CHA Hyeonwook

CHA Hyeonwook (b. 1987) has continued a distinctive painting practice that explores the themes of memory, temporality, and personal identity through the acts of collecting and reconstructing. Grounded in the materials and techniques of traditional Korean color painting, he experiments freely across the boundaries of Eastern and Western painting, developing his own visual language. His work skillfully merges linear expressions derived from the rules of traditional Korean landscape painting with the spontaneity and unpredictability often found in Western painting. By repeatedly layering dry brushstrokes on hanji (traditional Korean paper), he creates surfaces where colors accumulate, leaving behind mark-like traces, while intentionally preventing deep absorption of moisture. Utilizing anchae (water-based pigment made by mixing mineral powders with glue and natural starch) and hobun (white pigment derived from crushed seashells or lime), both traditional Korean painting materials, the artist nevertheless embraces a free and experimental approach in the arrangement of colors and forms. Through this unique method, CHA blurs the boundaries between Korean landscape painting and Western landscape traditions, establishing a painterly language in which landscapes become containers for memory.

At the core of CHA’s practice is the notion of “memory.” He collects personal experiences and memories—both direct and indirect—through constant interaction with the surrounding world, reconstructing them into visual images. For him, memory does not restore events as they were, but rather reappears distorted and condensed according to emotional and circumstantial filters, and is reborn on the surface of his paintings. These fragments of memory accumulate in his works like layers of sediment, forming landscapes. In particular, recurring motifs such as trees and clouds serve as symbols of memory and emotion, reflecting the artist’s sense of being an outsider shaped by his movements across different regions. The willow tree often metaphorically represents memories of his hometown, while the juniper embodies the awkward and alienated figure of a foreigner who has migrated to unfamiliar places. Natural symbols like the “day moon” that appears on the boundary between day and night and the ephemeral clouds frequently depicted in his works serve to blur the lines between memory and time, reality and fantasy. For him, memory is not simply a mechanism for preserving the past, but a living fragment that connects the past and present while constructing new futures.

CHA Hyeonwook studied Korean painting at Kyungpook National University and completed his M.F.A. at Korea National University of Arts. His major solo exhibitions include Arario Gallery Seoul (Seoul, Korea, 2024), Gallery Playlist (Busan, Korea, 2023), Art Space Euisikju (Seoul, Korea, 2022), Daegu Culture and Arts Center (Daegu, Korea, 2018), and Cheongju Art Studio (Cheongju, Korea, 2015). He has participated in numerous group exhibitions at Kumho Museum of Art (Seoul, Korea, 2022), Daegu Art Factory (Daegu, Korea, 2020), Jeonnam International Ink Biennale (Jeonnam, Korea, 2018), Daegu Art Museum (Daegu, Korea, 2017), among others. He received the “Young Artist of the Year Award” (Daegu Culture and Arts Center, 2018) and the Excellence Award in the “4th Gwangju Hwaru: 10 Artists” (Gwangju Bank, 2020). His works are included in the collections of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea; Daegu Art Museum; Seoul National University Museum of Art; and others.