Young Yeondoo

Korean spelling
Hangeul	정연두
Revised Romanization	Jeong Yeon-du
McCune- Reischauer	Chŏng Yŏntu
See also : Korean name

Jung Yeondoo ( Korean 정연두 ) (* 1969 in Jinju ) is a South Korean photographer . He obtained his Master of Fine Art in 1997 from the University of London . Two years earlier he had already obtained a diploma in sculpture from the London Institute .

Style and works

Jung's photography is often based on the idea of implementing painterly perspectives with photographic means and thus seeing them anew. His photographs are always authentic - and that is the surprising thing - because they are exactly what they depict. By now, used to the artificial stage and scenery of the advertising and travel industry, whose pretended paradise aesthetics only cause boredom, Jung's photographs become real surprises. What seems like a movie set is a real sandy beach with real people in a real landscape. While we see wallpaper where we believe we can recognize a landscape, we get real landscape where we suspect a photo wallpaper. Nothing is hidden, rather the opposite is the case, for example when Jung lets parts of the set structures peek out. With a feeling of sentimentality, Jung's pictures represent real forgeries, "real fakes".

This is made clear by Jung's location series, which currently consists of 26 photographs, taken between 2005 and 2008. The photographs are landscape scenarios staged by means of backdrops and represent, as it were, reconstructions of possible or past events. Memories of real and fictional ones are created Scenes evoked: For example when the reclining Venus of the old masters Tizian , Giorgione or Palma il Vecchio sounds in location # 18 or when location # 25 reminds one of Diana bathing. Jung plays with different topoi from both western and eastern cultures .

In the Wonderland series from 2005, Jung recreates children's drawings in reality. He converts the colored pencil drawings into colorful photographs that correspond to the children's eyes in a naive-looking two-dimensionality and are in no way inferior to them in terms of their imagination. In the Bewitched series, on the other hand, the Korean makes use of the adults ' imagination , so in this series from 2001 he takes photographs of his models' dreams and lets them come true for a moment.

In 2007, Jung received the renowned Artist of the Year award in a solo exhibition at the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Seoul . This was followed by the group show Documentary Nostalgia at the Museum of Modern Art , New York earlier this year . In 2005 Jung represented South Korea at the Venice Biennale . Jung lives and works in Seoul, Korea .

Solo exhibitions (selection)

• 2001 “Borame Dance Hall”, Gallery Loop, Seoul, Korea
• 2002 “Tokyo Brand City”, Koyanagi Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
• 2002 “Chinese Lucky Estate”, 1A Space, Hong Kong
• 2003 “Bewitched”, Gallery Loop, Seoul, Korea
• 2004 “Beat It”, Insa Art Center, Seoul, Korea
• 2005 “Wonderland”, Tina Kim Fine Art, New York
• 2006 “Are You Lonesome Tonight?”, Kukje Gallery, Seoul, Korea
• 2007 “Wonderland”, Galeria Espacio Minimo, Madrid, Spain
• 2007 “I Will Remember You”, ACA Gallery, Atlanta / Red Gallery, Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, GA
• 2007 “Memories of You - Artist of the Year 2007”, National Museum of Contemporary Art Gwacheon, Korea
• 2007 “Locations”, Tina Kim Gallery, New York
• 2008 “For your Loneliness”, Gallery Gebr. Lehmann, Dresden / Berlin

Public collections

• ArtSonje Center, Seoul, Korea
• The Calder Foundation, New York
• Estee Lauder Corporation, New York
• Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Modena, Italy
• Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan
• Gyeonggido Museum of Art, Ansan, Korea
• Joddes Collection, Pharmascience, Montreal, Canada
• Joy of Giving Something Foundation, New York
• National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea
• New Line Cinema, New York
• Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, Georgia, USA
• Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea
• Ssamzie Space, Seoul, Korea

Web links

• Artist's website

Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Korean. Jung is the family name here, Yeondoo is the first name.