Chung Ziah(b. 1999) holds a Bachelor's degree in Chinese Painting from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. She has held the solo exhibition Portraits of Emotion (Gallery ST, Seoul, 2024) and participated in the 2024 emerging artist exhibition Wavy Wave (Hori Art Space, iPLAUNGE), as well as 40 Artists Selected by 4 Critics (Gallery ST, Seoul, 2024), the JoongAng Painting Grand Prix (Korea Art Museum, Seoul, 2023), and the Korean Cultural Center in China Korea-China Exchange Exhibition (Korean Cultural Center in China, Beijing, 2022). She has received the Critics' Award at the Art Korea Young Artist Competition (2024), the Grand Prix at the K-ARTIST PRIZE (2023), and a special prize at the JoongAng Painting Grand Prix (2023). Chung Jiah works in the tradition of Chinese figure Gongbi painting. From an early age, she has been drawn to the full spectrum of human emotion visible in people's expressions, and takes as her subjects the inner forces — love, desire, and anxiety — that give rise to these feelings. She captures the fleeting emotions that cross people's faces, as well as contradictory expressions that run counter to their circumstances, offering them a gaze of comfort and love. Recurring motifs such as flowers and birds serve at times as symbols of the finite nature of life and the longing for freedom, and at others as reflections of an overwhelming reality. Through these elements, her work carries a wish that people may live beautifully throughout their lives, and a hope for the light that will find us after we have weathered its pain.