In many ways, Mija Jung's work appears to be the most traditional, grounded as it is in the language of abstract painting. But Jung's work is far from a revival of an outdated modernist project. Their vibrant abstractions range in size, scale, and texture. While highly expressive, both gesturally and chromatically, Jung's work is as much corporeal as it is emotional. They are speculative visions of how we perceive the world around us. Certain works function as abstracted, psychological portraiture, while others suggest the inner workings of the body in the form of neurological or vascular systems bursting to life. Jung has also spoken of their work as an attempt to create a gender-neutral aesthetic. The liminal position between figuration and abstraction of their paintings resists the institutional instrumentalization of identity suffered by much recent figurative painting. Jung's work simultaneously suggests multiple histories of abstraction, all of which can be useful in expressing contemporary notions of identity and reality. Her work echoes the serial/systems-based work of artists like Alfred Jensen and Terry Winters, as well as the expressive, feminist abstraction of artists like Louise Fishman. In installations, Jung's canvases become all-encompassing, enveloping the viewer in color and form. Her smaller paintings accumulate to become an archive of thoughts, feelings, and gestures with a tactility that acts a conduit between undefined and unrestrained bodies.

 

Gary Carrion-Murayari

Kraus Family Curator at the New Museum