Jisan Ahn’s painting questions the factuality of media images. He begins by collecting images from the media, then processes them in various forms such as drawings, collages, miniatures, before finally applying oil paint to the canvas. His depiction of objects in specific settings is strangely distorted and accentuated by the material properties. Ahn mounts thick, expressive layers of paint onto the canvas, emphasizing the physical versus the virtual world and the real versus the unreal. Ahn intends to express the raw visual state and absorbed emotions of the subject, realized through experienced and penetrated emotions. Instead of portraying the subject through obvious imagery, Ahn expresses the reality and emotional experience of the subject through intuition and empathy.
Ahn Jisan has had solo exhibitions in various venues, including solo exhibitions at Arario Gallery, Seoul; Galerie Bart, Amsterdam; Zaha Museum, Seoul and Hapjungjigu, Seoul. He has also participated in group exhibitions at National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul; Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art, Ansan; Savina Museum, Seoul; Kunsthalle Münster, Münster; Daegu Art Museum, Daegu; ARKO Art Center, Seoul; and Gallery LUMC, Leiden. He participated in a residency at Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam in 2013 - 2014 and was awarded the “Buning Brongers Prijzen” in 2014.
