Ouhi Cha WINTER - RISE 2024-2026 Mixed media, collage, acrylic on canvas 130 x 89.5 cm
Artist Ouhi Cha , who has spent over four decades navigating the creative landscapes between Korea and Berlin, is currently presenting her solo exhibition, Strata of Being, An Existential Odyssey, at Johyun Gallery Seoul, located in the Shilla Hotel.
Running from the 18th of last month until the 10th of next month, this inaugural solo showcase with Johyun Gallery highlights her seminal work, The Ship of Odysseus, alongside a new series inspired by Franz Schubert’s song cycle Winterreise.
Ouhi Cha ’s artistic journey originates from her childhood memories of the Busan port, evolving from personal introspection into a broader exploration of human tragedy and hope.
As a member of the first generation to receive domestic art education after Korea's liberation, she moved to Berlin in 1985 on a German government scholarship.
Her nomadic existence between two cultures has fostered a unique aesthetic where the raw energy of German Expressionism intersects with the meditative voids of Eastern ink wash painting.
After witnessing the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, she integrated cement fragments from the wall into her installations, transforming a monumental historical event into a formal visual language.
This profound approach led to her representing Germany at the 8th Sydney Biennale in 1990, followed by participations in the 1994 Venice Biennale Turkish Pavilion and the 2010 Art Against Violence exhibition in Berlin.
Ouhi Cha WINTER - RISE 2024-2026 Mixed media, collage, acrylic on canvas 130 x 89.5 cm
Art critic Seo Seong-rok describes her work as a fierce act of critical thinking aimed at restoring the agonizing memories of individuals rendered powerless by historical violence, ultimately terming it an "existential voyage toward the truth of being."
Her canvases, composed of a minimalist palette of black and white, evoke the fading wake of a ship erasing its own path.
On surfaces marked by unreadable coordinates, the artist incorporates dust gathered from burned letters and other ephemera.
By layering sand, cement, and pigments before repeatedly scraping them away with knives and brushes, she allows symbols, numbers, and forms like ladders and wings to emerge—traces of life etched onto the "skin" of existence through time.
While her earlier Odyssey works followed a mythic structure centered on the premise of homecoming, the new Winterreise series explores a state where return is deferred, focusing instead on the persistence of existential solitude.
In these grey-toned compositions, the restrained tension of Schubert’s melodies is translated into arrangements of lines and signs.
Influenced specifically by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau’s interpretation, the music becomes a tactile material that remains an undecipherable code, reflecting Ouhi Cha 's philosophy of using physical matter only to leave no material trace behind.
This exhibition marks a significant moment of transition, capturing the "strata of being" revealed in the brief interval between a ship dropping and raising its anchor.
Ouhi Cha
W.R
2024-2025
Mixed media on canvas
40 x 40 cm
In an era dominated by speed and immediacy, Cha’s work offers a profound response through the density of existence.
Johyun Gallery, which hosts the exhibition, has been a cornerstone of the Korean art scene since its founding in 1989 as Gallery World in Busan.
The gallery has played a pivotal role in promoting Dansaekhwa masters such as Park Seo-bo and Lee Ufan, while also introducing global icons like Nam June Paik, Yayoi Kusama, and Claude Viallat to Korean audiences.
Now celebrating over 30 years of influence, Johyun Gallery continues to bridge the gap between established masters and emerging talents, shaping the narrative of contemporary Korean art on the world stage.
