Choe Sooryeon

Sooryeon Choe

Sooryeon Choe observes with fascination the aspects and consumption of Oriental-style images reproduced in contemporary times. She questions the 'Oriental' aspects deemed old and strange in Korean society after modernization, yet she unabashedly cherishes them and reconsiders their utility. She aims to depict sorrow, femininity, the disconnection from reality, inner Orientalism, doubt, ignorance, and absurdity based on the traditional cliché images shared by Northeast Asia. Born in 1986, Sooryeon Choe graduated from the Department of Painting at Hongik University in 2010 and from the Graduate School of Painting at Seoul National University in 2017.

Major Works

Seonnyeo (celestial maiden), Taepyungnyeo, etc.

The "Seonnyeo" series and "Taepyungnyeo" series both depict female figures shared by Northeast Asia. Seonnyeo and Taepyungnyeo often appear in classical tales as beautiful and gentle young women and are reproduced in modern media as cliché images.

Sooryeon Choe, being of Northeast Asian descent influenced by Western culture, has an ambivalent attitude towards the subjects she paints. These series recontextualize female figures shared by Northeast Asia, being critical and mocking of the passive femininity, clichéd nature, and incomplete representation of these images while simultaneously feeling nostalgia for them and sorrow for their imperfect crudeness.

Sutra Copying for the Hangul Generation, Pictures for Use and Pleasure, etc. Sooryeon Choe transcribes and translates Chinese classical texts, illustrations, religious texts, and theories on painting onto canvas, such as inexplicable vanity of death, interpretations of fate based on physiognomy, and the characteristics of 'good painting' as described in classical art theory. She feels ignorance, doubt, and sorrow in these texts, which talk about a 'profound world' or 'good painting', doubting the irrational and unscientific worldview of the classics after modernization and feeling sorrow for the absurdity of the world.

Awards and Selections

Sooryeon Choe has participated in residencies at Studio White Block (Cheonan, 2022-24), Incheon Art Platform (Incheon, 2020-21), Factory of Contemporary Arts in Palbok (Jeonju, 2019), Cheongju Art Studio (Cheongju, 2018), and Gyeonggi Creation Center (Ansan, 2016). She was selected for the 9th Chongkundang Art Prize and Art Support(Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture, 2020), Art Support for Outstanding Artist (Gyeonggi Cultural Foundation, 2018), SDU Art Prize Outstanding Artist Award (Seoul Digital University, 2017), The Life and Change: Gyeonggi Cultural Foundation Art Support(2017), and Ilhyun Travel Grant (Ilhyun Museum, 2015).

Exhibitions

Sooryeon Choe has held solo exhibitions such as "Hoe繪 for Picture and Hwa畫 for Picture" (Gallery Chosun, Seoul, 2023), "Drawing in the Fog" (Sansumunhwa, Seoul, 2020), "Pictures for Use and Pleasure" (Incheon Art Platform, Incheon, 2020), "Music from a decaying country" (Cheongju Art Studio, Cheongju, 2019), "Music from a decaying country" (O'Newwall E'juheon, Seoul, 2018), and participated in two-person exhibitions like "Everything I Want to Do Is Nonproductive" (Incheon Art Platform, Incheon, 2021), "Eerie" (Kyobo Art Space, Seoul, 2021). Key group exhibitions include "Birth of New/Woman" (Zaha Museum, Seoul, 2023) "Monumental" (Museumhead, Seoul, 2023), "The 9th Chongkundang Art Prize" (Sejong Museum of Art, Seoul, 2022), "A chronicle of desires" (Show and Tell, Seoul, 2022), "Korean Painting and Oriental Painting" (Gallery Tooad, Tokyo / Pinch Art, Kyoto / / Jungganjijeom ll, Seoul, 2022), "Frequencies of Tradition" (Incheon Art Platform, Incheon, 2021), " Ahuh Darongdiri " (This Weekend Room, Seoul, 2021), "The Stars Below" (Sansumunhwa, Seoul, 2019), "Something new" (Goyang Aram Nuri Aram Art Gallery, Goyang, 2017), "Haneul bonpuri" (Zaha Museum, Seoul, 2017), "Seoul Babel" (Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, 2016), "Our awesome moments" (HITE Collection, Seoul, 2015), "Nothing we could know" (Insa Art Space, Seoul, 2015), "Fantasy is over" (Art Space Pool, Seoul, 2014), and others.

Collections

Seoul Museum of Art

Seoul National University Museum of Art

Government Art Bank, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea.