From Western painting to Goryeo Buddhist-painting reproduction. 20+ years in the line of Goryeo. Jo Irak brings bunchae, seokchae, and silk into today.
Jo Irak is an artist who shifted course from Western painting after falling for Goryeo Buddhist painting.
She majored in Western painting at Dong-A and Pusan National University and worked as a Western painter, then stopped before the Goryeo Suwol Gwaneum-do (Water-Moon Avalokiteshvara). Afterwards, she completed an MA in Goryeo Buddhist painting and artifact reproduction at Yongin University Graduate School, and participated in artifact-reproduction work at the Jeongjae Cultural Heritage Conservation Institute. Twenty-plus years since. The line of Goryeo continues at her fingertip.
National Museum of Korea, and Suwon City Hall
Her Goryeo Buddhist-painting reproductions remain as collections in national institutions.
- National Museum of Korea
- Seoul Museum of History
- Suwon City Hall
Reproduction as a genre is not simple copying. The original's pigments, linework, the luster of gold-mud (金泥), and the physicality of silk must all be revived. Her Cultural Heritage Repair Technician qualifications — copying (No. 7148) and conservation treatment (No. 7547) — officially certify the precision of that work.
From New York to LA
Bringing the beauty of Goryeo Buddhist painting abroad is a role Jo Irak has steadily held.
- 2015 Goryeo Buddhist Painting Reproduction, Proxy Place Gallery invitation, Los Angeles
- 2017 Goryeo Buddhist Painting Reproduction, Flushing Town Hall, New York — and 30+ others
- 2019 Kim Gyeongho + Jo Irak Two-Person Show, Tibet House invitation, New York
Tibet House and Goryeo Buddhist painting meeting in one space. An exhibition where the Buddhist art of two countries reflected on each other.
Eohwa-dungdung, Hidden Flowers, Paramita
Separately from reproduction, Jo Irak has continued solo exhibitions in her own language.
- 2020 The Road to the Hidden Flower Nim (Seoul)
- 2021 Paramita Blooming as Flowers, Mahabodhi Zen Center invitation, Gyeongju
- 2021 Eohwa-dungdung, Aga-ya!, Hanok Gallery invitation, Seoul
The titles are woven from traditional vocabulary. Paramita (波羅蜜) is the Buddhist word for the path to the far shore; eohwa-dungdung is the refrain of an old lullaby; hidden flower is itself a metaphor. Two faces — Goryeo Buddhist painting reproducer and creator at once. Between those two, Jo Irak's language has grown.
She currently runs Jo Irak Goryeo Buddhist Painting Institute and teaches as an instructor at Muusu Academy.
Lucky Pouches and Poppies
Her four SAF 2026 works carry the grammar of Goryeo Buddhist painting translated into contemporary sensibility.
- Lucky Pouch (Blue) — color on hanji, 2025 (sold)
- Lucky Pouch (Pink) — color on hanji, 2025 (sold)
- Poppy — seokchae on hanji, 2020 (sold)
- Golden Flower — seokchae on silk, 2015
As of the contribution, three of the four are already sold. The two pouches, twins made the same year, differ only in color — one blue, one pink. The treasure patterns of Goryeo Buddhist painting moving into today's good-luck pouch.
SAF's Fortune
Jo Irak contributes four works to SAF. Hanji and silk, color and seokchae. The materials of Goryeo Buddhist painting move live.
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.
A good-luck pouch originally contained coins and seeds. Coins for present livelihood; seeds for the next year's harvest. SAF's very name resembles that structure. When Jo Irak's two pouches hang on someone's wall, the coins become another artist's monthly rent, and the seeds become the next work.
Line, Line, Line
The beauty of Goryeo Buddhist painting ultimately sits in line. A single black line drawn as the brush tip grazes paper. That line flows along the robe of Suwol Gwaneum and measures the entire surface.
Jo Irak has kept that line for 20 years. Now a fragment of the line is placed onto another line — SAF's. From Goryeo's line to 2026's line of solidarity. This long line continuing at the artist's fingertip has not been broken yet.
Works by Jo Irak
Related reading
If this piece helped, you may also enjoy these related articles:
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- Four First-Time Collectors Share Their Stories — The moment of buying a first artwork is different for everyone. A first paycheck, a mother's birthday, a new home after divorce — four collectors who bought their first works through SAF tell their stories.
- Lee Yun-yop — A "Dispatched Artist," Carving the Texture of Labor in Multi-Color Woodblock — Lee Yun-yop, master of Korean multi-color woodblock. "Dispatched artist" activist, industrial rubber matting medium, farmer/worker motifs, MMCA collection — with 5 curated picks.
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Collecting Guides
Seed Art Festival
Published April 20, 2026
