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Youngsheen A. Jhe received her MFA in Painting from University of New Hampshire and studied Studio Art at Brandeis University. Jhe obtained Master degree of science and worked as a TV drama writer, documentary translator, and novelist in Korea before moving to the States. Jhe’s work has been most influenced by her experiences as a foreigner in the States, in Europe, and even in Korea. Especially while she was staying in Italy without knowing any Italian for five weeks in 2010, she quickly realized that she could not communicate with any of the locals, and discovered the way to see people as objects. These experiences have inspired the strain of her current work of painting a personal narrative.
Jhe’s works is frequently depicted as ‘Hopper-esque paintings”(Nicole Laskowski, Arlington Advocate, 2012), in terms of the effective use of light and shadow and story telling, as well as geometric design in a painting. Like Hopper,Jhe’s paintings resonate with the emotional themes of solitude, loneliness,regret, boredom and resignation. However, while Hopper looks at interaction among humans, Jhe’s subjects depict disconnection and lack of communication among humans. She illustrates this through the use of mannequins in her work. Jhe tries to describe the reality of humans in the modern society through fictitious lives of mannequins found commonly on show windows. She depicts hope through the presence of the light that shines on humans as well as despair of the human beings through the inanimate mannequins, helplessly stuck in their own solitary world.
Jhe is a Boston-based emerging artist who has started to exhibit paintings regularly in many national noncommercial galleries. She also has previously sold her entire Italy series to a single patron, and her entire Germany series to another collector. Many others remain interested in her future works.