Kiaf Seoul 2024: Why Seoul-Based Artist Jiwon Choi is One to Watch

One of the ten competing artists this year at Kiaf Seoul 2024, Jiwon Choi, the 28-year-old Seoul-based artist showcases the everyday routine of porcelain dolls in her surreal paintings.

The day before we make contact with Jiwon Choi in July, she posts the work of Belgian artist Michaël Borremans’ on her Instagram, having witnessed his exhibition, ‘The Promise’ at Prada Rong Zhai in Shanghai. The experience of seeing his work, Choi writes, is “tearfully beautiful”. Borremans is one of her favourite artists, and she writes that his “painterly brushstrokes and gestures are very sensual and captivating.”

Not unlike her own work, which vibes with Borremans’ predilection for time, its passing, cinema, and sinister undertones. “Rather than time, death, trauma, or anything else being most important, I think these themes are intertwined in my work, reflecting the complexity of our lives,” Choi says. “I try to freeze moments in time and create a sense of stillness and silence in my work, amidst a life that flows through lifeless, unfeeling objects.” 

Choi, who holds a BFA and MFA in Western Painting from Ewha Women’s University, depicts porcelain dolls, engaging in their own daily routines as if they were living beings. Delicate and elegant … ‘doll-egant’ :), they gracefully adorn entrances, windows, walls, draperies, and artworks, their enigmatic presence both intriguing and captivating. A surreal scene is formed by the combination of real-life events and the dolls’ presence. Choi characterises her work as a fusion of still life, landscape, and portraiture.

It also feels like a form of simultaneous beauty, healing and grieving. “My work comes to me in many different ways,” she explains. “Beauty, healing, sadness, emptiness. It can catch the eye with its colourful beauty, yet simultaneously evoke a sense of peaceful sadness through its solitude. This process allows me to explore my inner self and discover new things.” However, she says that while the process can be enjoyable, it’s also energy-consuming, so she “always tries to maintain a proper distance between myself and my work.” 

Talk of Prada evokes brand’s ubiquitous tagline, “ugly beauty”. How well does the term encapsulate Choi’s creations? “Although I sometimes express my panic and sense of loss, I also try to visually beautify these feelings, but they do no disappear. I want to depict all the various emotions in my life, and my works are increasingly resembling a diary, recording each phase of my life. The so-called ‘ugly beauty’ is about a kind of charm. I like things that are humorous, with personality, strong opinions, and even eccentric or out of place – that’s what I see as charm. I don’t have a very specific thing I want to express.”

Jihyung Park, curator of This Weekend Room, through whom Choi is showing at Kiaf 24, assesses her thus: “The most exciting moment in her work is the significant progress in conceptual, mathematical, and technical aspects over a short period. I remember when she had just graduated from university and started painting ceramic dolls. It was a striating point, but she gradually expanded her world, delving into themes such as tension, life and death, morning, love, and relationships. I also love how her work compels viewers in different ways: some feel warmth and consolation, while others experience tension and the uncanny. I believe this complexity is the key to her work.” 

A point ably reinforced by London-based Korean artist and friend of Prestige HK, Yeonsu Ju, who professes to “love Jiwon Choi’s work”, having first seen Choi’s solo exhibition the Park Seobo Foundation in 2023 in Seoul. “Instantly,” says Ju, “I was surprised and captured by its fine and matt finish but one which looks like it has a magically glossy texture. And because of that, it comes across as being so surreal at some point. I assumed the figures would be very cold and distant but it was not what I experienced at all. It looked like they are holding warmth inside them – like they are about to wake up. It was such a joyful discovery.” 

Choi will hold a solo show at Weserhalle Gallery in Berlin during next spring’s Berlin Art Week, her inaugural visit to the city, which she hopes will “allow me to connect with a new range of audiences.” She also waxes lyrical on the memory of seeing Borremans in Shanghai. “I fell in love with his paintings and the space. It would be such a great honour to one day have my work shown in a space like Prada Rong Zhai, full of historic and vintage architectural decor.” Might we suggest Carl Kostyal gallery on Savile Row, London. While a smaller, more intimate version, it embodies beautifully the vibe of Prada Rong Zhai but in miniature.