Anna Jung Seo’s new paintings in Drunken Boat present us with intimately drawn scenes and observations, dimly and dramatically lit, whether by moonlight or the glow of a midnight lamp. The saturated colors, figures, and forms are redolent with longing.
Whereas her previous series focused more on daily reflections of her native Seoul or London, where she lives and works, the scenes and images for her Berlin gallery debut exhibition are stimulated by literary inspirations–including Arthur Rimbaud’s poetry and the novels of Roberto Bolaño. They directly reflect Jung Seo’s early education and training in French literature, as well as her enduring interest in the power of storytelling. Teeming with visions of beauty and possibility, the potent images in her show become a metaphor for the artist-poet-reader, navigating uncharted realms of disparate sensory experiences.