Today (2025)
solo exhibition at de boer, Los Angeles, California, January 11–February 15, 2025
afterthought by me between images, February 28, 2025
press release by the gallery
![Two people embracing each other. The figure in the foreground has extremely long legs and stands at the edge of a cliff or rock. The other figure's lower body is invisible as it is totally eclipsed by the figure in the foreground.]()
A Very Special Moment or Realization, 2024
oil on canvas
38.5 x 49 inches / 97.79 x 124.46 cm
![Detail of A Very Special Moment or Realization.]()
![Detail of A Very Special Moment or Realization.]()
Today, two people hugging looked like an eclipse, making the boy’s legs appear invisible. Whether the boy has legs is unclear. Is he standing, or is he flying?
Today, it felt like both day and night. The small, yellow things in the sky were brighter than––could it be the moon or the sun? Which was mimicking which is unclear. Everything seemed to mimic one another: the guy’s hair and the tree, the guy’s shoes and the dark, and the fog and the flower.
Today, the two friends looked like one person.
Today, for Boris, the things of the sea resembled one wing and the pink cloud resembled the other.
Today, the man standing and waiting looked like a butterfly.
And today, the person looked like a column supporting the entire scene.
At the moment, I have one main interest: that is the appearance of the thing––which contains both subjectivity and relations in a double bind. Let me explain.
Let’s say I have a thing, a figure, or a singular subject in mind to depict or arrive at while painting. What I pay attention to in and about the thing are the conjunctions of its essence and social reality: the subjective and the objective; affect and language; sensibility and information; discretion and expression; and the unknowable and the known. I’m also beginning to think in terms of potential and accidental, but that requires further consideration.
And now, when I say I am interested in the appearance of the very complex thing, I mean: (1) the thing may or may not appear; (2) if it does appear, it may appear whole or partial; and (3) any appearance, or any variety of appearances, is possible. Once I think about things and the world in terms of ‘appearing and not appearing’* at one point in time and space, any refracted, limited, or opaque appearance becomes an opportunity for a new possibility. What I pursue through each of my paintings, each world, is for the thing to exist in imminent possibilities––for each painting to become an opportunity for us to rethink our notion of subjectivity and get to know that we, as singular beings, are both essential and social in countless ways. We would each be an active participant in regaining our human being in the contemporary world and not a passive consumer of given discourses. Perhaps then, all appearances have a chance for being natural.
*The reason I say ‘appearing and not appearing’ as opposed to ‘appearing and disappearing’ is because I live and work on the side of believing in the thing that appears forever missing, forever delayed, and forever to come. Painting is my methodology for endlessly making an ontological argument for the existence of the thing.
These thoughts affect every aspect of the image, its nuances, and the way it is painted, resulting in qualities of the foreign, the mysterious, and the clandestine that are strangely recognizable and relatable. At least, that’s my intention.
![A seated figure under the tree with closed eyes, holding an open book in his hand. The figure is surrounded by the sea in the background with bright dots in the sky, a dimly lit window on the left, and a house on the right.]()
![Detail of Young Man Seated Beside the Sea.]()
![Detail of Young Man Seated Beside the Sea.]()
![Detail of Young Man Seated Beside the Sea.]()
![Detail of Young Man Seated Beside the Sea.]()
![Two people standing on the left, one flower on a long stem on the right, and a dark landscape of hills, river, and the sky in the background. Of the two people, one is embracing and supporting the other whose head is turned away from the flower.]()
![Detail of Parallel.]()
![Detail of Parallel.]()
![A figure who may or may not be in the water, the sea based on the landscape in the background, is slightly reclined with his head and eyes turned toward the viewer. The sea and land elements, as well as the cloud, in various colors altogether make an appearance of two wings.]()
![Detail of Boris, a Two-Winged Boy.]()
![Detail of Boris, a Two-Winged Boy.]()
![Detail of Boris, a Two-Winged Boy.]()
Three details in a slide show. Click on image.
![A figure stands with his arms wide open, holding some type of map or sign and looking toward the impression of emptiness in the distance. The entire landscape is dark and blue, as to suggest the quietest blue hour of the day; and the figure and what he is holding are the brightest parts of the image.]()
![Detail of Super Star.]()
![A figure stands in the direction of a picture hanging on the wall in the distance. The room in which the figure stands is slightly abstracted; and the floor on which the figure stands is made of piles of forms and fragments.]()
![Detail of A Picture.]()
![Detail of A Picture.]()
![Detail of A Picture.]()
![View from the outside of a gallery in which a painting hangs on the wall. The gallery is surrounded by trees and plants.]()
![Three paintings hang on the wall.]()
![View from the outside of a gallery in which a painting hangs on the wall. The gallery is surrounded by trees and plants.]()
Press Release
solo exhibition at de boer, Los Angeles, California, January 11–February 15, 2025
afterthought by me between images, February 28, 2025
press release by the gallery
A Very Special Moment or Realization, 2024oil on canvas
38.5 x 49 inches / 97.79 x 124.46 cm
Two details in a slide show. Click on image.
Today, two people hugging looked like an eclipse, making the boy’s legs appear invisible. Whether the boy has legs is unclear. Is he standing, or is he flying?
Today, it felt like both day and night. The small, yellow things in the sky were brighter than––could it be the moon or the sun? Which was mimicking which is unclear. Everything seemed to mimic one another: the guy’s hair and the tree, the guy’s shoes and the dark, and the fog and the flower.
Today, the two friends looked like one person.
Today, for Boris, the things of the sea resembled one wing and the pink cloud resembled the other.
Today, the man standing and waiting looked like a butterfly.
And today, the person looked like a column supporting the entire scene.
At the moment, I have one main interest: that is the appearance of the thing––which contains both subjectivity and relations in a double bind. Let me explain.
Let’s say I have a thing, a figure, or a singular subject in mind to depict or arrive at while painting. What I pay attention to in and about the thing are the conjunctions of its essence and social reality: the subjective and the objective; affect and language; sensibility and information; discretion and expression; and the unknowable and the known. I’m also beginning to think in terms of potential and accidental, but that requires further consideration.
And now, when I say I am interested in the appearance of the very complex thing, I mean: (1) the thing may or may not appear; (2) if it does appear, it may appear whole or partial; and (3) any appearance, or any variety of appearances, is possible. Once I think about things and the world in terms of ‘appearing and not appearing’* at one point in time and space, any refracted, limited, or opaque appearance becomes an opportunity for a new possibility. What I pursue through each of my paintings, each world, is for the thing to exist in imminent possibilities––for each painting to become an opportunity for us to rethink our notion of subjectivity and get to know that we, as singular beings, are both essential and social in countless ways. We would each be an active participant in regaining our human being in the contemporary world and not a passive consumer of given discourses. Perhaps then, all appearances have a chance for being natural.
*The reason I say ‘appearing and not appearing’ as opposed to ‘appearing and disappearing’ is because I live and work on the side of believing in the thing that appears forever missing, forever delayed, and forever to come. Painting is my methodology for endlessly making an ontological argument for the existence of the thing.
These thoughts affect every aspect of the image, its nuances, and the way it is painted, resulting in qualities of the foreign, the mysterious, and the clandestine that are strangely recognizable and relatable. At least, that’s my intention.
Young Man Seated Beside the Sea (after Flandrin’s Young Male Nude Seated Beside the Sea, 1837), 2025
oil on canvas
38.5 x 49 inches / 97.79 x 124.46 cm
oil on canvas
38.5 x 49 inches / 97.79 x 124.46 cm
Parallel, 2024
oil on canvas
38.5 x 49 inches / 97.79 x 124.46 cm
oil on canvas
38.5 x 49 inches / 97.79 x 124.46 cm
Boris, a Two-Winged Boy, 2024
oil on canvas
38.5 x 49 inches / 97.79 x 124.46 cm
oil on canvas
38.5 x 49 inches / 97.79 x 124.46 cm
Super Star (after Bellini’s St. Francis in the Desert, ca. 1475-80; and Oelze’s Expectation, 1935-36), 2025
oil on canvas
49 x 56 inches / 124.46 x 142.24 cm
oil on canvas
49 x 56 inches / 124.46 x 142.24 cm
A Picture, 2023
oil on canvas
38.5 x 49 inches / 97.79 x 124.46 cm
oil on canvas
38.5 x 49 inches / 97.79 x 124.46 cm
A Very Special Moment or Realization, 2024
oil on canvas
38.5 x 49 inches / 97.79 x 124.46 cm
oil on canvas
38.5 x 49 inches / 97.79 x 124.46 cm
Parallel, 2024, oil on canvas, 38.5 x 49 inches / 97.79 x 124.46 cm
Super Star (after Bellini’s St. Francis in the Desert, ca. 1475-80; and Oelze’s Expectation, 1935-36), 2025, oil on canva, 49 x 56 inches / 124.46 x 142.24 cm
A Picture, 2023, oil on canvas, 38.5 x 49 inches / 97.79 x 124.46 cm
Super Star (after Bellini’s St. Francis in the Desert, ca. 1475-80; and Oelze’s Expectation, 1935-36), 2025
oil on canvas
49 x 56 inches / 124.46 x 142.24 cm
oil on canvas
49 x 56 inches / 124.46 x 142.24 cm
Press Release
de boer (Los Angeles) is pleased to present Today, a solo exhibition by Korean-born Los Angeles-based artist Julia Elise Hong. The exhibition debuts a series of new oil paintings on canvas. The title, Today, reflects the core theme of the paintings representing the present moment and an ongoing, continuous sense of existence.
Hong begins each picture by building the canvases to the exact dimensions of a historical painting, setting the stage for a deep exploration of the past, present and future. Without reference to photography, she builds the compositions with expressive brushstrokes, seeking to unearth figures from within the paint itself.
For Hong, her paintings serve as an intimate dialogue, akin to a conversation between two people. “Yet, for the flatness and opacity of the image, neither can fully access the other.” she explains. In these moments of separation, Hong strives to grasp something elusive, a fleeting understanding that can only be described as miraculous. Roland Barthes’ concept of Punctum—that which touches us deeply in a photograph—mirrors Hong’s exploration of this sensation, which she identifies as a moment of realization: the feeling of knowing someone or something fully, if only for an instant.
In Young Man Seated Beside the Sea (after Flandrin’s Young Male Nude Seated Beside the Sea, 1837), 2025, Hong reinterprets the dimensions of the 19th-century masterpiece by French artist Hippolyte Flandrin, leaving the compositional elements intentionally ambiguous. The result is a work that challenges viewers to question the essence of the scene, inviting them to consider not only the fleeting moment of realization, but also the moments surrounding it—the anticipation, the aftermath, and the space in between. For Hong, the pursuit of a painting is not simply about capturing a singular moment, but rather exploring the journey toward it, the ever-shifting sense of time and perception.
Julia Elise Hong (b. 1985 in South Korea) currently lives and works in Los Angeles, California. Hong received an MA from Columbia University in 2010, an MFA from Oslo National Academy of the Arts in 2014, and an MFA from Claremont Graduate University in 2023. Past exhibitions include Nous-ance at TRYST by the Torrance Art Museum, Torrance, CA; California State University Long Beach, Long Beach, CA; de boer, Los Angeles, CA; la BEAST gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Alt Projects, Arcadia, CA; IKEA residency at Surely Work Studios, Los Angeles, CA; Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo, NO; Cinemateket, Oslo, NO; Goethe-Institut, New York, NY; Podium, Oslo, NO; and UKS, Oslo, NO among others. Alongside a dynamic studio process Hong curates and writes with notable accomplishments in each arena. Today (2025) will be Hong’s first solo exhibition with de boer.
Hong begins each picture by building the canvases to the exact dimensions of a historical painting, setting the stage for a deep exploration of the past, present and future. Without reference to photography, she builds the compositions with expressive brushstrokes, seeking to unearth figures from within the paint itself.
For Hong, her paintings serve as an intimate dialogue, akin to a conversation between two people. “Yet, for the flatness and opacity of the image, neither can fully access the other.” she explains. In these moments of separation, Hong strives to grasp something elusive, a fleeting understanding that can only be described as miraculous. Roland Barthes’ concept of Punctum—that which touches us deeply in a photograph—mirrors Hong’s exploration of this sensation, which she identifies as a moment of realization: the feeling of knowing someone or something fully, if only for an instant.
In Young Man Seated Beside the Sea (after Flandrin’s Young Male Nude Seated Beside the Sea, 1837), 2025, Hong reinterprets the dimensions of the 19th-century masterpiece by French artist Hippolyte Flandrin, leaving the compositional elements intentionally ambiguous. The result is a work that challenges viewers to question the essence of the scene, inviting them to consider not only the fleeting moment of realization, but also the moments surrounding it—the anticipation, the aftermath, and the space in between. For Hong, the pursuit of a painting is not simply about capturing a singular moment, but rather exploring the journey toward it, the ever-shifting sense of time and perception.
Julia Elise Hong (b. 1985 in South Korea) currently lives and works in Los Angeles, California. Hong received an MA from Columbia University in 2010, an MFA from Oslo National Academy of the Arts in 2014, and an MFA from Claremont Graduate University in 2023. Past exhibitions include Nous-ance at TRYST by the Torrance Art Museum, Torrance, CA; California State University Long Beach, Long Beach, CA; de boer, Los Angeles, CA; la BEAST gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Alt Projects, Arcadia, CA; IKEA residency at Surely Work Studios, Los Angeles, CA; Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo, NO; Cinemateket, Oslo, NO; Goethe-Institut, New York, NY; Podium, Oslo, NO; and UKS, Oslo, NO among others. Alongside a dynamic studio process Hong curates and writes with notable accomplishments in each arena. Today (2025) will be Hong’s first solo exhibition with de boer.