Cha Jong Rye was born in 1968 in Daejoen, Korea, a historic province now known as the silicone valley of Korea, but whose name translates to a‘large field’harking back to its simple organic roots. These roots in the simplicity of nature are the basis of her works and use of wood as her chosen medium. She completed her graduate work at Ewha Women’s University in Seoul in 1996.

Cha Jong Rye’s work is the process of encountering‘another I,’ not the familiar self. It is also the process of looking for what the Buddha called the‘true I,’ as well as the ultimate goal of her art. This self-composed artist flatly refuses to apply any external force on her art, but chooses to understand, perceive, and find herself by actively moving her body and soul of her own free, voluntary will.

Using wood as her chosen medium, Jong Rye constructs seamlessly intricate wooden landscapes through her often wall-mounted sculptures. Sanding and layering hundreds of delicate wood boards, her process is intentionally unintentional; rather than executing a predetermined design, she allows herself to discover images in the fluidity of arranging and rearranging the uniquely hand-shaped blocks. The result is a richly textured three-dimensional canvas upon which light and shadow dance, transforming the once-recognizable wood material into entirely abstracted landscapes reminiscent of wrinkled linen or rippling water.

Cha Jong Rye lets her chosen material, wood, steer her practice, unveiling her inner thoughts as it takes shape through her hands. Working with it as if it were clay or paint, she layers and meticulously sands hundreds of delicate wood pieces into aesthetic contours and shapes that seemingly have no beginning or end. The resulting monumental, self-standing or wall-mounted, works of art have a natural fluidity and energy that symbolize Cha Jong Rye's philosophy of the landscape of our individual lives and the world around us. Presenting her sculptures in the present tense, as something living and moving, rather than as complete reality, her work also calls on the ideas of creation, infinity and eternity.

Equally important to her own subjectivity in the creative process is the subjectivity of her audience--the freedom of the viewer to interpret her work from a unique perspective. Jong Rye considers her work to rely on the interaction and communication between viewers and herself, and feels that a sculpture is most complete when a viewer interprets it in a way that is unique from her own understanding.