Crooked and cut canvases, figures shown only in part, ambiguous backs turned away and obscured by curtains… Except for the final piece in the exhibition, not a single work presents its subject in full. It is a gaze directed toward discomfort—things that are cropped, covered, and seen askew. At ARARIO GALLERY SEOUL in Jongno-gu, Seoul, artist LEE Jinju, a professor of Korean Painting at Hongik University, is holding her solo exhibition titled "Discontinuous Continuity" through October 9. Known for her meticulous brushwork rooted in traditional Korean painting, LEE expresses a static beauty while pushing boundaries. The exhibition features 54 works including her Shaped Canvas series—where parts of the canvas are cut away, embracing emptiness as much as presence; the Black Paintings, which depict fragmented human forms surrounded by deep black backgrounds; and Three-dimensional Paintings, where the canvas is folded and tilted to create sculptural distortions.
LEE Jinju, Discontinuouscontinuity
Kim Minjung, The Chosun Ilbo, 9 September 2025