False Familiarity: Where Sculpture and Painting Meet in Seoul

A seated wooden figure with a tangle of branches where its face should be anchors 'False Familiarity,' a two-person show by sculptor Jeon Gyeong-seon and Kim Ye-young. The exhibition opened on October 10 at 10 to the nth power, an independent exhibition space in Seodaemun District, Seoul.

Curated by Kim Jae-won, the show places two artists with different histories and experiences in one room, keeping the formal gap between sculpture and painting intact.

A Body That Grows Into Something Else

Jeon's wooden figure sits with its arms gathered in front and its knees bent. The shoulders, waist and legs keep human proportions, and long folds run along the torso. At the head, though, thick trunks curve sideways and thin branches cross over one another, leaving gaps of empty space. The form recalls roots or antlers without copying any real plant or animal. Both the smooth body and the tangled branches share the same wood tone, so the difference between human and natural lies in thickness, curvature and spacing rather than in material.

Jeon studied sculpture at Sungshin Women's University and its graduate school, and has long combined human, animal and plant forms. Her focus has expanded from questions of existence and relationships to memory, emotion and bodily transformation.

Kim's paintings, mostly in grayscale, hang on the walls at varied sizes and intervals, some tall and vertical, others smaller. Seen through the gaps in the sculpture, the paintings shift and overlap as a viewer moves around the room, so each work partly hides or reveals the other while keeping its own form.

The title points to the way viewers reach for known shapes and memories when facing unfamiliar things. The connection between the two bodies of work is not fixed and forms differently for each visitor.

The show runs Wednesday to Sunday, noon to 6 p.m., at 62 Hongyeon-gil, Seodaemun District. It is closed Monday and Tuesday, and admission is free.

Why It Matters

The exhibition shows how two media can share a room without merging into one story. By letting sculpture and painting stay distinct, it leaves the meaning open to each viewer's own memory and perception.

Read the original article in Korean: K trendy NEWS