Artist Statement – Hyunyoung Oh

Oh Hyunyoung studied design at Hongik University in Seoul. For many years, she stepped away from her artistic practice to raise five children. Yet even during those years of balancing childcare and livelihood, her interest in and pursuit of art never faded. Returning to art through printmaking, she began to integrate everyday records—such as her children’s diaries and drawings, household ledgers, and receipts—into her work, resuming her practice with honesty and conviction.

Her early works used lithography to transform traces of daily life into images. Over time, she experimented with various media such as silkscreen, collage, and painting, gradually developing her own distinctive visual language. A central focus of her work is the contemporary reinterpretation of traditional Korean landscape painting (sansuhwa). Drawing on classical compositions and imagery, she incorporates modern symbols such as barcodes, QR codes, receipts, and Bitcoin graphics to construct digital-era landscapes. Her approach explores how emotions and memory function in an increasingly automated, coded society, rather than idealizing a harmony between nature and humanity.

She employs silkscreen printing to articulate this visual language. The mechanical repetition and accidental irregularities produced in the printing process create a tension that contrasts with the sensitivity of hand-drawn marks. While motifs like the sun, clouds, mountains, and waterfalls still appear, they are no longer representations of nature, but symbols of life within a system of recorded information.

The barcodes and receipts in her work are not mere visual elements. They are actual fragments of her own life and simultaneously act as tools to examine how contemporary society packages and redefines human experience through consumption and data. Through these coded symbols and recorded traces, Oh Hyunyoung quietly continues to construct a landscape of our time.

🟢 Solo Exhibitions

2024, Coded, Uncoded, and Recoded Hope, Citizen Gallery / Selected by Citizen Hall Open Call, Seoul, Korea

2024, CODED UNCODED AND RECODED HOPE, neighbor / Invitational Exhibition, New York, USA

2023, Coded Landscape Painting, Art Gallery Hotel Skypark / Selected Artist, Seoul, Korea

2022, Reborn Ten Symbols of Longevity, Ilwon Lifelong Learning Center Gallery / Selected by Art Muse, Seoul, Korea

2022, Coded, Uncoded, and Recoded Hope, SICA Museum / Invitational Exhibition, Gimpo, Korea

2021, Digital Ten Symbols of Longevity, Bukchon Hanok Cheong / Invitational Exhibition, Seoul, Korea

2021, Barcode Landscape Painting, Geumboseong Art Center / Invitational Exhibition, Seoul, Korea

2020, Barcode Landscape Painting, Sejong Gallery / Selected Artist, Seoul, Korea

2019, Barcoded Chongseokjeong, Cyart Space / 12th New Discourse Selected Artist Exhibition, Seoul, Korea

2018, Chongseokjeong Reproduced with Barcode Landscapes, Gallery Café Onui / Invitational Exhibition, Seoul, Korea

2017, Barcode 2017 II, Geumboseong Art Center / Invitational Exhibition, Seoul, Korea

2017, Barcode 2017, Kumho Museum of Art / Printmaking Exhibition, Seoul, Korea

2015, Barcode 2015, Gana Art Space / Printmaking Exhibition, Seoul, Korea

2011, Receipt III, Gana Art Space / Painting Exhibition, Seoul, Korea

2008, Receipt II, Gallery 31 / Printmaking Exhibition, Seoul, Korea

2008, Receipt II, Gwang Gallery (Sejong Center) / Printmaking Exhibition, Seoul, Korea

2006, Receipt, Insa Art Center / Painting Exhibition, Seoul, Korea

2006, Family Stories, Gallery 32 (New York) / Printmaking Exhibition, New York, USA

2004, Family Stories, Insa Gallery / Printmaking Exhibition, Seoul, Korea

🟡 Group Exhibitions

2023, Hwadong Exhibition, Geumboseong Art Center, Seoul, Korea

2022, StART Art Fair Seoul, The Seouliteum, Galleria Foret, Seoul, Korea

2022, Baedari “Connect Space” Small Art Museum 6th Opening Exhibition, Art Stay 1930, Seoul, Korea

2022, 9th Contemporary Art Competition Selected Artists Exhibition, Gallery Index, Seoul, Korea

2021, Incheon Asia Art Show, Songdo Convensia, Incheon, Korea

2020, Cityscape 2020 International Exhibition, SICA Museum, Gimpo, Korea

2019, Art Prize Gangnam Roadshow, Nonhyeon Furniture Street, Seoul, Korea

2019, Chennai Chamber Biennale, Lalit Kala Academy, Chennai, India

2019, LOGOS: Speaking, Gallery Western, Los Angeles, USA

2019, Busan International Art Fair, BEXCO, Busan, Korea

2018, Affordable Art Fair, Kromhouthal, Amsterdam, Netherlands

2017, Affordable Art Fair, Kromhouthal, Amsterdam, Netherlands

2017, Affordable Art Fair, F1 Pit Building, Singapore

2016, Youth Exhibition, Geumboseong Art Center, Seoul, Korea

2013, 9th Seoul Artists Association Member Exhibition, Kyunghee Palace Museum, Seoul, Korea

2013, Chennai Chamber Biennale, Lalit Kala Academy, Chennai, India

2013, U.S. Touring Exhibition, Heras Hotel, Las Vegas, USA

2012, Busan International Art Fair, BEXCO, Busan, Korea

🟠 Awards

2016, Selected Artist, 36th Korea Contemporary Printmakers Association Exhibition, Seoul, Korea

2002, Selected, Danwon Art Festival (Printmaking Division), Ansan, Korea

2002, Selected Artist, 22nd Korea Contemporary Printmakers Association Exhibition, Seoul, Korea

2000, Selected Artist, 20th Korea Contemporary Printmakers Association Exhibition, Seoul, Korea