Seong Ryul

Seong Ryul, 《Cloud 9》Main Poster

Gallery Joeun presents 《Cloud 9》, a solo exhibition by its represented artist Seong Ryul (b. 1994), from August 20 to September 19. Through recent works, the exhibition offers a focused look at the artist’s ongoing exploration of memory, time, growth, and the sensation of moments slipping away.

Seong Ryul, Holidays (Acrylic), 116.8 x 91cm, Acrylic gouache on canvas, 2026

Seong Ryul’s works are often perceived as “paintings of summer” because of their blue skies, immense white clouds, and dazzling sunlight. However, Cheong Jong Hyo, Chief Curator of the Busan Museum of Art, views Seong Ryul’s paintings not simply as summer landscapes but as “paintings about growth.” Cheong explains that, for Seong Ryul, summer is less a season than a moment when life is at its most vigorous—a period that symbolizes human growth. 

Seong Ryul, Cloud 13, 73.4 x 60cm, Acrylic gouache on canvas, 2026

The immense clouds signify time in constant flux, while light serves as a medium through which memories are recalled. Ultimately, what Seong Ryul paints is not so much the landscape itself as the process of time, memory, and growth.

Seong Ryul, Cloud 14, 73.4 x 60.5cm, Acrylic Gouache on canvas, 2026

The exhibition title 《Cloud 9》 refers to a state of complete happiness, a sense of euphoria as though floating above the clouds. In Seong Ryul’s work, however, happiness does not appear as a spectacular or dramatic event. Rather, it is closer to a moment that seemed too ordinary to notice at the time, only to be recognized as precious after it has passed. In his 2025 artist statement, Seong Ryul writes of “moments that make me feel good,” while at the same time sensing that those moments will eventually pass. He also suggests that perhaps life is about caring for and remembering one another amid that flow.

Seong Ryul, Cloud 16, 162.2 x 130.3cm, Acrylic gouache on canvas, 2026

For Seong Ryul, painting is a way of holding on to such passing moments. The tonal variations and traces that emerge as he sprays water onto the surface, loosens the paint, and allows it to blend naturally also evoke the passage of time. As the artist writes, “even if our lives flow onward and eventually disappear somewhere, just as every moment inevitably leaves a trace,” he leaves those traces within his work.

Seong Ryul, Water 2, 73.4 x 60cm, Acrylic gouache on canvas, 2026

《Cloud 9》 is therefore both a memory of moments of happiness and a story about the human impulse to hold on to, preserve, and recall those moments.

Seong Ryul, Yamaha (Acrylic), 91 x 91cm, Acrylic gouache on canvas, 2026

Seong Ryul uses acrylic gouache, building up multiple layers of thin, translucent color. Rather than removing the boundaries and traces that emerge naturally as the paint dries, he accepts them as part of the painting, creating a sense of depth in both air and time through accumulated layers of color. The artist says that rather than painting the landscape itself, he wants to paint the “air” that exists within it.

Seong Ryul, Cloud 17, 162.2 x 130.3cm, Acrylic gouache on canvas, 2026

《Cloud 9》 offers a concentrated view of the pictorial world Seong Ryul has built to date, while also documenting the moment when an artist’s paintings begin their journey in earnest toward a wider world. Rather than searching for the artist’s own story within the works, viewers are led to recall a summer day or place from their own past, someone they once loved, and moments that have already disappeared. At that point, Seong Ryul’s landscapes no longer remain solely within the artist’s personal memories but become landscapes belonging to each person who encounters them.