Succession: A Survey of Works by Michelle Jung. Opening reception: November 5, 2026 (5-7 PM). Meet the artist and explore her largest exhibition to date, featuring select paintings and prototypes from each of her series.
Michelle Jung’s paintings exist at the threshold between realism and abstraction, where recognizable forms dissolve into perceptual experience. Rooted in observation yet shaped by contemporary modes of seeing, her work draws upon the floral motif as both subject and structure, reimagined through the visual language of the digital age. Jung’s compositions do not seek to replicate nature, but to reconsider how nature is encountered, mediated, and remembered in a world shaped by screens, filters, and fragmented attention.
Nature has long served as a foundation for Jung’s work, but her approach resists nostalgia or idealization. Instead, she brings historical traditions of still life and landscape into dialogue with contemporary visual culture. The floral form becomes a site of tension: familiar yet unstable, organic yet digitally inflected. Up close, her surfaces reveal interwoven brushstrokes that behave almost like coded data—ribbons of paint that twist, repeat, and overlap. From a distance, these gestures resolve into images that feel timeless, evoking natural growth while simultaneously reflecting the constructed nature of perception itself. Jung intentionally leaves visual gaps and moments of ambiguity within her paintings, allowing the viewer’s eye to move beyond the image and actively complete it. Familiarity with both nature and digital imagery becomes part of the viewing experience, shaping how meaning unfolds.
Jung’s technical process draws from a broad art historical lineage. She employs chiaroscuro and glazing techniques reminiscent of Renaissance painting, using layered translucency to create depth and luminosity. These methods are paired with a restrained, often monochromatic palette inspired by the color field painters of the mid-twentieth century.
Through this synthesis, Jung has developed an innovative surface that responds dramatically to light. Under a spotlight, her paintings appear to shift and activate, becoming almost sculptural as forms emerge, recede, and hover in space. This interaction between light, surface, and viewer is central to her practice.
Each work is composed of multiple canvases assembled into a single image. Where these panels meet, subtle disruptions occur—edges that fracture form and create new visual rhythms. These seams generate secondary images that only fully activate through the viewer’s physical movement. As one shifts position, the work changes, making the viewer aware of their own bodily presence and perceptual processes. Jung’s paintings are not static objects but responsive environments that emphasize the physiological act of seeing. The viewer is not simply observing the work but participating in its completion.
Underlying Jung’s practice is a sustained inquiry into how modern technology has altered our relationship with the natural world. She asks whether the proliferation of screens, cameras, and social media has permanently reshaped our perception of color, form, and authenticity. Has nature itself begun to resemble a filtered image? Do we experience the world directly, or primarily through mediated representations? Jung does not offer definitive answers; instead, she creates spaces for reflection. Her paintings mirror the tension between organic reality and digital abstraction, inviting viewers to consider how deeply technology has embedded itself into visual memory and desire.
Themes of time, existence, and identity are also woven throughout Jung’s work. As she moves between homes and studios, her practice evolves in response to shifting landscapes and lived experience. This mobility introduces a temporal dimension to her paintings, where moments of transition and impermanence subtly inform both form and content. Jung challenges conventional realism by suggesting that perception itself is unstable—shaped by context, movement, and the passage of time. Her work reflects an ongoing negotiation between presence and absence, permanence and change.
The exhibition runs from October 31, 2026, through January 30, 2027.