Jinwon Chang is a Korean artist who studied Korean traditional painting in South Korea and moved to New York in 2004. Currently based in New York, Jinwon Chang focuses on life and God in his pieces and uses art to grasp the concepts of invisibility and the spiritual world. He uses art as a tool to overcome his confusion on things he cannot see, and as a starting point for understanding and telling the stories of his personal struggles and triumphs in regards to his faith. Jinwon Chang continues his pursuit of ultimate truth, he creates all of his pieces with the underlying idea that his works are not his own, but rather pieces of truth that are translated through his being. In this way, he views himself more as a vessel than the creator and believes that art is one of the most effective methods of sharing eternal truth with others. For Chang, art is just as much a matter of listening and suppressing as it is a matter of speaking and self-expressing.
Chang learned in his native traditions and practices of Korean painting, his materials of choice were Sumi ink and Japanese pigments (“Bunchae”) on Hanji paper. In 2004, Chang moved to New York where he immersed himself in a new freedom found in painting. Departing from the Korean traditional brush techniques, Chang began to use a roller and squeegee with acrylic and charcoal for the following three years. Afterwards, he reincorporated the Korean tradition into his new contemporary abstract process of using the brush with sumi ink, acrylic, metallic paint, charcoal, and pigment pen on Hanji paper. Chang’s work has traveled internationally and is currently part of the Venice Art Biennale 2022 in partnership with San Clemente Kempinski Palace, Venice, Italy.
Jinwon Chang has had several solo exhibitions across the United States such as Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum, Saginaw County MI, McGregor Memorial Conference Center in Wayne State University, Detroit, MI and the Dennos Museum Center, Traverse City, MI. Chang's work has been included in group exhibitions that include "Rituals of Repetition: Portals to Eternity", CAFA Museum, Beijing China, “Infinite Grace 2", Alpine Mansion, NJ and "Dismantle The Core", Elaine L Jacob Gallery Wayne State University, Detroit, MI. His work is part of collections internationally from Archegos Capital in NY to Wiesbaden City Hall, Germany and Gwangju City Museum in Korea.
