Jimok Choi Korea, b. 1981

Jimok Choi suggests new interpretations and alternative perspectives contrasting to rigid formality and stereotypical view towards the traditional painting. Working with painting, installation, performance, he has developed unique artistic style. He selects ordinary objects containing cultural symbolism and signs as staple medium; then, by dissembling and recombining them to let their insides out, he reveals his personal attitudes towards social stereotypes. New painting series by Choi can be perceived as a rich pictorial archive of afterimages left on his retinae exposed to an overwhelming light. The documentations delivering his resistance against ever-changing optical stimuli are multifarious, although they are responses of a single organ—eyes; therefore, his practice encourages the audience to contemplate the arbitrary relation between experiences per se and how they visually manifest.

Jimok Choi received a BA in Western Painting from Suwon University, Korea and an MFA in Fine Arts from the Muthesius Kunsthochschule, Germany. He presented readymade artworks to offer alternatives to the forms and formats of common visual art mediums in the early phases. In 2023, he presented a new painting practice in Chapter II of his solo exhibition ‘Light of Absence.’ Physical manipulations such as the selection of pigments and the installation of special lighting maximize the effect of afterimages and reveal the process of overcoming the reproductive limitations of painting. Jimok Choi actively participated in exhibitions at art institutions in Germany and Korea. He has held solo exhibitions at Can Foundation, Seoul(2019); Kim Jong Young Museum, Seoul(2022); and Chapter II, Seoul(2023) and has participated in exhibitions at Gallery Baton, Seoul(2023); Neue Kunst Initiative, Berlin(2019); Kunstquatier Bethanien, Berlin(2014); Kunsthalle zu Kiel, Kiel(2013); and reies Museum, Berlin(2011). His work is represented in the collections of Chapter II, Korea.