Pontone Gallery
Skip to main content
  • Menu
  • Artists
  • Exhibitions
  • Art Fairs
  • Store
  • Contact
  • About
Join the mailing list
Instagram, opens in a new tab.
View on Google Maps
Cart
0 items £
Checkout

Item added to cart

View cart & checkout
Continue shopping
Join the mailing list
Instagram, opens in a new tab.
View on Google Maps
Menu
  • Menu
  • Menu
  • Message us on WhatsApp

Jeong Woojae: Afterglow

Past exhibition
1 - 25 September 2022
  • Cover
  • Overview
  • Works
  • Installation Views
  • Video
Cover
1/5
Previous
Next
Overview
Jeong Woojae, Afterglow
Korean artist Jeong Woojae invites us to experience a surreal situation, where a young girl’s constant companion is a tropical fish. She goes about her everyday life against a backdrop of park, suburb and street accompanied by various sumptuous and over-scaled specimens, which seem perfectly at home in an alien environment. They float, guide and hover in the urban air, objects of fascinated contemplation.
Woojae is a representational painter of great skill. He deploys hue, tone and texture with a discerning and accurate eye. The fish themselves are masterpieces of animated nature-study. Entirely convincing in their pictorial veracity, they glisten with sparkling iridescence and rich jewel-like colour. The girl is rendered with sensitive and subtle touches that capture a delicate character. She and her animal partner are located in carefully painted backgrounds that articulate disparate town and landscapes. 

These dream-like vignettes are compelling. They convince because of the artist’s closely observed and literal interpretation. There is little room for ambiguity: the fish swim in the same medium as the girl. Woojae presents this as actual, his insistent realism records the fantastical and impossible scenario as fact. 

Such images prompt ideas of fairy tale transformations, the universal stuff of folk tale and legend. Will the fish become a human? Or something else? Will the girl become a fish? The implication is that the fish is conjured from the girl’s imagination. It appears in her world; she does not appear in its. We see into her thoughts and follow a fantasy discourse that runs parallel to her daily routine. The fish represent an alter-ego: a graceful, fluid, and transcendent antidote to the mundane, separate from its messy and banal complexities. 

Woojae’s paintings illustrate a porous place, where avatars leak from one realm to another. What appears solid is undermined by contextual ambiguity. The girl wills a floating world into existence, a magical space for dreams and possible transformations. 
Works
  • Afterglow - Always There, 2022 Oil on canvas 112 x 112 cm 44 x 44 in
    Afterglow - Always There, 2022
    Oil on canvas
    112 x 112 cm
    44 x 44 in
  • Afterglow - Bubbly Day, 2022 Oil on canvas 80.5 x 117 cm 31.5 x 46 in
    Afterglow - Bubbly Day, 2022
    Oil on canvas
    80.5 x 117 cm
    31.5 x 46 in
  • Jeong Woojae, Afterglow - Coloured in Fingertips, 2022
    Jeong Woojae, Afterglow - Coloured in Fingertips, 2022
  • Afterglow - Dazzling, 2022 Oil on canvas 91 x 73 cm 36 x 28.5 in
    Afterglow - Dazzling, 2022
    Oil on canvas
    91 x 73 cm
    36 x 28.5 in
  • Jeong Woojae, Afterglow - Flying in Night, 2022
    Jeong Woojae, Afterglow - Flying in Night, 2022
  • Afterglow - Full Bloom, 2022 Oil on canvas 80.5 x 80.5 cm 31.5 x 31.5 in
    Afterglow - Full Bloom, 2022
    Oil on canvas
    80.5 x 80.5 cm
    31.5 x 31.5 in
  • Afterglow - Into the Light, 2022 Oil on canvas 112 x 194 cm 44 x 76.5 in
    Afterglow - Into the Light, 2022
    Oil on canvas
    112 x 194 cm
    44 x 76.5 in
  • Afterglow - Moments of Light, 2022 Oil on canvas 60.5 x 91 cm 24 x 36 in
    Afterglow - Moments of Light, 2022
    Oil on canvas
    60.5 x 91 cm
    24 x 36 in
  • Afterglow - Safety Zone, 2022 Oil on canvas 72.5 x 117 cm 28.5 x 46 in
    Afterglow - Safety Zone, 2022
    Oil on canvas
    72.5 x 117 cm
    28.5 x 46 in
  • Afterglow - Slow Dance, 2022 Oil on canvas 112 x 162 cm 44 x 64 in
    Afterglow - Slow Dance, 2022
    Oil on canvas
    112 x 162 cm
    44 x 64 in
Installation Views
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Pontone Gallery Pv 31 08 22 2770
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Pontone Gallery Pv 31 08 22 2782
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Pontone Gallery Pv 31 08 22 2773
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Pontone Gallery Pv 31 08 22 2761
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Pontone Gallery Pv 31 08 22 2786
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Pontone Gallery Pv 31 08 22 2766
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Pontone Gallery Pv 31 08 22 2789
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Pontone Gallery Pv 31 08 22 2791
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Pontone Gallery Pv 31 08 22 2792
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Pontone Gallery Pv 31 08 22 2795
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Pontone Gallery Pv 31 08 22 2802
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Pontone Gallery Pv 31 08 22 2803
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Pontone Gallery Pv 31 08 22 2806
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Pontone Gallery Pv 31 08 22 2814
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Pontone Gallery Pv 31 08 22 2811
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Pontone Gallery Pv 31 08 22 2819
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Pontone Gallery Pv 31 08 22 2818
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Pontone Gallery Pv 31 08 22 2816
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Pontone Gallery Pv 31 08 22 2820
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Pontone Gallery Pv 31 08 22 2827
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Pontone Gallery Pv 31 08 22 2823
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Pontone Gallery Pv 31 08 22 2833
Video
Back to exhibitions
PONTONE GALLERY 
74 Newman St
London
W1T 3DB
GET IN TOUCH
MESSAGE US ON WHATSAPP
SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER
visit OUR NEW YORK GALLERY
Artsy, opens in a new tab.
Instagram, opens in a new tab.
LinkedIn, opens in a new tab.
View on Google Maps
Privacy Policy
Manage cookies
Copyright © 2025 Pontone Gallery
Site by Artlogic

This website uses cookies
This site uses cookies to help make it more useful to you. Please contact us to find out more about our Cookie Policy.

Manage cookies
Accept

Cookie preferences

Check the boxes for the cookie categories you allow our site to use

Cookie options
Required for the website to function and cannot be disabled.
Improve your experience on the website by storing choices you make about how it should function.
Allow us to collect anonymous usage data in order to improve the experience on our website.
Allow us to identify our visitors so that we can offer personalised, targeted marketing.
Save preferences
Close

Join our mailing list

Sign up below to be notified about our upcoming exhibtions and art fairs. You can also enquire on artworks and sign up for exclusive invites on WhatsApp from your phone below.

 

  Send us a message on WhatsApp

Interests *

Signup

* denotes required fields

We will process the personal data you have supplied to communicate with you in accordance with our Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe or change your preferences at any time by clicking the link in our emails.