2026' Artists of NEW CoA Project

Ji-yeon Lee began her artistic journey by using tape as a pencil to trace spaces from memory. Today, she treats space both as a playful playground and an object of deep curiosity—making it both the subject and medium of her work. Rooted in flat painting, her practice expands into the environment, transforming walls and floors into a canvas. She continuously challenges artistic boundaries, working with diverse materials such as wood, paper, film, and steel to create low-relief and installation art. Ultimately, Lee’s work explores the process of association across time and space, reaching far beyond mere memory and imagination.

An artist who paints in the hope of becoming a small joy and a quiet source of hope for

someone. Currently based in Jeju, Korea. she continues an expansive artistic practice

that moves across painting, writing, and sound drawing. She continues her work, seeing

painting as a way of connecting with the world through its slowest breath. 

Her books include 『Tree Heart Tree 』 『Building a Home There』 『Being Happy Today』 she also released

the sound drawing album 『Universe Blanket』

KOMA is a first-generation South Korean graffiti artist who pioneered the genre of "Graffiti Pop

Art" by seamlessly blending street art—once a somewhat insular subculture—with the vivid

accessibility of Pop Art. Crossing artistic boundaries from urban street walls to traditional

canvases, his work maximizes formal beauty through dynamic lines and striking colors. By

integrating familiar symbols like hearts, diamonds, and crowns, he bridges the gap with the public, re-establishing the value of graffiti at the very heart of contemporary art.

I explore the subtle resonances between beings through painting. Water and ink seep into Korean paper, where intention and chance blur into a single breath, holding the lingering trace of things that stay and fade. The colors added above evoke the temperature and texture of emotion—the echo of a vanished light. Through repetitive smudging and layering, I record the unseen vibrations where all existence connects and permeates one another.

Paints old village scenes rarely seen in modern cities, though they may appear ordinary at first glance. With deep affection for these nostalgic landscapes, she builds her compositions using acrylics and mixed media. The various objects in her work serve as metaphors for human inner life, carrying rich narratives alongside glimpses of her own daily routine. Ultimately, the artist hopes viewers discover meaningful values within their own fleeting lives.

Gyu Kim works from the imagined concept of the “Neo-Wooden Age,” carving and hollowing wood to create sculptural vessels. Embracing the natural transformations of the material—scorching, warping, and cracking—as integral to form, the artist combines these qualities with primordial vessel shapes reminiscent of earthenware and traditional pottery, creating objects that move between reality and imagination. Rather than seeking to control nature, her practice follows the inherent properties and transformations of the material, allowing human intention to enter into dialogue with its natural course. Through this process, the artist envisions a more elemental

sense of abundance beyond the logic of capital and possession. Recently, the practice has expanded beyond wood to include clay and other natural materials.

Jin Kim is a Korean artist who works with minhwa, often described as the “pop art of the Joseon Dynasty,” to express wishes for happiness in everyday life. Drawing on the symbolic imagery and bold colors of traditional minhwa, she brings her own distinctive sense of color to each work.
For Kim, painting is not simply about reproducing images from the past, but about carrying their spirit of hope and well-wishing into the present. Through the slow process of drawing lines with a brush and building color layer by layer, she seeks to carry minhwa forward as a living tradition—one that can still bring comfort and joy to our lives today.

 As a design student during my school years, I studied in Japan dreaming of becoming a great designer. While studying design and painting systems with a flair for style, I happened to experience a film set and became fascinated by the idea that film expresses people, so I began with film art and eventually moved on to directing, focusing on portraying people.

Tired of the long hours and the collaboration with so many people in filmmaking, I fell into creating artwork that I could do on my own, and through that, I began working only with animals like dogs and cats, while also collaborating across various genres. And now, I’m working in space design again, using my major. I draw people, animals, and spaces.

 Hyoeun Kim is a calligraphy artist and performer who transforms emotion into painterly forms through the visual language of Hangul. Emotions drawn from life, history, and memory emerge as new images through the varying force of her strokes, the breath of empty space, and layered letters. The sea and stones of Jeju, the breath of haenyeo women divers, and the memory of the Jeju April 3 Incident form the deep roots of her practice. Moving beyond a script to be read, Hangul becomes a visual language of line and rhythm. Through live performances accompanied by music, she extends the energy of writing from paper into time and space.