Photographic artist Seongyeon Jo has worked with objects through long observations followed by introverted contemplations. The results thus obtained have shown in exhibitions such as Déjà Vu(Dem Gallery, 1999), Hwagyeon(Yemaek Gallery, 2004) and Breath of Objects(Mise-en-scène of three, Hakgojae, 2006). Her works quench psychological thrist while concealing past scars, recalled memories and aesthetic sensations related to old objects such as folk paintings, embroidery and ddoksal(wooden stamp for rice cake patterns), and express formative beauty by projecting inspirations from nature onto objects encountered everyday such as flowers, vases, fruit, rocks and cloth.
Following her pursuit of tranquil, refined and forms that lasted for more than a decade starting from the late 1990s, Seongyeon Jo has undergone significant change in the past for to five years. There has been a fundamental change in the attitude pervading her entire life. Now, as a member of society managing her own life, and also as an artist, she is experimenting with the process of cultivation, where activities of life and art converge, as she endeavors to find the meaning of the photography she is pursuing within the logic and order of nature.
The starting point for this endeavor was the artist's faint memories of her childhood, when she played with soil and grew marvel-of-Peru. Her subliminal consciousness led to an interest in things that had completed their lives, such as flower, branches, fruits and leaves, and that viewpoint naturally moved on to small seeds. With the attitude of a farmer or a botanist, Jo patiently and consistently observed the process of a seed sprouting, growing and dying over long periods of time.
Seongyeon Jo was born in Seoul in 1971. She obtained both B.A.(1994) and M.A.(1999) degrees in Photography at Sangmyung University, and served as a adjunct professor at Kaywon University of Art & Design(2006-2010). Since her first solo exhibition at gallery Dam(1999) in 1999, Jo has had 10 solo exhibitions at Yemac gallery(2004), Hakgojae(2009), Bcut gallery(2012), SPACE SO(2018) and so on, as well as a number of group exhibitions including The Artist’s Garden(2018, Datz Museum of Art), The Surface and Depth of A Pause(2013, Sempio Space), Moon Pot(2012, Ilwoo Space), Serotonin II(2012, SeMA Gyeonghuigung of Seoul Museum of Art), Meme Trackers(2008, Songzhuang Art Center).
