"Bouquet Series_21 P" Painting

Ryoon Choi | Traditional Korean Painter (Legal Name: Hyeyune Choi) Painting life with the materials of essence I create paintings that record the lived traces of human life through the enduring materials of traditional Korean painting—silk, gold leaf, and natural mineral pigments known as seokchae. My practice centers on transforming time, labor, and unseen layers into a quiet, luminous presence. What distinguishes my work is not only its imagery, but the process embedded within it. In the Ivy Series, I use baeche—a traditional back-painting technique in which color and gold leaf are applied to the reverse side of silk. Gold leaf is laid, dried, and layered multiple times in a space where even the slightest breath of air is controlled. Much of the painting is completed on a surface that remains invisible to the viewer. Through this accumulation, a soft, diffused luminosity emerges from within the fabric—an image formed as much by what cannot be seen as by what can. In the Hwahap Series, I work in jinchae, building up at least fifteen layers of seokchae, allowing each to fully dry before the next is applied. At first glance, the paintings appear minimal—flowers set against a deep blue ground. Under light, however, the surface reveals countless mineral particles that shimmer subtly. Here, the flowers are not the subject; the foundation is. Each particle represents a life—small, often unnoticed, yet radiant when light finds it. These layers of unseen labor are not only technical — they are philosophical. My work is rooted in a question I have carried for a long time: what does it mean to live a human life? After years spent working outside of art, I returned to painting in 2017 with a renewed understanding that life is not defined by singular achievements, but by the accumulation of moments, relationships, and unseen efforts. We live by leaning on one another, forming connections, and leaving traces. That living itself, I believe, is already a golden life. This understanding first took form in the image of ivy climbing a wall—intertwined, reaching, and interdependent. Each vine appears to support the others while holding itself in place. The Ivy Series reflects the beauty and weight of human connection. From the same root, the Hwahap Series emerged as a quiet tribute to those who have carried the full weight of a life without recognition.