Cheon Jisu reads before she paints — *Painting Book Review*. Books deconstructed, reconstructed into jungles, libraries, and the memory of an African commission.
Cheon Jisu reads before she paints.
Drawing with inspiration from years of reading; writing as she goes. Deconstructing the order an author arranged in a book and reconstructing it as a new image. Recording the process in sentences — a meta gaze. She calls this Painting Book Review.
Paris, Rome, and the Book
May 2001. Moro Gallery, Seoul. Cheon Jisu's first solo, Giggle, opened. That November, it crossed to Paris's Artist Guild Space. In 2003 she received the Primo Premio at Italy's Giovanni Pericone national art competition. Her works were collected by the Korean Embassy in Italy, the Rome Korean Catholic Church, and Rotary Club Fiuggi, among others.
In 2008, she took her brush to Africa. Conservation of rock-wall paintings in UNESCO-listed Serengeti National Park, Tanzania. Across her movement between Korea, Europe, and Africa, she found what she really wanted to paint. The book.
A World Between Bookshelves
In August 2016, Cheon Jisu began the column Cheon Jisu's Reading Atelier for Sports Kyunghyang. In June 2021 those records were bound into a book, The Reading Atelier (Cheonnyeon-ui Sangsang). A commemorative invitational show opened at Paju's Forest of Wisdom. Starting from books, returning to books.
Her subsequent solo titles trace her path: The Key That Opens Me (2024, Gallery The Way, Chuncheon), Reading Atelier (2025, Gallery Yeongtong, Suwon), The Shape of Life (2025, Gallery Jijihyang, Paju), Library Fantasy (2025, The Space Gallery, Osan). Publishing- and library-based spaces naturally hold her practice.
Time of the Jungle Library
Six works contributed to SAF 2026 gather her Library Fantasy series and memories of Africa in one place.
- Kabari of the Jungle Library
- World Between the Bookshelves — Spring
- Communion with Another World
- Dialogue in the Jungle
- Memory of African Coffee
- family
Her response extended through 2025 at LA Art Show, Busan International Galleries Art Fair, and Gyeongnam Art Fair. As of SAF's contribution, four of six are already sold. Many read books; not a few collectors also seek the experience of books becoming paintings.
A Book Where the Work Becomes the Fund
Cheon Jisu contributes six works to SAF.
84.9% of Korean artists are excluded from institutional finance. Sales of works by SAF-exhibiting artists cycle into a mutual-aid fund, returning as low-interest loans to fellow artists.
If painting can be an act of reading a book, there is no reason a work cannot be an act of reading another artist's life. Like the jungles and African memories Cheon Jisu draws out from between bookshelves, SAF works also record and transform someone's reality.
To the Next Page
The sound of turning a page is the point a story begins or ends.
SAF 2026 will be the first page for someone and the next page for another.
Works by Cheon Jisu
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View all works by Cheon Jisu →
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Collecting Guides
Seed Art Festival
Published April 20, 2026
