In North Korea, art is government-commissioned and mainly serves a propagandistic purpose, leaving little room to create works that don’t exist to reproduce the regime’s intended political messages. 

But in his new home in South Korea, one DPRK defector is attempting to freely chart his own artistic path, while exploring his life experiences between the two Koreas.

Jeon Ju Yeong left North Korea eight years ago in 2014, and he is now holding his first solo exhibition in Seoul. In his art, Jeon says he hopes to create a utopian world based on memories of both the North and the