Still Standing · Wood relief with painted geometry · Currently in Material Mediations at JG Art Gallery, Bainbridge Island
Jill
Kyong
Wood Relief · Layered Media · Sculpture
Korean-born American artist · Pacific Northwest
Where McConnell's wood remembers fire, Kyong's wood remembers stillness. The cleanness is not absence; it is precision.
From the gallery's notes
Korean-born American artist working in the Pacific Northwest. Kyong builds in wood with restraint — reliefs and panels that carry the wood's bare grain alongside painted geometries that read like horizons. The economy is the point.
Her practice spans wall reliefs, freestanding sculpture (often paired with stones or natural elements), studio furniture, and oil painting. Where many artists working in wood let the material's drama do the talking, Kyong asks the wood to be quiet. The reliefs use birch panels — bright, even-grained, untextured — with painted forms in restrained palettes (navy, chartreuse, white, soft cyan) that introduce geometry without competing with the wood.
The diptych Echo uses circular cutouts in birch as instruments for stillness; the oil painting For Good reads navy and white as horizon and snow, with one thin teal line and three red dots as the only event. Still Standing is exactly what its title says — a panel of dark vertical bars rising from a horizon line, holding the room without insisting on it.
Layered media work is fundamentally about sequence. Each application sits on what came before and conditions what comes after. The first layer is never truly covered — it persists as a structural fact that shapes everything above it, even when it's optically invisible in the finished surface.
Kyong's practice makes this logic explicit. Her surfaces hold the accumulated evidence of a working process — the decisions to add, to cover, to scrape back, to redirect. Where the blacksmith's hammer marks are indexical (each mark records a blow), Kyong's layers are sequential: each layer records a temporal decision, a state of the work at that moment in time.
In Material Mediations, her work provides the temporal counterpoint to McConnell's wood (which holds spatial memory, the logic of growth) and Cristalli's iron (which holds thermal memory, the logic of heat). Three different kinds of material intelligence, each visible in the finished work to anyone willing to look.
Five operations. The sequence is visible.
Each layer is permanent. The surface of the finished work records every prior state. First layers are never gone — they persist structurally, even when they're not visible.
The first layer establishes the structural character of the surface. Its texture and absorbency determine how subsequent layers behave. For Kyong, the ground is usually birch — bright, even-grained, willing.
Repeated applications develop tone, texture, and form. Each layer is read before the next is applied. The surface is in dialogue with the artist — it tells her what it needs next.
Scraping, scratching, or partial covering redirects without erasing. The evidence of prior states remains visible in the altered surface. The decision to subtract is as authored as the decision to add.
Later layers bring disparate areas into coherence. Transitions between zones of different history are negotiated at the surface. The work moves toward a unity that doesn't deny its accumulation.
The final layer holds all prior decisions. The work's history is visible to the attentive viewer — sequence made spatial. Nothing is hidden; everything is just in its place.
Through observations of nature and the world around us, my work centers on quiet moments that give us hope. I create minimalist art to put an object of beauty into the world and bring us together.
— Jill Kyong
Jill's practice, in detail.
Origin
- KoreaKorean-born American
- PNWPacific Northwest basedLives and works in the region
Practice
- WallWall ReliefsBirch panels with painted geometry
- SculptureFreestanding SculptureOften paired with stones or natural elements
- FurnitureStudio FurnitureCustom commissions including the Idaho Table
- PaintingOil PaintingRestrained palette work
Selected Exhibitions
- 2025Between Spaces — solo showMay–June 2025
- 2026Material Mediations — JG Art GalleryBainbridge Island, May 2 — June 4
Notable Commissions
- IdahoIdaho TableSculptural dining piece — commissioned for an Idaho residence
Materials & Method
- BirchBirch panels — bright, even-grained, untexturedWood asked to be quiet
- PaletteRestrained paletteNavy · chartreuse · white · soft cyan
- SequenceFive operations processGround · Build · Subtract · Resolve · Hold
Statement
- IntentQuiet moments that give us hopeThrough observations of nature and the world around us — minimalist art as object of beauty
As featured in.
Three works in Material Mediations.
Each piece is currently at JG Art Gallery, Bainbridge Island, through June 4, 2026. The gallery responds within one business day with placement, dimensions, and indicated price for the work in question.
Material Mediations
Kyong shows alongside Andy McConnell (wood and mixed media) and Maria Cristalli (forged iron) at JG Art Gallery's First Friday Art Walk. The three practices share a preoccupation with process-visible surfaces.
McConnell's wood holds the memory of the grain; Cristalli's iron holds the memory of heat; Kyong's layers hold the memory of sequence. Three kinds of material knowledge, placed in direct conversation.
- Opening reception
- May 2, 2026 · 5–8 PM · The artists will be present
- Run dates
- May 2 — June 4, 2026
- Location
- JG Art Gallery, 176 Winslow Way E, Bainbridge Island
- Getting there
- 20-minute walk from the ferry terminal
- Acquisition
- Kyong's work is available directly through the gallery — worldwide shipping, payment plans, full provenance documentation
The gallery responds within one business day.
For current availability, pricing, or to commission new work — including custom studio furniture and architectural reliefs — write directly. Private previews available by appointment.