featured artists
landscapes of love and longing
Discover the delicate, stormy, and deeply human with artist, Jieun Oh
The world of Jieun Oh’s paintings is deeply personal. People and landscapes form the core of her visual language, with each work serving as an emotional echo of daily encounters and fleeting moments. Jieun’s approach to painting is intuitive yet considered, grounded in sincere reflection and a deep sensitivity to the world around.
In her 2024 solo exhibition Green Vertigo, Jieun turned her focus to the complex feelings that landscapes can stir, in particular the disorienting mix of awe and fear the natural world can provoke. Among the featured works, Your Love in My Scenery (2024)stands out as a poignant expression of empathy, longing, and quiet celebration. The painting was inspired by a photo of her friend watching a sunset with their partner, a tender moment that, although subtly captured from behind, carried powerful emotional weight. The couple, members of a sexual minority, had never publicly shared an image of themselves together. Yet in the photo’s golden light, Jieun saw a love that was both vulnerable and vibrant. Envious yet moved, she chose to paint their love into her landscape, blending their presence into the very colors of the scene. Through this act, she transformed personal confusion and vertigo into something life-affirming, anchoring it in care, solidarity, and the soft strength of affection.
Jieun’s work has long navigated the intersections between emotion and form. In earlier exhibitions, she adopted a cooler, more distanced approach to personal themes, attempting to filter deep emotion through a restrained, almost “dry” perspective. In her own words, these works were born from intense feeling, yet painted as if scattering ashes after the fire had burned out. It was only after a mentor encouraged her to fully embrace the present gravity of her emotions that her style shifted. By 2022, her brushstrokes had grown more vigorous and expressive, and her colors more passionate, capturing what she describes as “stormy images” fueled by a sense of emotional urgency.
Jieun’s work has long navigated the intersections between emotion and form. In earlier exhibitions, she adopted a cooler, more distanced approach to personal themes, attempting to filter deep emotion through a restrained, almost “dry” perspective. In her own words, these works were born from intense feeling, yet painted as if scattering ashes after the fire had burned out. It was only after a mentor encouraged her to fully embrace the present gravity of her emotions that her style shifted. By 2022, her brushstrokes had grown more vigorous and expressive, and her colors more passionate, capturing what she describes as “stormy images” fueled by a sense of emotional urgency.
A key element in Jieun’s recent works is the use of primary color as a filter, reminiscent of looking through colored cellophane. This chromatic layering infuses her scenes with a sense of intention and staging, drawing attention to the emotional lens through which she sees the world. Each painting becomes a moment of suspended feeling, half staged and half accidental where visual poetry meets raw sincerity.
Painting for Jieun is a way of living attentively. Through her evolving body of work, she continues to transform the everyday into the quietly extraordinary.
