featured artists
a canvas without borders
Put meaning into motion with artist, Gyu Ok Jeong.
Born in South Korea, shaped by Germany, and now based in the United States, Gyu Ok Jeong’s transnational trajectory has been marked by a constant dialogue between structure and spontaneity, tradition and reinvention.
Gyu Ok’s fascination with oil painting led her to Germany, drawn by the legacy of German Expressionism. Yet, in a twist of fate, she found herself studying under Sean Scully, an Irish-born American painter known for his monumental abstract compositions. “Looking back, I think it was fate,” she reflects. “That time in Germany shaped not just my artistic practice but my values, my desires, and the way I see the world.”
Gyu Ok’s time abroad transformed the way she absorbed and interpreted her surroundings. In Germany, history was omnipresent, not just in textbooks but etched into city walls, in bullet-marked facades passed daily on the way to the subway, and in the towering presence of cathedrals and castles that bore witness to centuries past. This historical immersion, combined with the fluid presence of nature, led Gyu Ok to develop a keen sensitivity to movement, time, and the unseen forces that shape the essence of space.
Her works depict subtle shifts in color, texture, and form that reflect the different geographies in which they were made. In South Korea, Gyu Ok was attracted to the virtues of balance and restraint, influenced by the traditional beauty of blank space, a principle she explored extensively in her undergraduate studies. In Germany, she encountered a new way of thinking that challenged her to dissect ideas structurally and question the “why” behind every artistic choice. This side-step led her to experiment with geometric forms and bold contrasts, injecting her work with a sense of tension and intensity. Now, in the United States, she embraces improvisation, allowing layers of color and texture to blur, collide, and reconfigure in a realm of porous borders.
Gyu Ok’s recent works embody an ongoing negotiation between belonging and displacement. Through multi-layered compositions, she expresses the realities of personal encounters, losses, and transformations. She paints in response to an emotion she cannot quite name, perhaps longing, perhaps loneliness. Both, she muses, may be two sides of the same coin. “We always want to belong somewhere,” she asserts, “but at the same time, we are creatures who can never fully belong.”
Her approach to painting is instinctual and unplanned, an intuitive process of addition and erasure, layering and revelation. “I do not pursue a set style,” she explains. “I let my heart lead the way.” At times, Gyu Ok works with oil paints, allured by their depth and richness. She also turns to acrylics for their immediacy, allowing her to capture fleeting impressions before they dissolve without a trace. The final result is that which resists finality, paintings that invite viewers to enter, explore, and find meaning in the spaces left unlocked.
Gyu Ok offers audiences opportunities to navigate their own sense of place, mobility, and identity. In her various abstractions, meaning is assigned by the perspectives of those who stand before them. “All things in this world can be the subject of a work of art,” she concludes. “I hope that others find joy in searching for meaning with no definitive answers in sight, cherishing not resisting the new ways of thinking that surface along the way.”
