The Drawing Room: Kim Beomjoong, Sunghee Pae, Jaeyeon Yoo
Gallery Chosun will be hosting 《The Drawing Room》 from July 18 to August 6. The exhibition is not simply about the personal difference between artists’ drawings. It focuses on the idea that restoring the act of “drawing” begins with rethinking what drawing itself means.
Drawing has long stood as an independent genre. Contemporary art has expanded in many directions, reflecting diverse trends. This looks at drawing in relation to 단색화 (Dansaekhwa, Korean monochrome painting), which marked a key moment in Korean modernism. Through the works of Kim Beomjoong, Sunghee Pae, and Jaeyeon Yoo, the exhibition examines qualities often seen in Dansaekhwa: empty space, repetition, chance, and spontaneity. During the exhibition, Yoo will present a live drawing session.
Modernist art is often discussed in terms of self-reference and flatness. However, the Western historical path that shaped this theory did not unfold in the same way in Korea. As Korean artists encountered Western art without sharing its full background they sought breakthroughs through ideas of purity and the absolute.
In the 1970s, artists expressed a distinct Korean sensibility and formed groups that signalled the rise of Korean modernism. Dansaekhwa later gained recognition as a unique Korean movement. As it developed, drawing reemerged as a way to recover the act of making. Drawing, once treated as a simple sketch serving other art forms, became an independent genre.
Drawing is not limited by surface or material. It can exist on walls, glass, or floors, using pencil, charcoal, or brush. In Korean art, however, paper played a central role. Unlike Western painting, which developed scientific perspective and illusion, Korean painting did not rely on such systems. It already carried a sense of flatness. In this context, empty space is not just a blank area. It points to the material surface of paper itself. When painting returns to its essence, it affirms the reality of a flat surface. Lines, shapes, and colours that soak into or rest upon the surface form a unified presence.
From this view, drawing can be understood as part of the transition seen in Dansaekhwa. Its repeated gestures, patterns, empty fields, and openness to chance connect with current practices that show wide variation and richness.
Repetition breaks down the authority of fixed styles and shifts focus from material weight to subtle presence. The act of drawing lines merges with the surface, turning into a form of inner discipline. The paper becomes a site where gestures appear at the very moment an image enters the artist’s mind. It can also become a space of meditation where sensation returns to its source.
In a world where the line between real and virtual is blurred, objects are often presented without clear judgement. Their meaning is suggested rather than stated. Conflicts between artificial and natural, opposition and coexistence, are shown through direct yet restrained images. By erasing lost landscapes and leaving space, artists reveal what daily life often overlooks. This can lead to reflection or quiet healing.
Today, we live beyond the digital age, in an era shaped by virtual reality. Art responds to advances in science while also exploring inner thought and social issues. At times, tradition can seem slow compared to rapid global change. Yet when newness reaches its limits, we return to earlier forms. Like history itself, we revisit origins in order to rethink and reshape the present.
To think anew can risk fixing artists and their work into rigid frames. But when artists continue to work steadily from where they stand, repeating and refining their gestures, they can build something lasting. Such gestures are not about being trapped in theory. They are acts of reflection that allow growth and renewal.