PRESS REVIEW Kölnische Rundschau by Haidrun Wirth
PRESS REVIEW Kölnische Rundschau by Haidrun Wirth
“Quotidian Fever” is the title of the first solo exhibition by Yun Kyung Jeong, a Korean artist born in 1981 in Seoul, at the JARILAGER Gallery in Cologne. In Seoul, the artist has already arrived on the scene at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art. She has participated in exhibitions across continents, from Hong Kong to Moscow and from London to the Basel Art Fair. At Jarilager, she has previously taken part in group exhibitions in Leipzig, Copenhagen, and in Cologne in 2022.
Now, 18 new works are on display across both rooms of the Jarilager Gallery in Cologne. Radiant and slightly ambiguous, the exhibition’s title hints at the shimmering abstraction of the works, which unfold in a unified style across the gallery walls. “Quotidian Fever” — we might translate this as “daily work fever”, though not as “daily slog”.
Because these paintings are far too beautiful for that. With their wild sweeps of neon strips, edged in glowing yellow, set against the dark ruptures of spatial depth and occasional black inlays, they seem composed of a thousand colours and forms. This intricate chaos appears to float in its own cosmos. The vibrating neon strips, we learn, were created during the COVID pandemic — traces of obsessive fingers on a smartphone.
The Korean painter, trained in both Seoul and England, describes her works as a sensual return to the night. Her painting style fundamentally changed after marriage and motherhood.
Everything comes into play: acrylics applied with brushes, oil pastels, charcoal, pencil, and ultra-thin collage paper. Some elements dry quickly, others merge. There is spraying and dripping; some contours emerge on their own in the drying process. Others — often a clear central strip — emphasise rationality, if that exists at all.
In her sensitive introduction, philosopher and writer Marta Cassina from the Center for German Science and Thought at the University of Bonn also emphasised that the artist “tries to collect, day by day, the fragments of her lost nights in order to hold them together through painting.”
She added: “Although Jeong’s paintings are completely abstract, they capture traces of the world with a sensual power that absorbs even the darkest natural phenomena.”
With this surrealistic sensuality (expressed here in form and colour), the artist also seems to draw a connection to fellow Korean Han Kang, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2024 for her surreal and immersive novel The Vegetarian.
On view until 15 June
Wed–Fri 1–6 pm, Sun 11 am–2 pm
Wormser Str. 23
Prices range from €5,500 to €19,500