JWA Haesun

Within the given visual world, the topic is sometimes a matter of adjusting the distance of vision. The inevitable stopover is the body, the medium that makes all looking and drawing possible. JWA Haesun (b. 1984) explores the unknowns at the closest distance by likening the work process to the body's reaction to sensations deep under the skin. The Veiled and The Unveiled (2023) is a series of paintings that transfer the imagined landscapes of the micro-world under the skin into the materials of painting. It is about projecting the traces of oriental painting pigments smeared and spread on the screen onto bodily fluids, breaking through scars. The shapes of cells, muscles, and organs are depicted as vast pits in the field or raging waterfalls.

JWA Haesun was born in Jeju in 1984. She recieved her BFA and MFA in Oriental Painting at Sungkyunkwan University in 2008 and 2012. She has held solo exhibitions at oMo artspace (Berlin, Germany, 2023), Useless Studio (Hong Kong, 2023), Seetangraum (Jeju, Korea, 2023; 2021), ARARIO GALLERY SEOUL (Seoul, Korea, 2018) and more. She has participated in group exhibitions at ARARIO GALLERY SEOUL (Seoul, Korea, 2024), Jeju Museum of Art (Jeju, Korea, 2022), Jeju Museum of Contemporary Art (Jeju, Korea, 2021; 2020), Yangpyeong Art Museum (Yangpyeong, Korea, 2021), ARARIO GALLERY CHEONAN (Cheonan, Korea, 2021; 2020), Sejong Center Art Museum (Seoul, Korea, 2012) and more. She was the artist-in-residence at the 9th Studio White Block, Korea in 2020. Her works are collected by Jeju Museum of Contemporary Art, Arario Museum and more.