Lot 1737: JEONG BO YOUNG

JEONG BO YOUNG
(B. 1973)
Space Left Behind
signed 'Jeong' in English; dated '2010' (on the reverse)
oil on canvas
145 x 113 cm. (57 x 44 1/2 in.)
Painted in 2010

Conventional art historical narratives are apparent in Jeong Bo Young's early works in Looking (Lot 1738), as she captures the comforting aura of a sunset with smooth, translucent layering of oil to conjure a melancholic empathy. With this amiable invitation, viewers are at emotional and visual ease, watching the subtle shift of tonal variation in the sky, where the phenomena of Mother Nature is illuminated in succinct yet forceful aesthetic decision of the solid glaze of the sun reflected on the small window of the building. Jeong's attended depiction of light as such, reveals her keen observation on the phenomenon of light, leading her to catch the stillness of light, exposing its spiritual quality, its instrumentality as a compositional element and its hold over viewer.

The enigmatic shade of blue foretells the hour that night and light coalesce into a melancholy fleeting evening. In Belonging Together (Lot 1739), the notion of light has taken a different role from mere illumination to a living force of orange heat, melting the candle into droplets of translucent wax, painted with smooth, imperceptible blend of brushstrokes to heighten the moist overtones of the candle. Light becomes increasingly imperative and evolved in various forms as Jeong inserts the mathematic silhouette of the sunset and desk lamp as the only source of light in her dim studio in A Certain Glance (Lot 1739); though dark in colour, the hue is still warm and soft, relaxing the contours and expanding the space outside of the canvas. The repetitive spacing of rectangles as her focal framework of light generates a sense of geometric abstraction, suggesting the influence of Piet Mondrian and which is particularly manifest in Space Left Behind (Lot 1737). Jeong continues to adeptly exploit the drama of light in diverse conceptions as she captures a mundane interior in a highly architectural structure, reviving the space in mutely layered geometrics with her uncanny ability to elicit psychological and art historical reverberations; perspectives are concisely controlled through a degree of light gleaming through these selected frames. Internalizing visual experience and rendering it with effects of natural illumination, perspective and compositional positioning of her subjects, Jeong continues to explore space and light in her sublime paintings, interpreting images of reality into metaphysical moments; and together with the benefits of the title, evocations of alienation is visible through these hauntingly atmospheric and vacant environments.