Che Ree Kwon "What color are your emotions?"

Solo Exhibition

Where: Bayside Gallery, Toronto

When: Mar. 2 – 28, 2025

​What color are your emotions?

In our busy, fast-paced world, we often respond automatically when asked, “How do you feel?” Sometimes emotions that come up so suddenly feel unimportant, and we may react too quickly, leading to regret. But what if you were asked “What color are your emotions?” When explaining why you chose a color, you might use simple, sensory words—like a child would—without worrying about being perfectly correct. Sensory expression is like a gentle touch that helps you connect with your feelings and gives you time to understand them. It can also spark your imagination and lead you to new experiences, like exploring synesthesia.

In every part of our lives, emotions are always present, and communicating with the world requires expressing them accurately. I channel these clear and strong emotions into my art, capturing them as simple yet powerful shapes and colors on canvas. Each emotion I paint is unique, expressive, and full of energy, like a carefully chosen piece of colored paper. This process feels like naming each emotion, much like how a child joyfully names the shapes they cut from paper.

Living in Canada as an immigrant has made me more aware of the wide range of emotions that arise from navigating different cultures. This diversity of experience feeds into my art, where I use color and shape to express the emotions that words sometimes fail to capture with the use of painting and mixed media on canvas. Just as sensory expression helps us understand our feelings, my abstract paintings aim to reflect the complex emotional layers of living in a multicultural world. Through my work, I invite viewers to explore the rich, colorful landscape of human emotions, encouraging them to connect with their own feelings in a deeper, more intuitive way.