Che Jen

Che Jen was born in Seoul, Korea and moved to Brooklyn when she was five. Her work melds elemental imagery, including in particular of fire and feathers. Her work ranges from large-scale expressive sumi ink paintings and murals to intricate ceramic sculpture. These works draw on the artist’s interest in transitional life moments and her research into ritual and ceremonial processions, thinking of her work in relation to and as reflective of portals of transition. In 1999, Che Jen became a part of founding member of The Barnstormers artist collective, a group of artists hailing from New York and Tokyo who collaborated on murals, time lapse video, and other projects together over several years— including painting on old fading tobacco barns that dot the North Carolina rural landscape. Her work has been shown in solo and group shows in a range of spaces including in Tokyo, New York, Hawaii, London, Milan, San Francisco and Puerto Rico, from the Contemporary Museum in Honolulu to White Box in Chelsea, Fifty24SF Gallery in San Francisco, to Smack Melon in Brooklyn, among others.