

I
The Island
섬
Her work explores nature, time, memory and the persistence of life, drawing on the island’s landscape — its ancient junipers, its sea and its whales.

Ceramic Artist · Ulleungdo, Korea
What the island gave — its ancient junipers, its sea, its whales.
Master Artisans of Gyeongsangbuk-do in Washington, D.C.Sept 25–27 Smithsonian Craft2Wear 2026Sept 22–24 GW Museum & The Textile MuseumHyejin Jung (HYE) is a ceramic artist and art educator based on Ulleungdo, a volcanic island off the east coast of Korea.
Working with traditional Korean materials and techniques — porcelain, cheolhwa iron painting, ottchil lacquer and onggi clay — she gives form to the traces of time held in nature, and to the quiet persistence of life.
About the artistStory
From a studio on Ulleungdo to the exhibition halls of Washington, D.C.


I
섬
Her work explores nature, time, memory and the persistence of life, drawing on the island’s landscape — its ancient junipers, its sea and its whales.


II
향나무
Seokhyang (石香, “stone juniper”) is the juniper of Ulleungdo that has kept itself alive for centuries in the cracks of barren rock — a symbol of accumulated time and of nature’s strength.
Yet even in a landscape where everything seemed to have ended, nature did not stop.From “Nature Never Dies”


III
고래
This work captures a fleeting moment and turns it into ceramic form, stretching a vanishing sensation into a sense of eternity.


IV
흙과 손
Reinterpreting traditional Korean materials and techniques such as porcelain, buncheong, cheolhwa (iron painting), ottchil (natural lacquer) and kintsugi, she gives sculptural form to the traces of time and the vitality held in nature.


V
울릉혜동
Ulleung Hyedong is my present, my past, and a companion I will keep walking with.
Far Away, Yet Closest — A girl and a whale, whose hearts connect simply by watching each other from afar — and the moment what she wanted to hide becomes what they share.


VI
바다 건너
Washington, D.C. · 2026
Eight works shown at Master Artisans of Gyeongsangbuk-do and Smithsonian Craft2Wear 2026.

01
향나무 브로치 3종

02
자연은 죽지 않는다

03
찰나, 영겁이 되다

04
겸재, 울릉도를 보다 Ⅱ

05
울릉도 향나무 시리즈

06
고목에 꽃핀 날

07
독도 인센스 홀더

08
고래, 자연으로의 회귀

Exhibitions
September 2026 — Master Artisans of Gyeongsangbuk-do: Traditional Crafts of Korea at GW Museum & The Textile Museum, followed by Smithsonian Craft2Wear 2026.
Exhibition history
In the Korean press4 articles