Sabina Lee Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of new works by Kyung Jeon. Entitled it's a big, pretty world, this exhibition is Jeon's first solo exhibition in Los Angeles with Sabina Lee Gallery. Her work will be on view from January 9 through February 13, 2010.

Jeon's work is beyond that of a beautiful image to get lost in. Her delicately rendered characters draw you into a world of little boys and girls who live in small patches of grass and the swaying branches of willow trees. There is an honesty and a distinct vulnerability in her ageless characters, a defiance and dignity in many others. Jeon is a storyteller who creates fantastical worlds, weaving images of childlike innocence while layered with uncomfortable and often harrowing themes. These poetic images are meticulously layered narratives, charming the viewer while confronting their sensibilities, asking them to take a closer look at a world that is never as innocent as it first appears.

Jeon's work continues the tradition of storytellers like Lewis Carroll and L. Frank Baum. These influences are further complimented by her knowledge and use of traditional Korean folk tales. Playful yet psychologically dense, her work begins with a mechanical pencil, and is then painted in watercolor with small sumi brushes on rice paper that has been mounted on canvas. Her work utilizes techniques that combine both Eastern and Western traditions of painting.

Kyung Jeon was born in 1975. A graduate of the School of Visual Arts MFA program, she was the recipient of the Scope Emerging Art Grant (2005) as well as the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture Fellowship (2003). She was also selected to participate in the biannual ART SPECTRUM 2006 exhibition, at the Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art in Seoul, Korea. Recently, Jeon was just awarded the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant for artistic merit. Jeon's work has been shown in exhibitions in Asia, South America, Europe and the United States. Jeon lives and works in New York City.

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Kyung Jeon
kyungjeon@kyung.com
http://www.kyung.com