Artist Jang Hyejin is presenting her solo exhibition The Unfamiliar Within the Familiar at Gallery Sejul in Seoul through Nov. 26.
Rather than reproducing objects and landscapes exactly as they appear, Jang incorporates the time and memories accumulated around them. The resulting scenes remain recognisable but carry subtle differences that resist immediate explanation.
Her paintings suggest that a landscape does not need to change physically to appear unfamiliar. A shift in memory, attention or perspective can transform how an ordinary place or object is perceived.
Light plays a central role in this process. It clarifies forms in some areas while softening or dissolving their edges in others. Colour similarly moves beyond describing physical appearances, evoking sensations and memories associated with the subjects.
Each work begins with a concrete and identifiable form. As light, colour and accumulated impressions interact across the surface, however, the image develops into an atmosphere that cannot be defined solely by what it depicts.
The unfamiliarity in Jang’s paintings is therefore not presented as something remote or extraordinary. It is located within objects and surroundings that have become so familiar that they are often overlooked.
By slowing down the act of looking, the exhibition asks viewers to reconsider the relationship between recognition and perception. Familiar scenes become sites where personal memory and present experience overlap.
The Unfamiliar Within the Familiar runs through Nov. 26 at Gallery Sejul, located at 40 Pyeongchang 30-gil in Jongno District, Seoul. The gallery is open from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. and closed on Sundays.
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