Chung Eun-Mo
Chung Eun-Mo: Arco
by Irene Sofia Comi
In Arco, a site-specific intervention that transforms Zazà Ramen, artist Chung Eun-Mo draws inspiration from a shape that not only defines the restaurant’s ambiance but also aligns with the semicircular forms found in her broader artistic research.
Beyond painting the arch at the heart of the restaurant in shades of turquoise-green and Pompeian red, evoking the ancient technique of encaustic painting, the Korean artist also created a double arch on the walls, which give the appearance that the space opens itself up. This diptych conjures imaginary stages where time feels suspended, creating enigmatic atmospheres reminiscent of the bold perspectives found in the metaphysical landscapes of De Chirico. Resembling Renaissance lunettes, Chung’s arches seem to open onto other realms. These compositions approach the limit of abstraction: primary, stateless forms that share a similar structure yet vary in their analytical arrangement of shapes—circles, rectangles, half-arches, straight and curved lines—all which become modulated by color. Chung explores the luminous quality of color, working with layered glazes. For her, color is a blend of “light, weight, and pleasure,” as she explains how she has always been drawn to the influence of light on the optic-retinal perception of color.
Her works echo the architecture and hues of ancient and Renaissance frescoes. Arco dialogues with the imagery in The Legend of the True Cross by Piero della Francesca; the metaphysical perspective of Leon Battista Alberti, the illusionistic (and Milanese) arch by Andrea Mantegna, and the color palette of Giotto’s Annunciation of St. Anne. Beyond references to Eastern culture, there are also nods to Anglo-Saxon minimalism and abstract painting—ranging from Josef Albers to Ad Reinhardt, to David Tremlett, who also exhibited at Zazà a year ago and whose rigor is gently softened in the works of Chung Eun-Mo, who prefers composite and subdued color schemes, often juxtaposing different shades of the same hue.
Chung has realized several mural projects in Italy, such as the work at Minervino di Lecce’s school (2013) with Nathalie Du Pasquier, the guest artist in Zazà’s previous project and the first to paint the central arch. Connections can also be drawn between Arco and other murals by Chung in Milan, such as Shapes and Shades (2017) at Assab One or her work at the Monica De Cardenas stand for miart (2022). In both projects, Chung extends the forms and lines of the canvas onto the wall, merging the pictorial and architectural planes to form a unified perspectival composition.
This brief excursus situates Arco within a structured timeline, offering a starting point for reflection on the medium-specific nature of Chung’s murals—recurrent in her career yet less known than her works on canvas, paper, or shaped wood.
Born in Seoul in 1946, in the mid-1960s Chung Eun-Mo moved to New York where in 1980 she received a Master of Fine Arts degree at the Pratt Institute. She traveled often to different parts of Europe until settling permanently in Italy in the late eighties. She held her first museum exhibition at the Lenbachhaus, Munich in 1992 and completed the acclaimed site-specific installation at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin in 1994. Chung Eun-Mo has had numerous solo exhibitions in New York, Rome, Munich, Dublin and Seoul and her works are included in a number of important public and private collections. Since 2020 she lives in Milan.