Soomin Jung

http://www.soominjung.com/ // @so_ominjung

Born in South Korea, Soomin Jung relocated to San Antonio, Texas in 2002 to study at the University of Texas San Antonio where she earned a B.F.A. and an M.F.A in Studio Art and Art History. Since graduating in 2008, Jung has used colored pencil and graphite to create landscape drawings that explore perception and perspective specifically as it pertains to location, memory, and reproduction. While many of Jung’s drawings depict familiar world-wide locations e.g. the Matterhorn, the Rocky Mountains, much of the drawings in Jung’s exhibition Between depict the Lake of Heaven (Korean Ch’onji; Chinese Tian-si) the volcanic lake on the northern border between North Korea and China. In both North and South Korea, in the 20^th century, the site has become a sacred place and is often shown as the symbol of the Korean people and the claimed birthplace of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. As an image, Jung grew up surrounded by depictions of the lake which are ubiquitous throughout Korea though due to its remote location and restrictions, the vast majority of Koreans have never seen it in person. With a deft variation of graphite and colored pencil expanses, Jung’s drawings play with seeing and understanding and where imagination can fill in the gaps when former happens to be at odds with the latter.