Installation view of 《Suntint Oil》 ©CAN FoundationCAN
Foundation presents 《Suntint Oil》, a two-person exhibition by artists Lee
Jinhyung and Cho Hyori, on view at MO BY CAN through June 13.
The
exhibition title, 《Suntint Oil》, symbolizes the coexistence of two
seemingly contradictory sensations—blockage and flow, concealment and
transparency. This combination originates from a non-standard linguistic
expression, a form of “Konglish.” “Suntint” is not a term used in native English-speaking
contexts, but rather a coined word in Korea referring to UV-blocking film
applied to car windows. Created by merging “sun” and “tint,” this twisted
neologism offers a compelling example of how language mediates our perception
of reality, exposing the gap between sensation and cognition.
The exhibition begins with this distortion and
moves toward the idea that painting is not merely a means of reproducing
reality, but a tool for modulating sensation and reshaping how we perceive the
world. “Suntint” functions like a thin film that filters perception while
blocking external gaze, and “oil” evokes a fluid substance that slowly flows
and leaves traces. Painting operates at the intersection of these two
qualities—at the point where sensation lingers and then slips away
Installation view of 《Suntint Oil》 ©CAN FoundationLee Jinhyung
and Cho Hyori have each explored the conditions of painting in their own
distinctive ways. This exhibition, centered around their earlier works, offers
an opportunity to revisit those pieces through the lens of present-day
perception. Rather than merely presenting a retrospective, the show examines
how previously created images and sensations can be reactivated and
reinterpreted in today’s visual context.
Lee
Jinhyung’s paintings focus less on the content that images signify and more on
the way those images are perceived. The images he collects are often rendered
incompletely on digital screens, fragmented through processes of zooming in and
out, resolution shifts, and visual distortions. He disassembles and
reconfigures these sensory fragments into new visual structures. The
afterimages, color fields, and dense forms within his paintings become tools
for experimenting with painterly sensation, ultimately functioning as
mechanisms for recalibrating the act of seeing.
Installation view of 《Suntint Oil》 ©CAN FoundationCho Hyori’s
paintings reconstruct time and space through the flow of sensation and the
movement of perspective. Utilizing 3D simulation software, she designs virtual
structures and translates them into two-dimensional or installation formats.
This process yields images where reality and illusion, interior and exterior,
stillness and motion intersect. Rather than anchoring the viewpoint, she allows
it to shift—zooming in and out, dragging across fields of vision—translating
these digital modes of seeing into painterly language. As a result, her works
generate multilayered sensory structures within a single frame.
《Suntint Oil》 invites viewers to experience, through painting, how emotion is
felt and how the gaze lingers or flows. Each viewer engages with the works at
their own pace, encountering them through personal rhythms of perception.
