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J Seo제이서

Watercolour on silk

Based in London and Seoul

J Seo painting on silk in the studio
J Seo

J Seo paints landscapes in watercolour on unbacked silk. Mountains, horizons, mist and fading light recur in her work, not as particular places but as passing states of being. Her time and colour is the blue hour, just before sunrise and after sunset, when nothing stays still and everything flows and fades. She treats nature not as something apart from us but as a world we belong to, and describes her practice as drawing on East Asian landscape painting and the Buddhist ideas of impermanence and emptiness.

Silk carries this thinking. Translucent and responsive to light, it lets what lies behind it show through, and the marks watercolour leaves on it cannot be fully controlled or undone. In suspended installations such as Layers of Serenity, panels of painted silk overlap and separate as visitors move through them, and the contours of mountains appear and disappear. She studied Fine Art at Goldsmiths, University of London, and Painting at the Royal College of Art. Solo exhibitions include Hakgojae Art Center, Seoul (2024).

Works

Six works, 2024 to 2026: suspended silk installations from Layers of Serenity and Way Home, and two paintings on silk.

J Seo, Layers of Serenity: Way Home, 2026
01Layers of Serenity: Way Home, 2026Watercolour on silk, dimensions variable
J Seo, Layers of Serenity: Still and Way Home, 2026
02Layers of Serenity: Still and Way Home, 2026Watercolour on silk, dimensions variable
J Seo, On the way home, 2026
03On the way home, 2026Watercolour on silk, 46.5 × 67 cm
J Seo, Do you ever regret who you are?, 2024
04Do you ever regret who you are?, 2024Watercolour on silk, 122 × 162 cm
J Seo, Layers of Serenity: Still, 2026
05Layers of Serenity: Still, 2026Watercolour on silk, dimensions variable
J Seo, Way Home, 2026
06Way Home, 2026Watercolour on silk, 160 × 250 × 50 cm

Selected records

Education
MA Painting, Royal College of Art, London (2026); BA Fine Art, Goldsmiths, University of London (2018)
Solo exhibitions
Layers of Serenity, Hakgojae Art Center, Seoul (2024); On the way home, Gallery Rabo, Seoul (2022); Home of a Homeless, Iksan Art Center, Iksan (2019)
Group exhibitions
The Dark Night of the Soul, Mimosa House, London (2026); Sorge, VISION London (2026); Apocalypse and after, Hockney Gallery, London (2026); SEA-FEVER, The Auction Collective, London (2018)
Residency
Joya: arte + ecología, Vélez Blanco, Spain (2019)
Links
www.jssseo.com · Instagram @jseo.studio
Enquiries
For enquiries about the artist and their work, please contact KVAA: woori@kvaauk.org

Current exhibition

(mean)while

A group exhibition of four Korean artists, presented by KVAA and curated by Woori Ko. Fourteen works are shown in the exhibition at St Marylebone Art Space, London. Exhibition page

  • Dates 26 November 2026 to 25 January 2027
  • Private view Thursday 26 November 2026, 6 to 8pm
  • Venue St Marylebone Art Space, London NW1
  • Admission Free