Lot 1396: JEONG BO YOUNG

JEONG BO YOUNG
(B. 1973)
Looking Into A Mirror
signed 'Jeong' in English; dated '2009' (on the reverse)
oil on canvas
162.2 x 130.2 cm. (63 7/8 x 51 1/4 in.)
Painted in 2009

Seoul, Korea, Gallery IHN, Space, A Boundary of the Sublime-Jeong Bo Young, 25 November-16 December 2009.

Gallery IHN, Space, A Boundary of the Sublime-Jeong Bo Young, exh. cat., Seoul, Korea, 2009 (illustrated, unpaged).

Jeong Bo Yeong deftly exploits the drama of light in diverse conceptions to capture a mundane interior in fluent simplicity she revives the space in mutely layered geometrics with her uncanny ability to elicit psychological and art historical reverberations referencing Vermeer's theatrical staging and Mondrian's minimalism. She creates a scene in mysterious simplicity, placing a solitary chair against a brightly lit door inside a high-walled studio in Looking into a Mirror (Lot 1396).

A scent of cool air lingers with her use of green-blue beam trickling from the white artificial light of the room; with the soft shadow of the chair. The balance of reflection and transparency on the floor gradually stimulate a nervous anticipation to emphasize its aura of vacancy. The reflection of green cool tones on the floor and muted brown tones on the wall causes an emotional charge, intensifying the curiously unsettling environment revealing the artist's understanding of light. The solemn grandeur of this dream-like image is further emphasized by the comforting warmth of golden light glowing through a small window. This intentionally juxtaposes a reverse mirror image contrasting with the artificially lit door. The two chairs are in darkness and light, a decisive visual cue, outlining the division with lights illuminating in opposing radiance- synthetic coolness and natural warmth. Jeong coyly directs the diagonal structure of the canvas to reinforce the mirrored atmosphere as one image, allowing our eyes to roam from each corner of the canvas to view the landscape as a whole. Using a balance of strong horizontals and verticals, Jeong simplified the direct surrounding of her own studio into an abstract composition of lines and colour, while using areas of light and shadow to evoke tones and volumes. With subtle composites of interlocking reflective qualities, cool and warm lights and adjusting perspective details, Jeong successfully conveys a unified moment in time as she interprets images of reality into metaphysical moments. All of this explicated by the title, creates evocations of alienation visible through these charmingly atmospheric and vacant environments.