2026 ACK ack ack ack: Artist-Critic Matching Program
Upcoming Exhibition by Lee Jae-yoon
곧 열릴 이재윤 전: 김영기
Original text by Younggi Kim
Read the original text
번역: 김미혜
Translated by Mihye Kim
Exhibition Proposal: Solo Exhibition by Lee Jae-yoon
May 2026, Kim Young-gi
#FluorescentGlow #PrimaryColors #Vivid #Fresh #NoExceptionsToEverydayBullying #AllLifeIsEqualButNotAllLifeIsRankedEqually #FoodPower #GastronomyTribunal #RaiseKillSliceFryChewRate #EnjoyItPerpetrators
★ Overview
Even if you walk past with your eyes closed, it still catches your attention. Lee Jae-yoon's paintings stand out through brilliant acrylic primaries and fluorescent colors, graceful contours reminiscent of cel animation, and razor-sharp divisions of shadow and light. They are pretty, kind, approachable—the visual equivalent of someone who would effortlessly pass every blind date. Yet the paintings are full of reversals. Once captivated by their vivid freshness, you begin to look more closely and are struck by the way they lay bare the history of human domination: cruelty toward our own species, and even greater cruelty toward others. The further you make your way through the exhibition, the more overwhelming this contradiction becomes—a head-on collision between delighted eyes and a burdened conscience. How are we supposed to process this unexpected cognitive dissonance?
★ Structure / Development
The exhibition unfolds across five physically distinct galleries, presenting five sequential scenes. Accordingly, the correspondence between gallery and scene is one-to-one. Each gallery differs deliberately and dramatically in every element that directly shapes the visitor's experience: spatial configuration, scale, partitioning, lighting, dominant color, material texture, ambient sound, and even vibration. The exhibition gradually builds context, leading the viewer toward its central theme. Beneath the abrupt transitions between scenes lie hidden points of contact and continuity linking each scene to the previous one. Rather than building in a linear crescendo, the exhibition creates the impression of a jagged, zigzagging progression.
★ The Five Scenes
▧ SCENE #1 – Farm and Barn
"Crunch, slurp, munch, gulp"
As if an exhibition has been installed inside the mouth of a giant, the barn resonates with all-around mukbang ASMR. The air is thick with the mouthwatering aroma of butter and garlic being sautéed. Visitors can feed cows and pigs crowded inside the barn by clicking on the screen. When they activate skills such as laying fresh straw, installing ventilation fans, playing classical music, providing water, administering vaccines, trimming hooves, and brushing coats, the animals respond with joyful cries. One small sheep inside a fenced enclosure in one corner of the exhibition space can actually be fed and petted.
▧ SCENE #2 – Supermarket
Colorful, sparkling, hanging everywhere
Suddenly, everything becomes clean, polished, and refreshingly bright! Visitors enter a giant supermarket filled with softly swaying commercial jingles, resin-coated floors, neatly aligned shelves draped with promotional pop-ups and price tags, and ingredients dressed head-to-toe in dazzling packaging as if cosplaying themselves. Each visitor receives a coin stamped with the face of a cow, chicken, pig, or sheep, and pushes a miniature shopping cart through the exhibition. The shelves are packed with rows of vividly colored canned goods, while oversized cartoon-like cuts of meat hang above the fresh-food section, greeting visitors from all sides. Only later do visitors realize that the very animals they had raised in the previous Scene #1 appear in slaughterhouse documentary and livestock traceability promotional videos playing on a small panel embedded in their carts.
![[criticism] 곧 열릴 이재윤 전](https://cdn.imweb.me/upload/S202204293a6eb15f078f5/0d2e65a962e7b.png)
이재윤_님프의 다리 Pont de la Nymphe_캔버스에 아크릴_d.80cm_2025
▧ SCENE #3 - 주방
"Chop chop chop, sizzle sizzle, neatly stacked into a pile"
In the kitchen of a three-star fine-dining restaurant. VIP reservation time might be approaching, and everything is intensely busy. Instead of chefs, three sets of conveyor belts correspond respectively to knives, fire, and plating, spinning round and round to embody the kitchen’s frantic energy. Prepared ingredients, cooked meats, and plated dishes topped with garnishes each circulate in orderly rows along their respective belts. As ingredients pass through these three stages, they gradually acquire the convincing appearance of “dishes,” rendering their initial, unprocessed state almost unrecognizable.
![[criticism] 곧 열릴 이재윤 전](https://cdn.imweb.me/upload/S202204293a6eb15f078f5/d8e90a81c836b.jpeg)
이재윤_초원의 포식자 Predators in the Meadow_캔버스에 아크릴_195x135cm_2024
▧ SCENE #4 – Courtroom
"Moooo! Oiiiink! Cock-a-doodle-doooo!"
In a banquet hall distinguished by chandeliers and ornate candelabras, an exceptionally long dining table stretches so far that one would need a mobile phone just to communicate across it. Instead of classical background music, the once-living voices of the dishes fill the space. The dishes arranged along the table are not served on luxury plates but on chair-like structures resembling defendants' seats. Their scent is far from appetizing but a foul mixture of blood, detergent, and chemical odors. Disoriented by the sensory mismatch between sound, smell, and sight, visitors glance around before eventually ascending an elevated central platform at the far end of the room, and taking their seats at a bar-like judge's bench.
1) Indictment
The indictment is read aloud first. It takes the form of a nutritional facts sheet, quantitatively analyzing a wide range of foods whose names are too complex to memorize.
2) Sentencing Recommendation
One of the dishes is closely observed by a visitor at each table. Then it is selected and marked as recommended or not recommended with a brief reason.
3) Verdict
The verdict is delivered by striking an overturned plate with a large fork. The judgment is recorded in the form of star ratings and tags.
4) Billing
A bill is issued for the corresponding dish. It vividly describes the slaughtering, harvesting, and processing of the animals and plants that gave their lives.
5) Indulgence
A receipt is issued as visitors leave the Gastronomy Tribunal. Printed on it are the calm final words and wishes of the martyrs—"Saint Daegwallyeong Korean Beef" for example—who have transformed into a single meal. As the receipt serves as proof that the proper price has been paid, visitors are exempt from divine punishment and may leave with a clear conscience.
▧ SCENE #5 – Columbarium
"All present observe a moment of silence for the patriotic martyr of Sundae Soup"
The canned goods purchased in the supermarket in Scene #2 are in fact the coffins of martyrs, while the verdicts written in the courtroom function as epitaphs composed by future generations. Visitors place each canned coffin together with its corresponding epitaph into an empty niche within the columbarium, bow their heads in respect, and leave the exhibition.
★ Disarmed, Then Struck by a Delayed Attack
The fluorescent acrylic colors and comic-style panel divisions immediately draw viewers into a realm of visual play. Yet this is not merely a Pop Art gesture; it is a strategy of psychological disarmament and a trap for identification. Consider the contrast: a raw chicken with its head cut off, feathers plucked, and entrails only partially removed evokes disgust, whereas a fried-chicken mascot with oversized blinking eyes, smiling as it proudly holds up its own drumstick, becomes "the trendy new fried chicken no true foodie can afford to miss." It is no longer simply a product—it is an item to own, a trend to follow. This progression resembles the logic of simulation, unfolding as a chain of simulacra: from apples growing in an orchard, to Cézanne's apples, to apple-flushed cosmetic advertisements, to apple-"flavored" beverages filled only with synthetic apple aroma, and finally to the logo of Apple, the Big Tech company whose business has nothing to do with orchards. Echoing the ideas of the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze (1925–1995), who emphasized the new originality of the copy, Lee Jae-yoon's cartoon chicken drumstick accomplishes what a raw chicken never could. It masks violence behind an appealing appearance while cultivating a sense of intimacy that deepens the viewer's engagement. The simulacrum, in this sense, becomes the success story of a branch that has taken over the original flagship—a case of what Koreans call cheongchul-eoram, in which the student surpasses the master.
Why, then, invoke this notion of cheongchul-eoram? It is not a shallow didactic gesture reminding us to distinguish the copy from the original. Rather, it serves as a carefully orchestrated setup designed to pull the rug out from under the audience by drawing them into complicity. Through an immersive sequence of experiences—including shopping and making gastronomic judgments that aestheticize death—the exhibition nudges viewers into recognizing their own predatory nature. They think they are simply having fun, only to realize, in retrospect, that they have been participating in a vibrant history of cruelty and a sinful play. Ultimately, this exhibition is an exquisitely engineered trap: it lures visitors into innocently indulging in a brutal reality wrapped in attractive packaging, transforming them from detached spectators into accomplices in a carnival of slaughter. This cheongchul-eoram package performs its role to make this trap so effective, leaving viewers neither the time to erect ethical defenses on behalf of animal life nor the opportunity to justify themselves.
★ Teaser for the Next Exhibition
《See Ya at the Skull Tower》
The 2020 work <The War of the Flowers> took as its motif the skull tower that symbolized the Aztec practice of human sacrifice. In this forthcoming exhibition, monumental skull towers will materialize with their entire surfaces covered in countless receipts generated by the previous exhibition. They are, in effect, colossal tombs inscribed across their entire bodies with the epitaphs of martyrs. By summoning their spirits, the exhibition reimagines the lives they might have lived had they never been harvested or slaughtered.
2026.8. ACK 발행. ACK (artcritickorea) 글의 저작권은 필자에게 있습니다. August. 2026. Published by ACK. The copyright of the article published by ACK is owned by its author.
2026 ACK ack ack ack: Artist-Critic Matching Program
Upcoming Exhibition by Lee Jae-yoon
곧 열릴 이재윤 전: 김영기
Original text by Younggi Kim
Read the original text
번역: 김미혜
Translated by Mihye Kim
Exhibition Proposal: Solo Exhibition by Lee Jae-yoon
May 2026, Kim Young-gi
#FluorescentGlow #PrimaryColors #Vivid #Fresh #NoExceptionsToEverydayBullying #AllLifeIsEqualButNotAllLifeIsRankedEqually #FoodPower #GastronomyTribunal #RaiseKillSliceFryChewRate #EnjoyItPerpetrators
★ Overview
Even if you walk past with your eyes closed, it still catches your attention. Lee Jae-yoon's paintings stand out through brilliant acrylic primaries and fluorescent colors, graceful contours reminiscent of cel animation, and razor-sharp divisions of shadow and light. They are pretty, kind, approachable—the visual equivalent of someone who would effortlessly pass every blind date. Yet the paintings are full of reversals. Once captivated by their vivid freshness, you begin to look more closely and are struck by the way they lay bare the history of human domination: cruelty toward our own species, and even greater cruelty toward others. The further you make your way through the exhibition, the more overwhelming this contradiction becomes—a head-on collision between delighted eyes and a burdened conscience. How are we supposed to process this unexpected cognitive dissonance?
★ Structure / Development
The exhibition unfolds across five physically distinct galleries, presenting five sequential scenes. Accordingly, the correspondence between gallery and scene is one-to-one. Each gallery differs deliberately and dramatically in every element that directly shapes the visitor's experience: spatial configuration, scale, partitioning, lighting, dominant color, material texture, ambient sound, and even vibration. The exhibition gradually builds context, leading the viewer toward its central theme. Beneath the abrupt transitions between scenes lie hidden points of contact and continuity linking each scene to the previous one. Rather than building in a linear crescendo, the exhibition creates the impression of a jagged, zigzagging progression.
★ The Five Scenes
▧ SCENE #1 – Farm and Barn
"Crunch, slurp, munch, gulp"
As if an exhibition has been installed inside the mouth of a giant, the barn resonates with all-around mukbang ASMR. The air is thick with the mouthwatering aroma of butter and garlic being sautéed. Visitors can feed cows and pigs crowded inside the barn by clicking on the screen. When they activate skills such as laying fresh straw, installing ventilation fans, playing classical music, providing water, administering vaccines, trimming hooves, and brushing coats, the animals respond with joyful cries. One small sheep inside a fenced enclosure in one corner of the exhibition space can actually be fed and petted.
▧ SCENE #2 – Supermarket
Colorful, sparkling, hanging everywhere
Suddenly, everything becomes clean, polished, and refreshingly bright! Visitors enter a giant supermarket filled with softly swaying commercial jingles, resin-coated floors, neatly aligned shelves draped with promotional pop-ups and price tags, and ingredients dressed head-to-toe in dazzling packaging as if cosplaying themselves. Each visitor receives a coin stamped with the face of a cow, chicken, pig, or sheep, and pushes a miniature shopping cart through the exhibition. The shelves are packed with rows of vividly colored canned goods, while oversized cartoon-like cuts of meat hang above the fresh-food section, greeting visitors from all sides. Only later do visitors realize that the very animals they had raised in the previous Scene #1 appear in slaughterhouse documentary and livestock traceability promotional videos playing on a small panel embedded in their carts.
이재윤_님프의 다리 Pont de la Nymphe_캔버스에 아크릴_d.80cm_2025
▧ SCENE #3 - 주방
"Chop chop chop, sizzle sizzle, neatly stacked into a pile"
In the kitchen of a three-star fine-dining restaurant. VIP reservation time might be approaching, and everything is intensely busy. Instead of chefs, three sets of conveyor belts correspond respectively to knives, fire, and plating, spinning round and round to embody the kitchen’s frantic energy. Prepared ingredients, cooked meats, and plated dishes topped with garnishes each circulate in orderly rows along their respective belts. As ingredients pass through these three stages, they gradually acquire the convincing appearance of “dishes,” rendering their initial, unprocessed state almost unrecognizable.
이재윤_초원의 포식자 Predators in the Meadow_캔버스에 아크릴_195x135cm_2024
▧ SCENE #4 – Courtroom
"Moooo! Oiiiink! Cock-a-doodle-doooo!"
In a banquet hall distinguished by chandeliers and ornate candelabras, an exceptionally long dining table stretches so far that one would need a mobile phone just to communicate across it. Instead of classical background music, the once-living voices of the dishes fill the space. The dishes arranged along the table are not served on luxury plates but on chair-like structures resembling defendants' seats. Their scent is far from appetizing but a foul mixture of blood, detergent, and chemical odors. Disoriented by the sensory mismatch between sound, smell, and sight, visitors glance around before eventually ascending an elevated central platform at the far end of the room, and taking their seats at a bar-like judge's bench.
1) Indictment
The indictment is read aloud first. It takes the form of a nutritional facts sheet, quantitatively analyzing a wide range of foods whose names are too complex to memorize.
2) Sentencing Recommendation
One of the dishes is closely observed by a visitor at each table. Then it is selected and marked as recommended or not recommended with a brief reason.
3) Verdict
The verdict is delivered by striking an overturned plate with a large fork. The judgment is recorded in the form of star ratings and tags.
4) Billing
A bill is issued for the corresponding dish. It vividly describes the slaughtering, harvesting, and processing of the animals and plants that gave their lives.
5) Indulgence
A receipt is issued as visitors leave the Gastronomy Tribunal. Printed on it are the calm final words and wishes of the martyrs—"Saint Daegwallyeong Korean Beef" for example—who have transformed into a single meal. As the receipt serves as proof that the proper price has been paid, visitors are exempt from divine punishment and may leave with a clear conscience.
▧ SCENE #5 – Columbarium
"All present observe a moment of silence for the patriotic martyr of Sundae Soup"
The canned goods purchased in the supermarket in Scene #2 are in fact the coffins of martyrs, while the verdicts written in the courtroom function as epitaphs composed by future generations. Visitors place each canned coffin together with its corresponding epitaph into an empty niche within the columbarium, bow their heads in respect, and leave the exhibition.
★ Disarmed, Then Struck by a Delayed Attack
The fluorescent acrylic colors and comic-style panel divisions immediately draw viewers into a realm of visual play. Yet this is not merely a Pop Art gesture; it is a strategy of psychological disarmament and a trap for identification. Consider the contrast: a raw chicken with its head cut off, feathers plucked, and entrails only partially removed evokes disgust, whereas a fried-chicken mascot with oversized blinking eyes, smiling as it proudly holds up its own drumstick, becomes "the trendy new fried chicken no true foodie can afford to miss." It is no longer simply a product—it is an item to own, a trend to follow. This progression resembles the logic of simulation, unfolding as a chain of simulacra: from apples growing in an orchard, to Cézanne's apples, to apple-flushed cosmetic advertisements, to apple-"flavored" beverages filled only with synthetic apple aroma, and finally to the logo of Apple, the Big Tech company whose business has nothing to do with orchards. Echoing the ideas of the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze (1925–1995), who emphasized the new originality of the copy, Lee Jae-yoon's cartoon chicken drumstick accomplishes what a raw chicken never could. It masks violence behind an appealing appearance while cultivating a sense of intimacy that deepens the viewer's engagement. The simulacrum, in this sense, becomes the success story of a branch that has taken over the original flagship—a case of what Koreans call cheongchul-eoram, in which the student surpasses the master.
Why, then, invoke this notion of cheongchul-eoram? It is not a shallow didactic gesture reminding us to distinguish the copy from the original. Rather, it serves as a carefully orchestrated setup designed to pull the rug out from under the audience by drawing them into complicity. Through an immersive sequence of experiences—including shopping and making gastronomic judgments that aestheticize death—the exhibition nudges viewers into recognizing their own predatory nature. They think they are simply having fun, only to realize, in retrospect, that they have been participating in a vibrant history of cruelty and a sinful play. Ultimately, this exhibition is an exquisitely engineered trap: it lures visitors into innocently indulging in a brutal reality wrapped in attractive packaging, transforming them from detached spectators into accomplices in a carnival of slaughter. This cheongchul-eoram package performs its role to make this trap so effective, leaving viewers neither the time to erect ethical defenses on behalf of animal life nor the opportunity to justify themselves.
★ Teaser for the Next Exhibition
《See Ya at the Skull Tower》
The 2020 work <The War of the Flowers> took as its motif the skull tower that symbolized the Aztec practice of human sacrifice. In this forthcoming exhibition, monumental skull towers will materialize with their entire surfaces covered in countless receipts generated by the previous exhibition. They are, in effect, colossal tombs inscribed across their entire bodies with the epitaphs of martyrs. By summoning their spirits, the exhibition reimagines the lives they might have lived had they never been harvested or slaughtered.
2026.8. ACK 발행. ACK (artcritickorea) 글의 저작권은 필자에게 있습니다. August. 2026. Published by ACK. The copyright of the article published by ACK is owned by its author.