차명주 Cha Myeongju

🎨 Artist Cha Myeong-Ju (車明珠 · Cha Myeong-Ju / Myeong-Ju CHA)

🖌️ About the Artist

Cha Myeong-Ju is a mid-career Western-style painter registered with the Korea Art Foundation (KAF), widely known as an artist who paints not outer landscapes but her own inner world with candid, unadorned honesty. Her work has earned praise as feeling "less like a painting than like reading a single poem," and over the years she has built a pictorial world steeped in poetic sentiment.

🌸 Artistic World — the 心象 (Simsang, "images of the mind") Series

Cha Myeong-Ju's signature body of work is the 「心象 (Simsang)」 series. Meaning "the landscape within the mind," these are works that, rather than depicting external scenery realistically, unfold the artist's inner emotions and imaginings through color and form.

Principal Work Titles | Title | Meaning | |--------|------| | 心象 - Spring Shadow | The mood of spring and the poetic sensibility of shadow | | 心象 - Friend | The warmth of human connection | | 心象 - A Stroll Among the Clouds | A dreamlike landscape | | 心象 - 夢魂 (Monghon, "dream-soul") | The meeting of dream and soul | | 心象 - logos | The embodiment of reason and language | | 心象 - The Wind That Blows Within Me | Inner turbulence | | 心象 - As If Singing | A musical sense of rhythm | | 心象 - Dignified and Proud / Peace / Passion / Blossom Clouds | Landscapes of varied emotions |

🎭 Work Across Diverse Themes

Beyond the 「心象」 series, the artist has explored a rich variety of subjects: - Exhibitions on the theme of shamanism - Works in which wine and woman intermingle - Landscapes from her sojourn in Paris, France (e.g., 〈Montparnasse Outside the Window〉) - Work that interweaves dream and reality (the 2022 〈Patchwork of Dream and Reality〉 exhibition) - Painting Poetry (詩) — a series that transposes poetic feeling into painting

🏛️ Exhibition History (14+ Solo Exhibitions)

| Year | Exhibition | |------|------| | 2025 | 〈At the Boundary〉, a two-person show by Cha Myeong-Ju and Yeon Sang-rok — KAF Gallery Kaph (8.1–8.13) | | 2022 | Cha Myeong-Ju Invitational 〈Patchwork of Dream and Reality〉 — Summit Art Gallery (Pohang) | | 2022 | Dream-Interpretation Illustration Exhibition — Miya Gallery Café (Gangnam) | | 2017 | 14th Invitational 〈Painting Poetry (詩)〉 — Gallery Coop (Seocho) | | 2016 | 13th Invitational — Namtaeryeong Art Space | | 2015 | 12th Invitational — Gallery Art Space U (Busan) | | 2015 | 11th Invitational 〈Landscapes of My Heart〉 | | — | 1st–10th Solo Exhibitions (various galleries) |

🌍 Overseas Art Journeys with KAF Artists

As a member of the Korea Art Foundation (KAF) artists' cohort, Cha Myeong-Ju has taken part in overseas art journeys to Turkey, Greece, South America, and beyond, broadening the inspiration behind her work. On the Facebook page 〈Cha Myeong-Ju〉, one can follow the artist's travel notes from places such as the Greek village of Arachova.

💬 Critical Reception

"Cha Myeong-Ju's work is remarkably refined; it renders not landscapes but the artist's inner self with the utmost candor and unadorned honesty. It is so pure that it feels less like a painting than like reading a single poem." — Review of the 〈Painting Poetry (詩)〉 Invitational, Gallery Coop

Her works are canvases that lovingly hold the grain of light and wind and the emotion of a given day — paintings said to possess the power to make the viewer pause from everyday life and gaze slowly at the warmth they hold.