Barcode Landscape: Landscapes of a Coded World 2025 is a painting series that reconsiders the concept of “landscape” in a digitized world.

Created for a solo exhibition in New York in 2025, the series reconstructs the relationship between nature, humanity, and technology through a contemporary lens. Drawing inspiration from traditional East Asian landscape painting, the works replace natural elements—such as the sun, mountains, moon, and clouds—with barcodes, QR codes, and receipt patterns.

This transformation reflects a reality in which the energy of nature is increasingly digitized and visualizes a world where all senses and relationships are translated into data. Technically, the series employs silkscreen printing to emphasize repetition and mechanical texture, yet traces of hand movement and spontaneity remain visible.

This interplay captures the tension between complete mechanization and lingering human sensibility. The exhibition seeks to map a new sensory topography in an era where landscapes are no longer part of “nature,” but have become components of a “coded world.”

Coded Landscape 202521_135 x 61cm_Mixed media on Canvas

Coded Landscape 202522_135 x 61cm_Mixed media on Canvas

Coded Landscape 202523_135 x 61cm_Mixed media on Canvas

The digital revolution, which began with the invention of computers and the spread of the Internet, is completely changing how we live today. Digital information that has replaced the real world effectively controls analog life and breaks the limitations of physical regions and distances through the exchange of information online through social media. 

The works of Hyun-young Oh reflect the rapidly changing spirit of the times and reinterpret traditional landscape and folk paintings with a modern perspective. Instead of the conventional brushstrokes of oriental painting, she uses straight lines in barcodes marked for computerized product management or squared QR codes that display information in a two-dimensional matrix. In addition, as an element of her work, Oh often uses encrypted circular bitcoins that enable direct online financial transactions among individuals.

When it comes to expressing precise emotions, mechanical images reflecting the digital age face more limitations than the touches of the brush in traditional paintings. The straight barcode lines that cannot be bent and can only vary in thickness and length become mountains or trees. A myriad of QR codes consisting of large and small squares within a small square form a cloud. The peach fruit that symbolizes eternal life is replaced by Bitcoins which reflect the desires of the age of capitalism. This unique landscape reflects the faces of modern society that only values efficiency in addition to a standardized and mechanized sensibility. 

Her recent work, The Sun Series, is a close-up of the sun which was the object of worship in ancient religions. By replacing the sublime sun with barcodes, bitcoins, and QR codes, Oh satirizes the twisted desires of capitalist society and religion. Her unique landscape makes us contemplate modern society where everything is quantified and mechanized and paradoxically evokes the romance of the past analog era.

Coded Landscape 202536_46×55cm_Mixed media on Canvas

Coded Landscape 202540_55×46cm_Mixed media on Canvas

Coded Landscape 202541_55×46cm_Mixed media on Canvas

Hyun-Young Oh graduated from Hongik University in Seoul, Korea with a B.F.A. For over 25 years, she has been working tirelessly to create her own style of art works. Her recent works reinterpret classical Korean landscape paintings through a unique combination of silkscreen printing and acrylic with barcodes, QR codes, and Bitcoin logos. She actively holds solo and group exhibitions every year to introduce her new works, which have been exhibited at various galleries and art fairs in Seoul, Busan, Gimpo, New York, Los Angeles, Amsterdam, Chennai, Singapore, and other cities. 

Oh is returning to Neighbor in October 2025 with her newest work Barcode Landscape: Landscapes of a Coded World 2025 built on the momentum of her earlier show Coded, Uncoded and Recoded Hope, which took place in February 2024. Her work is a fascinating fusion of tradition and technology, where serene Korean landscapes are reimagined with the stark geometry of barcodes, QR codes, and Bitcoin symbols. It’s a bold commentary on how digital culture overlays and sometimes distorts our perception of the natural and spiritual world.