My Soul Too Sings the Songs of the Beloved, 2023
주유진Yujin Ju
2013 Bachelor of Printmaking, Hongik University, South Korea
Residency
2024 Black Cat Daydream, Kyoto, Japan
2019 Brooklyn Schoolhouse Art Collective, New York, USA
2016 Nes Artist Residency, Iceland
Solo Exhibitions
2024
I Shall Fall Like a Butterfly and Be Shaped, Objethood, Busan
2023
I Dance My Part in Paradise, Galerie ERD, Busan
2022
I Dance My Part in Paradise, Galerie ERD, Seoul
We Are Going to Paradise Today, Humorgarmgot, Seoul
2021
Fairer Through Fading, Punto Blu, Seoul
2019
What Do You See When You Close Your Eyes, Brooklyn Schoolhouse Art Collective, New York, USA
Group Exhibitions
2024
Simpoiesis, Galerie Cabinet, Seoul
2023
Sarang: Conversation on Love, Welcome Collective, New York, USA
Joke, CanvasN Gallery, Seoul
Blue Painting, CDA Gallery, Seoul
2021
Re-Brand New, Eugene Gallery, Seoul
2020
Arts in the Color, Hoban Atrium, Gwangmyeong
2017
Tokyo Roof and Light, Ilon Gallery, New York, USA
Sneaker’s Head, Ilon Gallery, New York, USA
2016
Nes Artist Exhibition, Bjarmanes, Iceland
Unexpected Curtain, Installation with Foster Mickley, Rue Oberkampf, Paris, France
Near Strangers, BOKDO Gallery, Korea National University of Arts, Seoul, South Korea
Borderless Hour, SlideLuck Tokyo, Galaxy, Tokyo, Japan
2014
See the Seoul for an Year Anniversary, Seoul Citizens Hall, Seoul
Kia Surprise Weekend for Young Creators, Gana Art Gallery, Seoul
Line, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul
Printmaking and Communication, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul
In my paintings, I often depict a lone figure—a person embraced by a larger landscape, a space that surrounds and holds them. I don’t paint solitary people to delve into the well-worn discourse on human existential loneliness. Rather, it’s closer to an intimate experience: “I know someone who is alone.” This sense of solitude touches me, my friends, my family, and even strangers whose lives I’ll never fully understand. People need a place to exist, just as our bodies need somewhere to house our souls, like the ground beneath us that keeps us grounded in reality. When we feel alone, we need a place for that solitude, too.
But when I experience solitude, that place doesn’t seem to be outside of me. It feels like it exists within. It’s in this inner space that we can truly be alone. What does that place look like, the one we go to when we’re by ourselves? No one knows—not even the person dwelling there. It’s a place we can only summon through imagination, through the act of envisioning. When we can’t see it, or when we begin to believe it doesn’t exist, our soul feels unanchored, as if it has nowhere to be.
So I imagine that place. Sometimes it becomes a shade of blue, sometimes a garden, and sometimes simply color itself. Symbols arise within these spaces—waves, circles, horizons, colors, and light. Each one holds layers of possible meanings, but if there is one thread that runs through them all, it is hope.
But when I experience solitude, that place doesn’t seem to be outside of me. It feels like it exists within. It’s in this inner space that we can truly be alone. What does that place look like, the one we go to when we’re by ourselves? No one knows—not even the person dwelling there. It’s a place we can only summon through imagination, through the act of envisioning. When we can’t see it, or when we begin to believe it doesn’t exist, our soul feels unanchored, as if it has nowhere to be.
So I imagine that place. Sometimes it becomes a shade of blue, sometimes a garden, and sometimes simply color itself. Symbols arise within these spaces—waves, circles, horizons, colors, and light. Each one holds layers of possible meanings, but if there is one thread that runs through them all, it is hope.