Jeongsu Woo (b. 1986) creates new narratives by drawing inspiration from a wide range of visual imagery and storytelling traditions, spanning from medieval European illustrations and art-historical iconography to popular novels, comic book characters, and contemporary subcultures such as Goth. 

By deconstructing the contexts and narratives of these elements and reconfiguring them into contemporary stories, he explores the potential for a new form of allegorical painting in the present era.

In the early stages of his practice, Jeongsu Woo produced numerous black-and-white pen drawing series. Beginning in 2010, he created the ‘Flâneur Note’ series, a collection of drawings made solely through the tactile sensations of his hand. Rather than following any predetermined logical rules, these drawings were executed instinctively and without hesitation, forming a loosely connected web of symbols. 

As suggested by the term “flâneur,” this work reflects Woo’s perspective and attitude as both an individual and a member of contemporary society—observing and contemplating the world around him. For nearly a decade, he positioned himself as an observer, capturing moments of compliance and resistance within rigid social systems, as well as the interplay of faith and doubt in human existence. These observations materialized in his works as satirical depictions of human and animal figures set against eerie, surreal landscapes.

Jeongsu Woo has consistently maintained this flâneur-like attitude, naturally contemplating how he should navigate life as both an individual within society and as a painter. These reflections were fully embodied in his first solo exhibition, 《The Painting of Villain》, held in 2015 at Project Space Sarubia.

In 《The Painting of Villain》, Woo drew inspiration from the genre aesthetics and sensibilities of film noir, which often portrays individuals rebelling against societal structures to expose social contradictions. His works featured monstrous and ghostly figures—familiar yet decontextualized—depicting violent imagery that revealed the chaos and absurd realities hidden beneath the surface of society.

Additionally, Woo transformed the exhibition space itself into a dynamic canvas, boldly painting directly onto the walls and integrating these works with his drawings on paper. Through this organic interplay, he created a composition where countless unsettling and fractured images triggered a chain reaction, amplifying a sense of instability and rupture.

Meanwhile, between 2010 and 2012, Jeongsu Woo created the ‘Grave of Books’ series, consisting of over 110 drawings that skeptically depict human greed and the absurdities it engenders. His 2016 solo exhibition, 《Grave of Books》, at the OCI Museum of Art expanded upon this series, transforming the entire exhibition into a large-scale drawing and narrative experience. 

Once again, Woo treated the exhibition space as a narrative stage, allowing his images to interconnect. At the entrance, he prominently featured a drawing of an owl—symbolizing the observer—to establish his perspective as an artist. Meanwhile, the large-scale mural covering the walls captured the chaotic flow of the world, juxtaposed with the artist’s gaze as he critically examines it.

The large-scale painting Monkey library (2015), measuring 5×5 meters, depicts books neatly arranged on shelves while simultaneously portraying a state of chaos, with books falling and floating in disarray. Amid this scene, monkeys dominate the space, stacked together yet seemingly mocking the turbulence of human civilization.

The ‘Calm the storm’ series, presented in 2018, introduces a different narrative structure from Jeongsu Woo’s previous works. Inspired by the biblical miracle of “Jesus Calms the Storm”, Woo does not explicitly depict its traditional iconography or storyline. Instead, he erases its religious connotations, allowing imagery and narrative to be freely deconstructed and layered. 

This work consists of multiple large canvases combined, where some sections feature detailed depictions that construct a narrative, while others break apart and fragment, overlapping with painterly expressions. Abstract symbols, repetitive lines and patterns, and bold graphic elements are emphasized, yet they repeatedly return to and diverge from the storyline, fluidly navigating between image and narrative. 

Whereas Woo’s earlier works closely adhered to storytelling, ‘Calm the storm’ introduces gaps between image and narrative, allowing the painting to exist beyond the confines of a structured story.

In this way, Jeongsu Woo has continuously recontextualized existing iconography and narratives through black-and-white line drawings, creating new stories or spaces that allow for multiple interpretations. Beginning in 2018, he expanded his practice by incorporating a broader range of colors. 

His 2019 series, ‘Compulsion to Repeat’, retains the illustrative quality of his earlier drawings while integrating repetitive lines, patterns, and vibrant colors. This series draws motifs from classical literature and biblical stories—such as Jonah, Moby-Dick, and The Odyssey—to explore the theme of modern-day "compulsion."

In this work, Jeongsu Woo further disrupts the typical relationship between image and narrative by transforming existing iconography or inserting meaningless patterns and still lifes between them. In his practice, symbols with various meanings are consumed like patterns, detached from their context and original source. This allows them to be reinterpreted within the “here and now” context the artist wishes to explore. 

The patterns in his paintings are derived from sources such as set designs of wealthy homes, wallpaper from cafés or salons, and clothing seen in media during the economic boom of the early 1990s. These references metaphorically expose the "obsession with wealth," a modern-day form of compulsion, while continually invoking the past economic prosperity and the excessive fantasy surrounding it. Through this, Woo critiques the "newtro" culture—the contemporary obsession with nostalgia—highlighting it as another form of modern obsession.

In his 2020 solo exhibition 《Where Is My Voice》 at DOOSAN Gallery, Jeongsu Woo presented the large-scale work Where Is My Voice (2020), composed of 16 canvases. This piece fragmentarily incorporates motifs from the myths of ‘Echo’ and the ‘Sirens’, exploring the concept of "voice" through his painterly language. 

Within this work, mythological scenes appear but are repeatedly disrupted by ink-rolled surfaces and rhombus patterns, creating gaps and fractures in the otherwise solid structure of classical narratives. A recurring volcano and male figure—sourced from Disney’s 1954 comic adaptation of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea—float across the canvas, stripped of their original context. By dismantling these elements, Woo destabilizes fixed narratives, allowing new interpretations and possibilities to emerge.

The fragmented icons disconnected from logical narratives exist in isolation, creating empty spaces within the composition. Curator Junghyun Kwon interpreted this approach as a way to reflect "a society governed not by clear causality and rationality, but by disorder and irrationality." 

Additionally, in his exhibition at DOOSAN Gallery, Jeongsu Woo incorporated fabric as a medium for the first time. The image of the painting is transferred onto fabric patterns, and through the seams created by stitching the surfaces together, the artist’s pictorial grammar of deconstructing and reweaving narratives and icons from various eras is revealed in a more performative manner.

The ‘Three Devils by the Bedside’ (2023-2024) series, presented in his solo exhibition at Art Sonje Center in 2024, originates from the artist's personal struggle with insomnia. Insomnia is not only an individual issue but also a social problem faced by many contemporary Koreans, stemming from anxiety, depression, stress, and trauma. 

Rather than simply suffering from insomnia and depression, the artist chose to explore and examine these issues, delving into various literature and visual materials. Through this process, he discovered a story from medieval Europe, where a knight suffered from insomnia due to "three devils by the bedside" for many years, only to be miraculously healed after meeting a monk at Canterbury Cathedral. This discovery inspired the concept for this work.

‘Three Devils by the Bedside’ presents fragmented sequences of a story, much like the dreams experienced during sleepless nights. Ten canvases are arranged in two rows to form one large composition, but each canvas frame divides the screen according to the artist's arbitrary arrangement.

In this layered screen composition, the artist repeatedly features his persona, "Mr. Painter." Within the overlapping imagery, Mr. Painter can be seen working hard at painting, meeting people in pursuit of success, experiencing failure, and, at a moment of crisis, being tempted by the devils. These fragmented scenes unfold as part of the narrative.

As Mr. Painter's life unfolds, the figures of demons, illustrations from Goethe's Faust, scenes from Goya's Black Paintings, and cartoon characters are scattered across the canvas, creating an effect where the story within the image seems to unfold infinitely. This arrangement brings to life the demonic cycle of desires, failures, frustrations, and victories, continuously repeating in the artwork.

Woo states, “It’s interesting how connected lines can become images and stories,” and describes his work as “paintings that originate in lines.” In his art, various symbols and narratives coexist through the free flow of lines, weaving into new contexts and alternative stories. His paintings stay true to the allegorical function of painting while expressing a cynical satire of contemporary socio-cultural phenomena.

"When I draw, I see a painting as a play. It can resemble Theatre of the Absurd, satire, or black comedy, depending on the situation. The canvas becomes a stage, I become the director, and my drawings become the actors." (Jeongsu Woo, Art Sonje Center Interview, 2024)

Jeongsu Woo received a B.F.A and an M.F.A in Fine Arts from Korea National University of Arts. Woo’s significant solo exhibitions include 《Three Devils by the Bedside》 (Art Sonje Center, 2024), 《Palindrome》 (BB&M, 2022), 《Where Is My Voice》 (DOOSAN Gallery Seoul, 2020), 《Tit for Tat》 (DOOSAN Gallery New York, 2020), and 《Calm the Storm》 (Kumho Museum of Art, 2018).

He has also been featured in numerous local and international group exhibitions, such as 《Cadenza》 (Korean Cultural Center in Hong Kong, 2024), 《Flowing Moon, Embracing Land》 (Jeju Biennale, 2022), 《Young Korean Artists 2021》 (National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, Gwacheon, 2021), 《Fortune Telling》 (Ilmin Museum of Art, 2021), 《Compulsion to Repeat》 (Seoul Museum of Art, 2019), and 《Imagined Borders》 (Gwangju Biennale, 2018).

Woo participated in MMCA Goyang Residency in 2017 and DOOSAN Residency New York in 2020. His works are currently housed in the collections of DOOSAN Art Center, OCI Museum of Art, Kumho Museum of Art, MMCA, Blackstone Group, and more.

References

• 우정수, Jeongsu Woo (Artist Website)
• 황정인, 미답지의 산책자 (Jay Jungin Hwang, Flaneur in the Uncharted Territory)
• 프로젝트 스페이스 사루비아, 불한당의 그림들 (Project Space Sarubia, Painting of Villian)
• OCI 미술관, 책의 무덤 (OCI Museum of Art, Grave of Books)
• 금호미술관, Calm the storm (Kumho Museum of Art, Calm the storm)
• 올댓아트, 현대인의 ‘심리적 강박’을 마주하게 되는 전시, 2019.12.04
• 서울시립미술관, 강박² (Seoul Museum of Art, Compulsion to Repeat)
• 두산아트센터, Where Is My Voice (DOOSAN Gallery, Where Is My Voice)
• 권정현, 이야기를 찾아 떠나는 항해 – 우정수 개인전《Where Is My Voice》
• 아트선재센터, 우정수: 머리맡에 세 악마 (Art Sonje Center, Jeongsu Woo: Three Devils by the Bedside)