South Korean artist Julia Moon explores the relationship between the body, objects and the spaces they occupy. Born in South Korea and raised in Canada, Moon’s experience of moving between places informs her interest in displacement and the ways familiarity can shift according to context. Her paintings consider objects and bodies in states of transition, where recognisable forms become increasingly ambiguous and their boundaries begin to dissolve.

Moon is interested in the physical and metaphorical malleability of space. Her paintings transform familiar objects and forms into unfamiliar states, creating a tension between what can be recognised and what remains obscure. Bodies appear to bend, fragment and reform within the picture plane, challenging a fixed understanding of their physical boundaries. Through this shifting relationship between figure, object and space, Moon considers how identity can be altered by the environments and structures in which it exists.

Construction, deconstruction and reconstruction are central to Moon’s process. Rather than treating the painted image as a fixed representation, she allows forms to develop through a continual process of alteration. Shapes are built up, disrupted and reconfigured, creating paintings that hold a sense of movement and transformation. The resulting forms exist somewhere between the familiar and the abstract, retaining traces of their original identities while becoming something new.