Three Notable Female Writers Depicting 'Modern Portraits'

Gallery Unplugged 'A Finding Persona'
Group Exhibition of Three Portrait Artists: Oa, Ota, and Lee Dodam

Gallery Unplugged will hold the exhibition ‘A Finding Persona’ until the 13th of next month. This exhibition brings together works by artists Oa, Ota, and Lee Dodam, who have gained attention for their portrait paintings.

OTA, Child Resembling the Sun, Oil on canvas, 53 x 45.5cm, 2024 [Photo provided by Gallery Unplugged]

Oa is an artist with a unique style who creates modern portraits using traditional East Asian painting materials such as ink, mineral pigments, and white pigment. When depicting someone's appearance, Oa adheres to the spirit of East Asian painting by skillfully capturing not only facial expressions and gestures but also psychological nuances. A representative from Gallery Unplugged, which planned the exhibition, explained that Oa is an artist who combines the vivid colors of Western painting with the profound thematic consciousness of East Asian painting.

Ota is an emerging artist who graduated from a Western painting department and worked as a motion graphics artist for about 10 years before actively presenting paintings since 2022. Ota’s work mainly focuses on the theme of ‘youth.’ The figures often appear as if dreaming of something, yet their expressions simultaneously convey anxiety and gloom, leaving a strong impression. Due to the distinctive cinematic composition and color sense, Ota’s works have attracted attention not only at domestic art fairs such as Urban Break 2023 and Lotte Art Fair Busan but also at the Cohle Gallery group exhibition in Paris, France, and the UVNT Art Fair in Spain.

OH AH, Again Spring, Colored Powder and White Powder on Canvas, 85 x 80cm, 2023
Photo by Gallery Unplugged

Lee Dodam continuously presents oil and acrylic paintings themed around ‘lack.’ Using mainly blue, green, and purple, Lee portrays figures with dark and melancholic expressions as if scenes from a dreamlike story. Lee Dodam’s portraits are both a study of one’s own inner self and of others’ inner selves. Characters from novels, films, and photographs often serve as motifs, and their deficiencies, worries, and weaknesses are expressed through painting. Lee Dodam’s portraits have been exhibited at Seoul Auction and Busan Objecthood Gallery, among others.

Yoon Hyea, curator at Gallery Unplugged, evaluated, “This exhibition will offer a taste of the distinctive paintings by young artists who have pioneered their own realms in portraiture.” She added, “It will strongly resonate with current social trends that frequently discuss anxiety and anger.”