Choi Yun Jung paints with pop color but sends a heavy message. Pop Kids and Face — two decades of questioning media, consumption, and memory through portraits.
"I want to carry a heavy message through colors that look light."
Artist Profile
Choi Yun Jung graduated from Hongik University's College of Fine Arts (painting) and has pursued pop-art-based practice for nearly 20 years. With 15+ solo exhibitions at home and abroad, she is recognized as a leading figure in Korean pop art. Her activity spans Seoul, Beijing, Hong Kong, Miami, Singapore, and Sydney.
Her work is collected by MMCA Art Bank, Yangpyeong Art Museum, Osan Museum of Art, HiteJinro, Hoseo University, and others. In 2022, she participated in the Asian Biennale in Bangladesh, expanding her international reach.
The Work
Her signature series Pop Kids asks how contemporary media shape human desire and thought — rendered onto a canvas full of question marks. The glasses worn by figures symbolize a thought-frame shaped by media. Behind the bright, lively pop color sits a sharp critique of consumer society and image politics.
For SAF, she contributes pop kids #96 and face #02 — Hong Beom-do, both oil on 53×53 cm canvas. The face series interrogates memory, forgetting, and the meaning of the portrait through historical figures. Melding social message into witty surfaces is a consistent virtue of her practice.
SAF
Choi Yun Jung has experienced firsthand the economic reality of being an artist over her long career. Her SAF participation is a choice not to leave peers alone before the structural wall of financial exclusion. Sale revenue becomes a mutual-aid fund, returning as low-interest loans to artists facing financial discrimination. An artist who has questioned the world in pop-art language now expresses solidarity in action.
Discover Choi Yun Jung's works at SAF Online.
Works by Choi Yun-jung
Related reading
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- Studio Visit: A Day in the Life of SAF Artists — The deepest path to understanding an artist's work is the studio. We visit the studios of SAF artists and document how their days unfold.
View all works by Choi Yun-jung →
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Collecting Guides
Seed Art Festival
Published April 8, 2026
