Contributing Artists

Jaeyeon Kim

Exhibition Statement as Preserved in the SUGS/SITE Archives:

 

 This exhibition brings together a series of paintings that interrogate value, power, and identity within the conditions of neoliberal late capitalism. Beginning from the proposition that the paintings are “worth nothing,” the works resist conventional systems of valuation while exposing how legitimacy is produced and assigned. Through figuration, symbolism, and materially rich surfaces, the artist examines how power circulates in everyday life: shaping desire, recognition, and belonging.

 

Drawing on personal and cultural references, including Korean domestic motifs such as patterned wallpapers, calendars, and botanical imagery, the paintings construct layered allegorical spaces. Bodies, objects, and interiors coexist within ambiguous environments the artist terms a “quasitopia”, a world that appears stable yet reveals fractures upon closer inspection. Within these spaces, identity emerges as relational and contingent, formed through systems of taste, consumption, and social hierarchy. Rather than rejecting value, the exhibition positions painting as a critical site where authority, autonomy, and meaning are continuously negotiated.