Cube Peony #1, 92x82cm, paper, hangi, pigment, 2024

 

 

Eunjung Rhee constructs dimensional reliefs from folded paper, layering them with hanji and then painting motifs from traditional Korean minhwa—symbols of prosperity and beauty. Her process merges the meditative discipline of origami with the tactile depth of traditional craft, transforming flat geometry into vibrant fields of structure and color.

 

In her compositions, geometric abstraction becomes both a framework and a metaphor. The cube—precise yet infinite—multiplies across the surface like a rhythmic code, creating optical movement and spatial illusion. Beneath and within these modular forms, Rhee paints the lush imagery of minhwa, allowing the organic and the constructed, the spiritual and the material, to coexist in dynamic tension.

 

The result is a poetic geometry where tradition breathes within abstraction—a contemporary reinterpretation of bu-gwi-yeong-hwa (富貴榮華, wealth and glory) that invites viewers to discover harmony between order and life’s blooming vitality.

 

 

Sweet Dreams

Light and Rest — Fragments of a Sweet Dream

 

The solo exhibition Sweet Dreams by artist Sun-joo Chung unfolds the wish for sweetness and deep rest that blossoms within the ordinariness of everyday life. Grounded in Korea’s traditional mother-of-pearl (nacre) craftsmanship, the artist engraves familiar motifs such as hearts, candies, and pillowcases onto her surfaces, seamlessly traversing the boundaries between tradition and modernity, East and West. The delicate shimmer of nacre oscillates between day and night, reality and dream, offering viewers tender and dreamlike moments of light.

 

For centuries, Korean pillowcases have been embroidered with auspicious patterns—flowers, butterflies, and mandarin ducks—symbols of good fortune and blessing. Chung reinterprets these motifs through a contemporary visual language, conveying a timeless message of blessing and serenity to those living today. In her compositions, popular icons like candies, hearts, and M&Ms are transformed through the iridescent luster of mother-of-pearl, gaining new emotional depth and resonance.

 

Sweet Dreams does not merely sing of sweet illusion. It is another name for the peaceful rest, the beautiful dream, and the quiet prayer for happiness that everyone longs for amid a weary and busy life. Like a warm pillow that rests on the border between reality and dream, Sun-joo Chung’s works offer each of us a brief moment to drift into a gentle, sweet dream.

    Our Story, acrylic on canvas, 126x126cm, 2025

 

The Sacred & the Profane: Radiant Ecstasy
OMAE Gallery is pleased to present The Sacred & the Profane: Radiant Ecstasy, a solo exhibition by artist Mi-yeon Jung, on view from September 16 to October 2, 2025. This exhibition revisits one of the most enduring themes in both art and religion—the tension between the sacred and the profane—asking anew, within the realities of our time, what kind of light illuminates the human condition.

 

Jung’s works resist reducing the sacred and the profane to a simple opposition. Instead, they explore the luminous moments that emerge when boundaries collapse and worlds intersect—between Buddhism and Catholicism, tradition and contemporaneity. In her compositions, the ten disciples of Seokguram appear alongside female nude croquis; Buddhist symbols are transposed into Catholic contexts; and the interplay of blue and gold unfolds as a metaphor for the relationship between divinity and humanity. For the artist, the nude is not merely a drawing of the human body but the most direct and beautiful form of truth revealed in human existence.

 

For many years, Jung has explored the intersection of faith and art as a painter of Catholic icons. Through her iconography—published in the Archdiocese of Seoul Weekly Bulletin and integrated into church commissions—she has sought to create what she calls “paintings that strike the heart,” capturing the vitality of lived spiritual experience. In this exhibition, she extends that journey by bringing together the Buddhist legacy of her hometown Gyeongju with her Catholic faith, re-examining the sacred and the profane on an existential level.

 

As religious historian Mircea Eliade once wrote, “The sacred reveals itself through the profane, and in that moment, objects and places acquire an entirely different dimension.” Likewise, Jung reveals the radiant light of being that emerges where the sacred and the profane converge. More than an art exhibition, The Sacred & the Profane invites each viewer to discover new meaning in these dualities within their own lives, and to share in the radiant ecstasy that arises from that encounter.

 

 

Soo-young Seo, Heritage Code 41, 75x75cm, 24k gold leaf, gold alloy leaf, stone pigment, Ink, 2025

 

 

OMAE Gallery is pleased to present Heritage Code, a series of works by artist Soo-young Seo, on view at the Collectors’ Lounge from August 26 to October 2, 2025.

 

This special presentation highlights Seo’s distinctive approach to contemporary painting, where traditional aesthetics and motifs are reinterpreted through a refined, modern sensibility. Her Heritage Code series unfolds as a dialogue between past and present, weaving cultural memory into vivid visual codes that resonate with today’s audiences.

 

Throughout the exhibition period, OMAE Gallery will also host a range of exclusive programs for collectors, offering opportunities for deeper engagement with the artist’s practice and works.

 

 

Soo-young Seo, Heritage Code 38, 72.5x61cm, 24k gold leaf, gold alloy leaf, stone pigment, Ink, 2025

 

 

Soo-young Seo, Heritage Code 39, 72.5x61cm, 24k gold leaf, gold alloy leaf, stone pigment, Ink, 2025

 

 

Soo-young Seo, Heritage Code 42, 45x45cm, 24k gold leaf, gold alloy leaf, stone pigment, Ink, 2025

 

 

Soo-young Seo, Heritage Code 45, 45x45cm, 24k gold leaf, gold alloy leaf, stone pigment, Ink, 2025

 

 

Soo-young Seo, Heritage Code 50, 52x32cm, 24k gold leaf, gold alloy leaf, stone pigment, Ink, 2025

 

 

Soo-young Seo, Heritage Code 50, 52x32cm, 24k gold leaf, gold alloy leaf, stone pigment, Ink, 2025

Mi-suk Kim, Breadth of Memory, ottchil and mother-of-pearl on wood, 90x122cm, 2025

 

 

Gi-won Yoon, Sexy Guy, acrylic on canvas, 162×130.3cm, 2024

 

 

OMAE Gallery presents Layers of the Self, a two-person exhibition by Mi-suk Kim and Gi-won Yoon that reimagines the possibilities of contemporary portraiture.

 

Mi-suk Kim incorporates mother-of-pearl and lacquer into painting, transforming female figures into luminous images that embody dignity and resilience. Gi-won Yoon explores the resonance of color, expressing psychological depth through layered hues and fluid brushwork.

 

Together, their works expand the tradition of portraiture beyond physical likeness, offering fresh interpretations of the human spirit through light and color.

 

• Special Event on Samcheong Night

As part of this exhibition, OMAE Gallery will host a special Opening Reception on Thursday, September 4, 2025, from 7:00 to 10:00, in celebration of Samcheong Night during Frieze Week. The main program will take place from 8:00 to 9:00, featuring a meeting with the artists, wine and refreshments, music, and special events. Guests are also welcome to enjoy the gallery during the free session hours before and after the program.

 

 

 

 

Mi-suk Kim (b. 1983)

Misuk Kim is an artist who reinterprets Korea’s traditional materials—mother-of-pearl and lacquer—into contemporary portraiture. Her paintings portray captivating images of women, infused with elegance and resilience. With refined craftsmanship and a sophisticated sense of color, she creates unique surfaces where light and material harmonize. The subtle iridescence of mother-of-pearl and the depth of lacquer lend lyrical qualities to expressions and moods, forming an aesthetic that intersects tradition and modernity, decoration and painting. Through this practice, Kim expands the language of Korean beauty for the present day, offering viewers a visual experience that is at once powerful and graceful.

 

 

Gi-won Yoon (b. 1974)

Since graduating from Hongik University’s Department of Painting in 2003, Giwon Yoon has dedicated more than two decades to portraiture. His ongoing practice has unfolded through series such as Friends, Portraits of Artists, and FACE, which explore human relationships, psychology, expression, and aura. Using layers of color and fluid brushwork, Yoon reveals the emotions that lie beneath outward appearance, extending the traditional Korean concept of jeonsin—capturing the spirit—into a contemporary context. Yoon’s portraits synthesize figure, background, and the resonance of color into organic compositions, exploring the sensory and emotional possibilities of painting today.

 

 

Roentgen Garden, mother-of-pearl coloring on hanji canvas, 130x160cm_2025, each

 

 

OMAE Gallery presents Roentgen’s Garden, a solo exhibition by artist Ki-chang Han, who has uniquely visualized the intersection of tradition and modernity through his distinctive artistic language.

 

Han’s work captures the image of a garden that traverses the boundaries of life and death, pain and healing, shadow and light—expressed through lines and colors painted onto X-ray film. These works are acclaimed for offering deep consolation to those who have passed through inner darkness.

 

The exhibition features new pieces that highlight the aesthetics of Eastern spatial emptiness, based on traditional motifs such as mother-of-pearl and hwajohwa (bird-and-flower painting).

 

Additionally, installations using lightboxes invite viewers to experience a shifting “garden of light,” revealing Han’s unique vision of Korean identity through light.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oasis, cloisone, silver, bronze, 110x110cm(frame), 2023

 

 

OMAE Gallery presents The Song of Fire and Flowers, a solo exhibition by artist Soo-kyung Lee (b. 1946), who has inherited the tradition of Korean cloisonné and expanded it into a contemporary art form. Lee, who was trained in royal cloisonné techniques at Nakseonjae in Changdeokgung Palace during the 1960s, has dedicated 58 years to this singular path and was recognized as Korea’s first Grand Master in the field of cloisonné.

 

‘Cloisonné’ is a decorative art in which glassy enamel is applied to metal and fired at high temperatures. Lee has developed over 100 unique colors, establishing a singular and distinctive artistic world.

 

Through Soo-kyung Lee’s cloisonné art, which harmonizes tradition and modernity, technique and emotion, craftsmanship and artistic vision, OMAE Gallery seeks to illuminate the depth and richness of Korean craft.

 

 

 

Before and After, 130cmx130cm, Acrylic, crystal and Mother of Pearl on Canvas, 2019

 

 

Hyun-sook Jeong is an artist who has continuously expanded the definition of painting through the use of luminous materials such as mother-of-pearl and crystal. These materials transcend mere ornamentation, embracing the perceptual, sensory, spiritual, and structural questions of contemporary art. This exhibition offers a diachronic perspective on her two-decade-long exploration of “painting with light,” “painting as object,” and “painting as perception.”

 

Spanning from her formal experiments of the 2000s to her recent monochromatic minimalism, this exhibition chronologically presents how the traditional material of mother-of-pearl has been used to construct temporal layers. It is not merely a record of one artist’s trajectory, but a rigorous inquiry traversing tradition and modernity, craft and fine art, modernism and the postmodern era.

 

 

About wish 2532, 한재에 채색과 바느질, 130x130cm, 2025

 

 

Over the past several years, Soon-cheol Kim has been exploring the interplay between materiality and emotion in contemporary Korean art through a unique technique she calls Hoesu (繪繡)—a practice that merges painting and embroidery on traditional Korean hanji paper. By positioning painting and needlework side by side, Kim subtly exposes the tensions between tradition and modernity, flatness and dimensionality, intuition and handcraft.

 

In her latest Butterfly series, presented at her solo exhibition at OMAE Gallery, Kim builds upon his earlier Flower series by layering a new symbolic system. She juxtaposes the flower—a static, life-filled form—with the butterfly—a dynamic and elusive presence—on a single canvas, invoking the simultaneous coexistence of temporality and sensuality, presence and absence. The iconography of “flowers and butterflies,” deeply rooted in East Asian aesthetics, has long symbolized life, hope, transience, and cyclical renewal. Kim intertwines this symbolism with her personal theme of “wish,” infusing her work with a more intimate lyricism.

 

The Labyrinth of Origin 24, mixed media on handmade Korean mulberry paper, 130x130cm, 2024

 

 

OMAE Gallery presents The Labyrinth of Origin, a solo exhibition by SEOSY (世悟示), as the first show of its spring season. The exhibition highlights the artist’s acclaimed reinterpretation of gold leaf aesthetics in a contemporary context. SEOSY is the artistic sub-character created in 2024 by Sooyoung Seo, a renowned color painter known for her figurative works rooted in traditional Korean sensibilities and motifs, with over 30 solo exhibitions held both in Korea and internationally.

 

In contrast to Soo-young Seo’s figurative style, SEOSY explores abstraction, using gold leaf as a central medium. As the name “SEOSY” (世悟示) suggests—meaning “one who reveals spiritual awakening to the world”—the artist follows a path of inquiry into questions such as “What is origin, essence, and foundation?” With a doctorate in traditional gold pigment techniques, SEOSY demonstrates exceptional expertise in the contemporary interpretation of traditional forms.

 

This exhibition features over 30 works in both two-dimensional and installation formats, all of which reinterpret traditional gold leaf techniques through SEOSY’s unique artistic language. Meditative, serene, and resonant, SEOSY’s works invite viewers into a quiet space of subtle yet profound contemplation.