Stylistically, Kwan-Jin Oh is a fascinating case in dualistic layering. On the surface, the artist’s compositions are staunchly realist, and engage in many of the tropes of even hyper-realist traits, such as obsessively clean depictions of the pictorial plane, and the elongation of the objective viewpoint from which a certain rhythmic breath can be derived. The subject matter, often floral vases, lies calm and meditatively in view, like a yoga practitioner of a Buddhist monk, forever unwaveringly, noncommital in their engagement with the external world, and in this way, many perhaps achieve a transcendent reality beyond the reach of mere mortals. Thus, the viewer is well-served to feel drawn to Kwan-Jin’s porcelain vases, the beautiful twigs, the dainty flowers and poetic leaves, you are entitled to fully comprehend them as they are: ontological markers of a world as is.
Yes, if one looks careful enough at such a composition brimming with coolness and steely resoluteness, you will be tempted to discover the intellectual depth underneath the technically perfect representations that leads you to an astonishing conclusion. The realism is only skin deep. The objects are all cleverly idealized; the flowers are all executed with flattened perspectives, neither truly realist nor actually representational. Every one of the gorgeous details that draw in the viewer’s attention are achieved thanks to the peculiarity of the perspectives of the artist: which makes you question, is this the appearance of things of the world, or the appearance of things of the painting?