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.
