Jessica Woo Jung Ghil: Condensation of MemoriesApr 26 – Jul 12, 2025

There is an inherent sense of hope in the work of Jessica Woo Jung Ghil, each a vessel of quiet focus – a prayer, or meditation.

Light and ethereal, the scallop-shaped halo and pastel-colored palette of Eternal State of Mind II evokes Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus. A symbol of all that is beautiful, virtuous and pure, a single pearl floats at the center of the painting, the core around which all of the other elements arrange themselves. Diluted oils are applied in veil-like layers, resulting in a composition that has the same quality as air—both tangible and intangible. As the pigment builds up, it creates a palpable sense of volume and definition, like tulle in a petticoat. Untethered from gravity, light and colour are suspended, dreamlike.

The large ovoid at the center of Savouring Silence II is an expanding mass that presses up against the physical boundary of the canvas. The shell-pink center merges, seamlessly, into the earth-toned ground, its shape distinguished only by a gentle yellow tint at its edge, and a frilled line that radiates outwards like the sun’s rays. Another painting from the same series—Savouring Silence VIII—recalls the romance of the Rococo period, with an outsized cellular form, painted in pearl-tones, set against a cloud-strewn sky. Bringing together both abstract and figurative elements, the combination produces a soft, surrealist dreamscape.

Ghil describes her technique as a kind of ‘engraving’, where paint is applied with force, using the brush to push the pigment into the warp-and-weft of the thick linen fabric. This technique produces a mist of colour rather than a thick coating. Laid down in sheer layers, a minimum of eight are required for the image to develop.

Working without a draft or plan, Ghil’s process is resolutely abstract, and her search for composure manifests in careful compositions rather than wild expression. Condensation of Memories, however, takes a different approach, contrasting the sense of control and containment that is embodied in much of her work, with a burst of dynamic energy and colour. Pouring diluted paint directly onto the canvas, the cascade of colour has a downward pull like a waterfall. Requiring a brisker pace, the fine layers that are typical of the artist’s work are forgoed in favor of capturing brevity and intuition, which she describes as a “pouring away” of emotion, a letting go.

For Ghil, each painting is considered a self-portrait, an expression of her inner self, a visualisation of what is at her core. Focused, silent, sacred—her work is felt rather than understood. Provoking thoughts of the spiritual and the celestial, Ghil conjures whole worlds, capturing the constant push-and-pull of opposing forces: translucence and opacity, abstraction and figuration, light and weight, containment and release.