Metaphysical Painter from Korea, Living and Working in Luang Prabang
Lea Oh is a Korean abstract painter whose work explores light, color, and space. She studied English Literature and Psychology as a double major at university before beginning a career at a multinational company. She also completed a Master of Science in Technology Management while maintaining a full-time professional role.
After more than a decade in the corporate world in Seoul, she transitioned to freelance work and traveled to Luang Prabang, Laos. There she became friends, by chance, with an abstract painter known as Lu Guo Xiang who hails from Singapore but lives in both Luang Prabang and Paris. One evening in his atelier, one of his paintings spoke directly to her. With no prior background in painting, she asked him to teach her. The first lesson began simply—and she has not put down the brush since.
Her work is time-based and process-driven. Working layer by layer over extended time, she allows each painting to unfold gradually rather than imposes a predetermined form. Through a continuous dialogue of the artist with the canvas, the painting builds on a spatial structure of shifting tensions arising from harmonies and disharmonies, where color and light contend for primacy in the metamorphosis of forms.
Living and working in Luang Prabang, a UNESCO World Heritage town shaped by centuries-old temples and contemplative rhythms, she lets the slow tempo of the place guide her practice. Rooted in a belief that all things are interconnected, her work increasingly appears to move towards the metaphysical.