Overview

Education

2006  M.F.A. in Plastic Arts, Université Paris 8, France

2004  B.F.A. in Plastic Arts, Université Paris 8, France

2000  B.F.A. in Painting, Hongik University, Seoul, Korea

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2025  Passants: Douces Errances [Passersby: Sweet Wanderings], Artreon Gallery, Seoul, Korea

예술을 고양하다 [Celebrating Art in Goyang], New Year Exhibition, Art Space Hoseo, Seoul, Korea

2024  Promenade [Walk], 21st Annual Exhibition of the Association Franco-Coréenne des Arts Plastiques, Seoul, Korea

Gonggam 2024, Artreon Gallery, Seoul, Korea

Big Picture, 23rd Goyang International Art Fair, KINTEX, Goyang, Korea

2023  Passants: Le Souvenir [Passersby: Remembrance], Sempio Space, Icheon, Korea

2022  Passants: Les Flâneurs [Passersby: The Flâneurs], Eoullim Art Museum, Goyang, Korea

Passants: Se Reposer [Passersby: To Rest], Onyu Gallery, Anyang, Korea

2019 Passants: Promenade [Passersby: A Walk], Art Plus Gallery, Seoul, Korea

2018  Jang Ji Young — Goyang Artist 365, Gallery Nuri, Goyang Aram Nuri Arts Center, Goyang, Korea

2017  Passants: Penser [Passersby: To Think], Gallery Life, Seoul, Korea

2016  Passants [Passersby], Gallery PUESTO, Seoul, Korea

2015  Passants [Passersby], Far Beyond Gallery, Seoul, Korea

2012  Passants [Passersby], Space Seon+, Seoul, Korea

2008  Passant [Passerby], Galerie de l’Angle, Paris, France

Artist’s Statement

My work begins with the people I encounter while walking through everyday life. They are strangers who briefly enter my field of vision—people passing by on the street, sitting in a café, walking through a park, or disappearing into the distance. Although these encounters may last only a moment, they sometimes leave a lasting impression.

My ongoing series, Passants (Passersby), explores these fleeting encounters and the traces they leave in memory. I am interested in the space between seeing and remembering: how an image of a person changes after the moment of encounter has passed, and how memory gradually transforms what we have seen.

I often work with blurred or partially erased figures. Rather than depicting people as clearly identifiable individuals, I allow their forms to dissolve into the surrounding space. Through repeated processes of painting, removing, layering, and repainting, the image becomes increasingly distant from a direct representation of reality. What remains is not a precise portrait, but a fragment of a moment—a sensation, a memory, or an atmosphere.

Walking is an important part of my artistic process. To walk is to observe without necessarily searching for anything specific. It is a way of encountering the unexpected and collecting small fragments of the world. The city becomes a constantly changing field of images, where people, light, color, movement, and silence intersect.

Time is therefore an essential element of my work. The layers on the surface reflect the process of remembering: some images become clearer, while others fade or disappear. The act of erasing is as important as the act of painting, because absence can sometimes communicate more than presence.

Through Passants, I seek to capture the quiet poetry of ordinary encounters. My paintings are not intended to tell a fixed story. Instead, they offer a moment of pause—an opportunity for viewers to recognize their own memories, emotions, and experiences within the figures that pass through the paintings.

Ultimately, I paint what remains after someone has passed by: not the person themselves, but the trace of their presence.

Biography

Jang Ji Young is a contemporary artist based in Korea whose practice explores fleeting encounters, memory, time, and the traces left by people in everyday life. Her ongoing series Passants (Passersby) focuses on anonymous figures encountered during walks and ordinary moments, transforming brief observations into poetic reflections on human presence and memory.

Born in Korea, Jang Ji Young studied Painting at Hongik University, Seoul, and continued her education in France, earning a B.F.A. and an M.F.A. in Plastic Arts from Université Paris 8. Her experience of living and studying between Korea and France has contributed to the development of a visual language that combines observation of everyday life with a contemplative approach to time and memory.

Since her first solo exhibition in Paris in 2008, Jang has presented numerous solo exhibitions in Korea and France. Her major exhibitions include Passant at Galerie de l’Angle in Paris, Passants at Space Seon+, Gallery PUESTO, Gallery Life, and Art Plus Gallery in Seoul, as well as the 2018 Goyang Artist 365 exhibition at Gallery Nuri, Goyang Aram Nuri Arts Center.

Her work has also been presented in numerous group exhibitions and international projects in Korea, France, China, and the United States. These include exhibitions at the Korean Cultural Center in Paris, Hangaram Art Museum at Seoul Arts Center, Ami Art Museum, Gallery Iang, KINTEX, and international exhibitions in Beijing and New York. She has been an active participant in exhibitions organized by the Association Franco-Coréenne des Arts Plastiques and the annual exhibitions of young Korean artists in France.

In recent years, Jang has continued to develop the Passants series through exhibitions including Passants: Le Souvenir (2023), Promenade (2024), and Passants: Douces Errances (2025). In 2025, she also published her first artist book, Les Flâneurs — Passants, further extending her exploration of walking, observation, memory, and the poetic traces of everyday encounters.

Jang Ji Young’s paintings invite viewers to pause before the fleeting figures of everyday life. Through layered, softened, and partially erased images, she transforms ordinary encounters into spaces where personal memory and shared human experience can meet.

Works