Having attended an art school in Korea when young, Jungcheol Lim devoted his time and energy to learning watercolor techniques and drawing in a predetermined format and method. During a trip to New York in his second year of middle school, however, he visited a collection of fascinating art spaces where the eclectic sparks of creativity motivated him to transcend the rigidity of formal studies. 

After middle school, he immigrated to Canada where he frequently visited art museums and crafted a portfolio that celebrated his tastes and inclinations. He then majored in Fine Art at Columbus College of Art, making friends with graffiti artists in the neighborhood who so often broke the rules and indulged in emancipatory acts of self-expression. Jungcheol was impressed by the way graffiti, vandalism art, and murals were repeatedly created and erased. Indeed, chance expressions changed the face of the urban landscape, and subtle cracks and areas of fading combined and harmonized with street art elements over time. Melting the borders between art and daily life, they continued to offer inspiration to those passing by.

Using oil-based pens to reinforce a sense of play and experimentation, he now arranges drawings of people and text in a free-flowing and highly improvised manner. The characters in his works retain a distinctly cartoon and illustrative feel, re-interpreting and sublimating public textures onto the canvas or paper in a way that honors the spirit of the North American streets. In particular, Jungcheol’s rabbit and female faces are important symbolic elements that channel the complexities of identity formation, evoke a sense of empathy, and subvert stereotypical points of view.

For Jungcheol, the woman’s face is informed by the religious paintings and iconography he once admired while at church. Like a statue of the Virgin Mary, her face becomes a potent mirror capable of projecting the lived experiences and emotions of the beholder.

In Eastern culture, the rabbit takes on a lunar edge as it crosses the boundary between reality and imagination, often symbolizing collective hopes of longevity and prosperity. Similarly, in Jungcheol’s works, the rabbit manifests as a mystical being that possesses the secrets of the universe. Just as the textures of a wall are formed by an accumulation of traces, the spirit of the rabbit as handed down over multiple generations also transcends the flow of time.

Through his protagonists and mediators, Jungcheol presents his audience with a fusion of larger-than-life cross-cultural narratives. He also invites us to take a little segment of his artistic wall with us, tinker with it, and ultimately reconstruct it via interpretation on our own unique terms.

Female General (2021). Mixed Media on Paper Mounted on Wood Panel. 72.7 x 60.6cm.

Think Twice (2024). Mixed Media and Digital. 1280 x 1280px.

Black Bunny (2023). Mixed Media on Paper Mounted on Wood Panel. 72.7 x 60.6cm.

Forever (2024). Mixed Media on Canvas. 130 x 130cm.

Discover more of Jungcheol’s works in Issue 5 of our magazine!