ARTIST STATEMENT

I grew up surrounded by noise. My paintings aim to capture those brief, suspended moments when a subject is neither excited nor busy, neither reacting to me nor laughing. They exist somewhere in between. It's in these in-between spaces that I find something beyond the noise and politeness, something raw and authentic.

This connects to my fascination with human resilience. We build our identities and grow from both traumas and positive experiences. We can become hardened or tainted, or we can blossom—more often than not, it's a bit of both. But it's precisely this process that fuels our resilience; without it, we would wither. Resilience is fundamental to the human experience.

When painting a subject, I consider composition, lighting, and all the technical aspects. But my primary goal is to capture that fleeting moment when their true identity emerges, complete with its "horns and warts." I believe this is what makes us beautiful. I search for a kind of "ugly beautifulness."

Being mixed-race, I had this journey of growing up with a sense of not belonging to Australia, the country I was raised in, but equally I soon discovered that I didn’t belong to America or Korea, the countries that should be responsible for making me feel at home. This was never a negative thing, it simply was. I don’t think I even realised this was any different to anyone else until I got older. As a painter it has become quite instrumental in being able to be a sort of disconnected onlooker who can slip in and out of understanding my subject or my viewers and at times to even disconnect myself in order to gain perspective.

BIO

Courtney Jinsook Bae (Australian, b.1986) is a mixed race Korean-American artist whose work is both provocative and invigorating. Her fearless exploration of perspective and her play with the human form leaves viewers energised and curious.

As a child Bae was inspired by her father's expressive Chinese brushstroke paintings, which is why Bae's artistic journey began in gouache watercolor. After formal training in Fashion Design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, Bae's career took shape in the world of luxury fashion, where she gained experience as a visual merchandiser at renowned brands such as Prada, Miu Miu, and Burberry. This background had a significant impact on her creative style and continues to inspire her particularly when creating works on paper.

Over time Bae has become more commonly recognised for her large-scale oil paintings that seamlessly blend abstract figurative and expressionist elements. Bae exhibits her work globally.

A versatile artist, Bae thrives in the dynamic world of creative commercial marketing. She embraces the opportunity to push creative boundaries and explore diverse mediums.

Bae has won multiple juried awards and exhibited in New York, London, and Europe at various galleries including: Saatchi Gallery London, Denise Bibro Fine Art, New York; Bermondsey Project Space, London; Sweet Art, London; Dacia Gallery, New York; Sideshow Gallery, Brooklyn; and Candid Arts Trust, London amongst others. The artist lives and works in London.