{"id":50341,"date":"2025-05-12T10:38:48","date_gmt":"2025-05-12T01:38:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kiaf.org\/?post_type=insights&#038;p=50341"},"modified":"2025-05-12T10:38:48","modified_gmt":"2025-05-12T01:38:48","slug":"soundings-of-blue","status":"publish","type":"insights","link":"https:\/\/kiaf.org\/en\/insights\/50341","title":{"rendered":"Soundings of Blue"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Heekyoung Jeon<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-50343\" src=\"https:\/\/static-edge.kiaf.org\/web\/2025\/05\/12102526\/Heekyoung-Jeon-installation-view-at-SARAHCROWN-.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Installation View (1)<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">SARAHCROWN is pleased to announce Heekyoung Jeon: Soundings of Blue, the South Korean artist&#8217;s inaugural exhibition with the gallery and her US debut. Featuring a body of new works created in 2025 alongside a selection from the past year, the exhibition invites viewers into Jeon\u2019s deeply intuitive and ocean-inspired visual world, engagement with nature, the senses, and the emotional landscape of color.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-50348\" src=\"https:\/\/static-edge.kiaf.org\/web\/2025\/05\/12102532\/Heekyoung-Jeon-2025-Delightful-Aura-of-Blue-Acrylic-on-Canvas-116.8.5x91cm.-Courtesy-SARAHCROWN.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"770\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Heekyoung Jeon, 2025, Delightful Aura of Blue, Acrylic on Canvas, 116.8.5x91cm. Courtesy SARAHCROWN<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Based in Seoul, Jeon\u2019s recent works have been profoundly shaped by her time immersed in the natural environments of South Korea\u2014particularly during artist residencies on Jeju Island and in Shinan\u2019s Jeungdo. These experiences inspired her to deepen her engagement with the rhythms of nature, the sensory presence of water, and the ancestral traditions of the island\u2014most notably the legacy of the Haenyeo, Jeju\u2019s famed women free-divers who harvest the ocean\u2019s depths without oxygen tanks. The exhibition\u2019s title, Soundings of Blue, evokes this act of measuring depth\u2014both literal and metaphorical. Her compositions echo the movement of waterfalls, oceans, and shifting atmospheres but also emotional and intuitive mappings of interior landscapes.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-50347\" src=\"https:\/\/static-edge.kiaf.org\/web\/2025\/05\/12102531\/Heekyoung-Jeon-2025-The-Scene-Brimming-with-Horizons-Acrylic-on-Canvas-72.7x60.6cm.-Courtesy-SARAHCROWN.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"720\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Heekyoung Jeon, 2025, The Scene Brimming with Horizons, Acrylic on Canvas, 72.7&#215;60.6cm. Courtesy SARAHCROWN<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Her lively sceneries are made of fluid brushwork, intricate details, and a palette dominated by shades of blue\u2014ranging from viridian to cobalt, Prussian blue, and indigo. Blue, for Jeon, is far more than a color: it is an emotional register, a state of being, a space of reflection. It expresses the invisible\u2014the humidity in the air, the motion of wind, and the feeling of sinking into the deep sea.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-50346\" src=\"https:\/\/static-edge.kiaf.org\/web\/2025\/05\/12102530\/Heekyoung-Jeon-2025-White-Holding-a-Drop-of-Blue-Acrylic-on-Canvas-145.5x112.1cm.-Courtesy-SARAHCRONW.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"779\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Heekyoung Jeon, 2025, White Holding a Drop of Blue, Acrylic on Canvas, 145.5&#215;112.1cm. Courtesy SARAHCRONW<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\u201cThat sensation of sinking,\u201d she notes, \u201cis like entering a state of deep focus where I come face to face with myself. It\u2019s an inward moment that aligns with the stillness found in the vacuum of the universe.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-50344\" src=\"https:\/\/static-edge.kiaf.org\/web\/2025\/05\/12102528\/Heekyoung-Jeon-installation-view-at-SARAHCROWN.-.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Installation View (2)<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Clement Greenberg argued that Abstract Expressionism fell short of fully exploring the potential of color and flatness. In contrast, Heekyoung Jeon\u2019s canvases focus on creating psychological spaces and painterly dimensions, achieving a sense of completeness in color. Her works, while dense in imagery and conceptual expression, retain traces of landscapes.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-50345\" src=\"https:\/\/static-edge.kiaf.org\/web\/2025\/05\/12102529\/Heekyoung-Jeon-installation-view-at-SARAHCROWN-1-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"649\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Installation View (3)<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">This debut solo exhibition in the U.S. is an invitation to pause, breathe, and enter Jeon\u2019s fluid worlds\u2014where boundaries dissolve, and painting becomes a form of listening, sensing, and returning to something essential. This exhibition is co-organized with director Grace Minkyung Bak, director of A-Lens (Seoul, KR)<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>SARAHCROWN<br \/>\n373 Broadway #215 New York, NY 10013.<br \/>\n+1 347-393-4911<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sarahcrown.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">WEB<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/sarahcrown_ny\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">INSTAGRAM<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.artsy.net\/partner\/sarahcrown-new-york-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ARTSY<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","categories":[50,51],"class_list":["post-50341","insights","type-insights","status-publish","hentry","category-insight","category-stories"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.0","language":"en","enabled_languages":["ko","en"],"languages":{"ko":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false}}},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kiaf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/insights\/50341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kiaf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/insights"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kiaf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/insights"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kiaf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kiaf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}