In her latest body of work, Arang Choi continues her exploration of painting as a space where perception and imagination intertwine. Each composition evolves through a slow, deliberate process of layering translucent tones and glazes. This build-up of surfaces allows light to move through the work, giving the impression of images that hover between appearance and disappearance.
For these new paintings, Choi draws inspiration from Baroque grisaille, a technique based entirely on shades of grey, and from the optical play of trompe-lโลil, which imitates shallow relief. Working with a restricted palette, she builds spatial depth through tonal contrast rather than relying on colour alone, creating a finely balanced interplay of light and shadow that sharpens the viewerโs sensitivity to surface and form. Through this modulation, the image reveals a visual quietude, inviting prolonged observation.
At the heart of Choiโs work is Emulb, a recurring figure whose name is a deliberate rearrangement of the letters in โBlumeโ (German for flower), reflecting its deep connection to the organic and the garden setting. This shape-shifting anthropomorphic being embodies the idea of a unified and soulful existence. Appearing differently in each painting, this mutable figure moves through surreal landscapes that feel both mystical and familiar. Emulb acts as a guide and companionโsometimes visible, sometimes almost dissolved within the layered compositionโleading the viewer through a world in which boundaries between figure and ground, matter and spirit, continuously dissolve.
A long-standing fascination with fungi also shapes Choiโs visual language. The exhibition title, Cladonia Garden, refers both to a painting within the exhibition and to the Cladonia genus, whose branching, organic forms mirror the way her imagined worlds blend and grow into one another. In the painting Cladonia Garden, soft fungal structures rise from the ground, and a pair of subtle red eyesโbelonging to Emulbโglow from within the scene. These quiet eyes act as an entry point into the painting, signalling Emulbโs presence even when its full form remains hidden.
Choiโs practice reveals painting as both a material and contemplative process. Through her precise modulation of tone and space, she constructs images that open gradually, inviting quiet attention and introspection. Her paintings encourage a way of seeing that is as fluid and transformative as the being of Emulb itselfโan invitation to perceive continuity where opposites meet, and to experience painting as a living, breathing presence.
Arang Choi (b. 1992, Seoul) lives and works in Vienna. She studied at the Kunstakademie Dรผsseldorf under Prof. Andreas Schulze (2019โ2020) and at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna with Kirsi Mikkola, Daniel Richter, Francis Ruyter and Alastair MacKinven (2016โ2023).
Recent exhibitions include Behind Open Eyes, Elektrohalle Rhomberg, Salzburg (2025); Art Cologne with Elektrohalle Rhomberg (2024); a solo presentation at nouveaux deuxdeux, Munich (2024); Spark Art Fair Vienna (2023/2024); Three Moons, Elektrohalle Rhomberg (2023); and group exhibitions at Bloom Gallery, Saint-Tropez (2023) and Unit 1 Gallery, London (2022).