Fish Market 어시장3대

My works invest the question of individual and common memories in life through painting. My starting point is to choose a memorable yet familiar moment that everyone can relate to and which can be easily linked to the spectator’s own memories. This painting represents a moment just before the end of a birthday party. Gold balloons still hanging, leftover appetizers, empty glasses and a soft jazz melody seem to announce the end of the festivities. We have all celebrated a birthday in our lives and know the sudden feeling of fullness and emptiness before the end of a party, especially for such a special occasion. And who could be the last person playing piano ? Only the viewer knows the answer.

Rue de la République

Two people are sitting in a subway. Are they going to work or town to hang out with friends or even coming back home ? The subway is one of the most common places for people living in big cities. Also people know the feeling of sitting in the subway after a hard day, thinking about nothing else but going back home. The subway is an interesting place for me to study as it gathers plenty of unknown and different people probably sharing a similar daily routine.

Debt Free !

Work inspired by the Bassin de la Villette in Paris 19th district. The moving reverberation on the surface of the water evokes a dream of evening time near a bar illuminating the docks and suggests some feeling of nostalgia. 

In this painting my influence from cinema is probably the most visible through how I frame scenes and balance light and tone. The artificial atmosphere of this painting is reminiscent of a film studio and structures a narrative that is at once mysterious and dreamlike.

Le 25° Est

Inspired by a picture taken during a weekend camping trip in my hometown in South Korea. The dim light spreading out in the tent brings back childhood feelings in a campground. The person on the right is serving a Korean rice wine with a Korean serving gesture. The person holding the cup seems to be saying “not too much” with their hands. We can also find red pepper sauce on the table and a popular Korean beer. Viewers can always identify the cultural background of my paintings in spite of the blank faces. 

Seomok Camping

This work is inspired by a picture taken during a birthday party in a campground in Lima, Peru. Each of my paintings has a different cultural background. It reflects my intention to address people from different cultures, regardless of their origin. The blank faces become a meeting place for the intimate memories of individuals and depending on them, the protagonists could have any gender, nationality, age… It is an empty space offering room for reflection and solitude, like looking in an empty mirror. Light bulbs hanging from the garden umbrella dance above a person sitting alone and suggest a feeling of festive solitude. 

Club Solimar

View of the other side of one of my paintings ‘Hanoi Câ Phè’. Two people are playing outside in spite of the cold weather, like young children. The window reflections inside the cafe are similar to a light wave and shining more than ever in this winter’s evening. This painting work is conceived as a twin of ‘Hanoi Câ Phè’. They were painted on the same canvas size and one can notably notice the mirrored signboard.

Reflections of Hanoi Cà Phé

The scene takes place on a calm Sunday evening in March at a Vietnamese-style cafe in the Paris area. We can see two persons sitting next to us and a group of people with reduced mobility sitting on electric wheelchairs. With the winter lights, the artificial atmosphere of the work is reminiscent of film studios; it structures a narrative that is at once mysterious and dreamlike. This atmosphere is visible in the smallest details of the painting. The technique used gives the spectator a different reading of the work depending on the viewing distance.

Hanoi Cà Phé

This work is inspired by an afterwork party in a bar near Canal Saint Martin in Paris. People in suits drink their glasses in a rustic bar. The light bulbs and orange and green tone of the background contrast with the darker color of suits and decorative rocks.

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D La Her