{"id":3399,"date":"2025-12-10T09:44:55","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T16:44:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/?p=3399"},"modified":"2025-12-10T09:44:55","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T16:44:55","slug":"seonna-hongs-tender-paintings-navigate-contradiction-with-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/?p=3399","title":{"rendered":"Seonna Hong\u2019s Tender Paintings Navigate Contradiction with Care"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Seonna<\/p>\n

If there\u2019s a feeling that could sum up the whiplash of living online and off, it might be cognitive dissonance. This deep sense of unease emerges when our actions and beliefs don\u2019t align or when something we\u2019d previously thought true is proven false. Psychology tells us that the constructive way<\/a> to deal with this unwanted feeling is to incorporate the new information into our lives, instead of pretending it doesn\u2019t exist or continuing to believe something inaccurate.<\/p>\n

In an era of AI slop and conspiracy theories ruling the highest levels of government, cognitive dissonance will likely be a fixture of contemporary life for the foreseeable future. It\u2019s also an apt title for a new body of work by Los Angeles-based artist Seonna Hong<\/a> opening this month at Hashimoto Contemporary<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"an
\u201cThe Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows\u201d (2025), acrylic on canvas, 72 x 60 inches<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hong, whose work in television and feature animation has won her an Emmy, is best known for her layered, autobiographical paintings. Abstract landscapes emerge through visible brushstrokes sweeping across the canvas, with tiny rainbows and spindly, barren trees dotting the scenes. The artist always adds figures last, rendering them in plain, monochromatic dresses with no discernible facial features.<\/p>\n

In this new body of work, we witness tender moments of care and reciprocity amid environments riddled by unknown disasters. Hong frequently cites the growing threat of the climate crisis as a central point of her practice, and while environmental collapse is present in these new pieces, the artist also touches on the political situation in the U.S. and global struggles for life and dignity.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Collision of Truths\u201d and \u201cLaotong\u201d both feature women with clenched fists that signal a clear desire to fight, while other paintings portray a sense of community and compassion. \u201cEudaimonia,\u201d for example, depicts a trio holding hands while climbing a steep, slippery incline. The title is an ancient Greek word<\/a> that means the \u201chighest human good,\u201d a concept that seems to ground much of Hong\u2019s new work. <\/p>\n

Like earlier paintings<\/a>, those in Cognitive Dissonance<\/em> play with contradictions: abstraction and figuration, the temporary and enduring, and desolation and care. But where Hong has previously presented environments as both keepers of memory and endless sites of possibility, these pieces feel more urgent, suggesting that when loss and hardship are omnipresent, we\u2019ll need to rely on our bonds with each other to carry us through.<\/p>\n

Cognitive Dissonance<\/em> runs from December 13 to January 10 in New York. Follow Hong\u2019s work on Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"an
\u201cThe Collision of Truths\u201d (2025), acrylic on canvas, 30 x 40 inches<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"an
\u201cSonder\u201d (2025), acrylic on canvas, 60 x 72 inches<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"an
\u201cSaudade\u201d (2025), acrylic on canvas, 11 x 14 inches<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"an
\u201cLaotong\u201d (2025), acrylic on canvas, 14 x 11 inches<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member<\/a> today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Seonna Hong\u2019s Tender Paintings Navigate Contradiction with Care<\/a> appeared first on Colossal<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If there\u2019s a feeling that could sum up the whiplash of living online and off, it might be cognitive dissonance. This deep sense of unease emerges when our actions and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3399\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}