Hyunsun Jeon (b. 1989) begins her work by recording experiences from her daily life. However, rather than reproducing specific images, she depicts the atmosphere of subtle and ambiguous situations or her own emotions that cannot be clearly articulated. As a result, her works feature enigmatic geometric shapes that evoke a sense of mystery, inviting viewers to imagine their own narratives.

Hyunsun Jeon's early works attempt to translate the pure sensibility and imagination embedded in childhood curiosities into a visual language. She observed that as one grows and accumulates experiences through education, the pursuit of concrete and clear answers becomes inevitable. However, she also believed that the more knowledge is acquired, the more language imposes limitations on communication and expression. 

In her first solo exhibition, 《Somewhere on the Road to Endless Opposites》 (2011) at Next Door Gallery, Jeon introduced characters from fairy tales she read as a child, proposing an alternative method of communication through painterly visual language. Her work begins with the reconstruction of fairy tale scenes, yet the characters within them appear in different roles or settings than their original narratives.

For instance, the grandmother and the wolf, traditionally depicted in fairy tales as opposing forces of good and evil, reappear in Jeon's work with ambiguous and dual roles—embodying both rigidity and innocence. By breaking away from the conventional narrative framework, these characters become arbitrary figures, representing a broader spectrum of human experiences and identities. 

Meanwhile, the repeated application of dots and lines on the canvas sometimes takes the form of clouds or trees, appearing in an ambiguous, undefined manner. These unstructured, elusive elements encourage viewers to step outside fixed patterns of perception, evoking memories of countless past encounters, unconscious scenes, and imaginative possibilities—unfolding into an array of interconnected thoughts.

In her 2014 solo exhibition 《The Cone and Conversations》 at Place MAK, Jeon moved away from her previous works that incorporated fairy tale characters, instead introducing the sculptural aesthetics of geometric forms into her paintings. She combined cones with various objects from myths and legends, constructing scenes in a collage-like manner. 

Elements without logical cause-and-effect relationships appear scattered across the canvas—some pointing in different directions, while in others, fruits unexpectedly sprout in random places, creating a fragmented composition of multiple narratives. The recurring presence of the cone serves as a structural focal point, acting as a mediator that connects these otherwise disjointed stories.

In Hyunsun Jeon’s work, the cone does not dictate any specific meaning or interpretation. According to the artist, the cone emerged spontaneously during the painting process and exists within various situations in her compositions, serving as both a central axis of language and a medium for communication. 

Curator Kim Donghyun interpreted this spontaneously appearing cone as something that "momentarily resolves the ambiguity deeply embedded in Jeon’s work and throughout her life." Positioned among figurative scenes, the cone represents unresolved realities—something that defies immediate definition—while simultaneously acting as a symbolic form of possibility through which these uncertainties might be navigated.

In Jeon’s paintings, the "cone," which once multiplied organically like a living organism, began to take on a new form in her 2016 solo exhibition 《Nameless Mountain》 at LEE HWAIK Gallery. While still undefined and lacking a fixed identity, the cone evolved into the shape of a mountain, mimicking its form. 

Neither entirely a cone nor fully a mountain, this ambiguous "nameless mountain" occupies an in-between state, continuing to serve as a temporary resolution to the countless indefinable phenomena and questions embedded in her work.

Furthermore, through her collaboration with artist Eunjoo Noh, Hyunsun Jeon began to develop changes in her compositional approach. For instance, in her 2016 work Objects, drawings, and the cone, various fragmented scenes overlap within a single canvas, appearing as if drawn on scattered memo notes. 

Jeon explains that she deliberately emphasized a process of assembling fragments and partial elements to construct a complete image. To achieve this, she incorporated memo-like notes, color fields, scene fragments, and geometric forms, further highlighting her method of composition.

The following year, in her 2017 solo exhibition 《Everything and Nothing》 at Weekend, Jeon’s paintings underwent another transformation. The figures that had frequently appeared in her earlier works disappeared during this period. Instead, her compositions expanded horizontally like a panoramic view, where images of trees, objects, and geometric forms were juxtaposed in an all-over format. 

Along with this shift, the overall color palette of her paintings became noticeably brighter and more vibrant. In her previous works, Jeon had intentionally lowered the overall saturation to soften the hierarchical relationship between figures and objects, ensuring that figures did not dominate the composition. However, with the absence of figures, this adjustment was no longer necessary, allowing her to embrace a more vivid and dynamic use of color.

In her 2018 solo exhibition 《Parallel Paths》 at Alternative Space LOOP, Jeon presented works in which multiple canvases were connected to form a single landscape. While working on this series, she reflected on the relationship between words and sentences. She considered the fragments (or elements) in her images as words—each with a clear reference. However, once combined into a sentence-like composition, their meanings became more ambiguous and uncertain. 

The piece Parallel Paths (2017), composed of fifteen 80-ho canvases, features objects that the artist encountered in her daily life or that held significance within certain relationships. Although these objects were not directly related to one another, they were connected through the artist’s perspective and integrated into various scenes within her paintings.

Continuing this approach, the objects in her paintings refuse fixed meanings, instead forming fluid relationships with other elements, generating multiple interpretations. In this process, her canvases themselves exist within a flexible network of connections. Rather than planning an overarching composition from the outset, she worked on each canvas individually. Later, using Photoshop, she experimented with various arrangements before assembling them into a final configuration.

Meanwhile, in her solo exhibition 《Black Green Mouth》 at Gallery2 in the same year, Jeon presented paintings composed solely of geometric color shapes, which appear abstract at first glance. However, her work straddles the boundary between figuration and abstraction. While the geometric forms on the canvas may seem abstract, they actually stem from the artist’s imagination of specific subjects, thus oscillating between the realms of figuration.

Jeon expressed that she wanted to create paintings that are figurative yet abstract. By bringing together these opposing elements, her work does not provide clear conclusions or fix meanings, leaving them open to interpretation.

In this way, Hyunsun Jeon's paintings, which move across multiple boundaries and exist in a state of ambiguity, later expanded into architectural dimensions, engaging with space and relationships. In her participation in 《ARTSPECTRUM 2022》 at the Leeum Museum of Art, she presented works where individual canvases merged to form walls or became front and back surfaces that redefined the space.

As in her previous works, these paintings that became three-dimensional were not created according to a pre-planned overall image but were individually completed and then connected through a process of assembly. The complex and diverse images within the frame are independent on their own, yet they move across the canvas and come together as a unified whole.

By setting up large-scale painting walls and pillars that cannot be fully viewed at once, the artist disrupted stable visual immersion, creating an environment where the center continually shifts. This invited a new way of experiencing painting, breaking away from traditional methods of viewing art.

In this way, Hyunsun Jeon's paintings always feature disparate elements that are loosely connected. Rather than confirming and determining something, they repeatedly weave and unravel into a single narrative through their relationships with surrounding objects. Her works, situated within a fluid and flexible network of relationships, speak of what is not clear, what disappears, what is trivial, and what is ambiguous.

"I always think about relative value. The object itself remains the same, but depending on its position or the perspective of the observer, it can become something entirely different. A lot of aspects of our lives seem to be like this. And that’s why I think it can be diverse and free." (Hyunsun Jeon, excerpt from the BE(ATTITUDE) interview)

Hyunsun Jeon graduated from the Department of Western Painting at Ewha Womans University and its graduate school. Recent solo exhibitions include 《Two, Lying Down, Exposed Roots》 (Johyun Gallery, Haeundae, 2024), 《Meet Me in the Middle》 (Gallery2, Seoul, 2022), 《Red Green Corners》 (P21, Seoul, 2019), 《Parallel Paths》 (Alternative Space LOOP, Seoul, 2018), 《Everything and Nothing》 (Weekend, Seoul, 2017), and more.

She has also participated in numerous group exhibitions, including 《Color, Shape and Active Audience》 (Gyeongnam Art Museum, Gyeongsangnam-do, 2024), the 12th Seoul Mediacity Biennale 《THIS TOO, IS A MAP》 (Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, 2023), 《DUI JIP KI》 (Esther Schipper, Berlin, 2023), 《ARTSPECTRUM 2022》 (Leeum Museum of Art, Seoul, 2022), 《Dancing Casper》 (SAGA, Seoul, 2021), and 《20th SONGEUN Art Award Exhibition》 (SONGEUN, Seoul, 2020).

In 2023, Jeon was selected for Frieze x Chanel: Next & Now Series. She won the Excellence Award at the 20th SONGEUN Art Award in 2020 and the Chongkundang Fine Arts Prize in 2017.

References

• 조현화랑, 전현선 (Johyun Gallery, Hyunsun Jeon)
• 옆집갤러리, 끝없이 갈라진 길, 어디선가 (Next Door Gallery, Somewhere on the Road to Endless Opposites)
• 플레이스 막, 뿔과 대화들 (Place MAK, The Cone and Conversations) 
• 이화익갤러리, 이름 없는 산 (LEE HWAIK Gallery, Nameless Mountain)
• 위켄드, 전현선 작가와의 대화, 2017.09.21
• 대안공간 루프, 나란히 걷는 낮과 밤 (Alternative Space LOOP, Parallel Paths)
• 갤러리2, 검은 녹색 입 (Gallery2, Black Green Mouth) 
• 리움미술관, 아트스펙트럼 2022 (Leeum Museum of Art, ARTSPECTRUM 2022) 
• 비애티튜드, 작고 구체적인 것들을 통해 조금씩 다가가기