DOKKEBI | Leeah Joo

rise of super chicken
(2017)
48x38"
oil on canvas

bhang mhang ee
(2017)
24x20"
oil on canvas

colossus
(2017)
30x30"
oil on canvas

three spirits
(2017)
40x32"
oil on canvas

sexybeast
(2017)
24x20"
oil on canvas

clouded
(2017)
24x30"
oil on canvas

the big neighbor
(2017)
20x24
oil on canvas

new hope city
(2016)
40x36"
oil on canvas

this tornado loves you
(2016)
48x42"
oil on canvas

pado
(2014)
36x48
oil on canvas

jakhodo
(2014)
40x40
oil on canvas

Nihilist's golden dream
(2014)
48x48"
oil on canvas

there is a season
(2013)
36x48
oil on canvas

red turbulence
(2014)
24x30"
oil on canvas

crane dance
(2014)
40x54"
oil on canvas

lovely trappings
(2013)
24x30"
oil on canvas

flight of crane wives
(2013)
16x20
oil on wood panel

escape from tiger mom
(2013)
24x30"
oil on canvas

the lost ferry
(2014)
16x20
oil on wood panel

admiral yi's turtleships
(2011)
24x30"
oil on canvas

9 dragons asleep on gumgangsan
(2012)
40x42"
oil on wood panel

crane wife
(2013)
16x20
oil on wood panel

unraveling 2
(2013)
16x20
oil on wood panel

Crane Coupling
(2013)
16x20
oil on wood panel

dokdo
(2011)
24x30"
oil on canvas

dear mother dear sister
(2012)
16x20
oil on wood panel

crouching tiger bamboo clouds
(2011)
34x32"
oil on wood panel

lotus blossoms & battleship
(2011)
24x48"
oil on canvas

devoted husbands
(2011)
16x20
oil on wood panel

dokkebis
(2011)
16x20
oil on wood panel

july 26, 1950
(2012)
30x34"
oil on wood panel

turtleship
(2011)
16x20
oil on wood panel

exodus
(2012)
12x80"
oil on wood panel

unraveling
(2013)
16x20
oil on wood panel

tree house
(2016)
78x24"
oil marker on wood panel

back by dinner
(2013)
12x36"
oil marker on wood panel

heavenly maidens
(2014)
12x36"
oil marker on wood panel

jingo charms to disarm
(2014)
12x36"
oil marker on wood panel

conjuring monsters
(2013)
12x36"
oil marker on wood panel

7+7 magpie and crows
(2014)
12x36"
oil marker on wood panel

Tin Can Phone
(2014)
12x80"
oil marker on wood panel

About Dokkebi (Korean goblin) paintings...

Kurosawa’s film Dreams has a scene where a beautiful snow spirit drapes a fallen hiker with layer upon layer of shimmering fabric. Despite the warmth, these blankets of snow, fatigue and slumber, must be shaken off for the hiker to survive. Art historian Irving Lavin’s take on the Baroque drapery refers to another kind that separates the fictive from the real world, connecting the past with the present like a curtain at a theater. My recent paintings explore these different connotations of drapery as a subject. In one sense, it celebrates the simple beauty and the tradition of Korean brocades saved for special occasions, birthdays or New Year. Then the drapery transforms into mountains and oceans inhabited by creatures to suggest stories from the past eclipsing the present, such as the image of the victorious smile on an infamous dictator as a mythic goblin on top of Paektu Mountain, in North Korea.

LEEAH JOO