LEE Jinju, Discontinuouscontinuity

What immediately catches the eye in the exhibition space are the hands—hands that appear even paler as they float above a black abyss. Some hold half-burnt matchsticks or singed pieces of paper, while others are draped with red or green threads, each thread suggesting a hidden narrative. Though painted using traditional pigments in a hyperrealistic technique that captures even the finest body hairs, these allegorical elements lead viewers to imagine a world beyond the canvas. LEE Jinju (b. 1979), renowned for her so-called “Black Paintings” using ink as dark as ebony, presents her solo exhibition “Discontinuous Continuity” at ARARIO GALLERY SEOUL in Wonseo-dong, Jongno-gu. This marks her first solo show in eight years, and her surrealist tendencies have grown stronger than ever. The surrealism deepens as narrative and human figures are added, building layer upon layer of psychological intensity. In Concave Tears, a nude woman is shown after stripping off her outer garments by a stream. Yet the trees are bare, and snow piles up around her. A volleyball net hangs awkwardly from the trees; a plastic bag floats mid-air; the butchered flesh of a pig lies sprawled on the ground—disjointed images entangled like fragments of a dream. In Convex Courage, a nude woman crouches atop a stone drifting through a cosmic black void like a meteor. Nothing in these scenes adheres to the logic of the everyday.