A Korean artist who is known for his unique and modern reinterpretations of traditional Korean “clay wall paintings” and fresco techniques (based on over 30 years of research), is one of the “featured artists” of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art which is comprised of Korea’s most prominent artists, and many of his larger works are owned by various corporations and public institutions. The process of creating the clay base for his works, which is just as arduous as the act of painting and makes it look like the canvas is actually a piece of a clay wall, involves the repeated application of very thin layers of clay by hand. This creates a unique texture and thickness that imbue each work with a peculiar sense of movement and a mystical atmosphere. Lee’s works, which are created using only natural pigment paints from finely ground rocks result in an unusual color palette with clay base.
“Sometimes I sketch while holding on to branches because the wind is too strong, while at other times I come across a deer at an oreum (small defunct volcano) crater when no one else is around and am mesmerized by the beautiful scenery. The strong wind always manages to leave a trace of itself on my sketchbook.”
Lee’s work always begins with sketching. More than just observations of his subject matter, his sketches represent his impact on the lives of his subjects and are the source of the abundant vitality and energy of his paintings. Lee has taught promising young artists in a university for many years and is scheduled to host exhibitions in China, France, and the United States in 2019.
A young Korean female artist, Jang Soo Ji is rapidly gaining attention for her distinctive figure images with unique personal and social themes. This girl is a self-portrait, which consoles the viewer as well as the artist herself. She explains that her portrait represent the act of identifying people, who are anxious and lonely. At the same time it reminds hope to connect with the innocence and purity from childhood, which is believed to be intrinsic to every person. Her gold and silver hues with bold color palettes and elements that seem as if they were taken from graphic illustrations, are strikingly conveying the emotions in the eyes of the girls they depict. The flower buds, antlers, and birds positioned near the girl are figments of the girl’s imagination. They symbolize something that undermines the fear of such instability, protect the girl and stabilize her emotional state. Amid the current social environment, which is awakening to the existence of women, Jang’s creations are being increasingly spotlighted for their embodiment of a social message through imagery in her unique style. She is actively giving invitational lectures and continues to participate in art fairs in Hong Kong and Korea, and many diverse exhibitions including two upcoming solo
invitational exhibitions in 2019.
Printmaker Chung Sang Gon, who has gained global attention and numerous awards for hisnwork, has also been working actively on oil painting. His works, both prints and paintings are collected by many museums and art centers including National Museum of Contemporary Art of Korea, Hungary, Tallinn and Great Britain. He began using digital media very early in his career, throughout which he has consistently expanded the expressive range of his prints, which look like water painting. To create the prints, he takes an unconventional approach, i.e., the expansion of the digital in the realm of the analog, allowing him to create a platform for a humanities-rooted exploration of our relationship with the existence of technology rather than its role. Chung’s works, in which reality is made alternately visible and invisible and phenomena are revealed through repeated drawing and erasing, pose to viewers the philosophical question of whether our reality is an illusion created through the repetition of human concepts and prejudices. Shapes; old palaces, trees, landscape and etc. are vague and overlapped to achieve that intention. The kind of space that is naturally formed through Chung’s creative process brings to mind the concept of “empty space”, which is crucial to traditional oriental painting, revealing his identity as a Korean artist despite of applying cutting-edge technology to his work. Chung’s oil paintings are honest depictions of strong, dramatic, and unrefined emotions. The artist’s entire body and all of his emotions “become” the brush, immediately funneling his energy onto the canvas and thereby materializing the fictitious landscapes that existed in his imagination. The location of Chung’s studio (at a secluded place next to the forest on the outskirts of Seoul) also inspire artist to convey the emotions with intense depth and energy. Chung’s artworks always generate a visceral resonance in everyone who views them.
An Byung Keun, whose art has been on display at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA)’s Art Bank since 2016, lives in the city of Seogwipo on Jejudo Island—the same place where representative Korean artist Lee Jung Seob once lived. An often depicts the ocean and Hallasan Mountain using exquisite and fluid brushwork that is both “soft” and “strong”. To create his own unique style, An uses oil paints in such a way that they look like watercolors, meshing seamlessly with An’s pastoral aesthetics. An’s paintings also give the impression of a modern reinterpretation of the world-renowned Jejudo artist Byun Shi Ji. For An, who describes Jejudo in his artist’s notes as “an island that finds me, no matter how much I hide,” the island is the embodiment of time, memory, and reality. The dream-like quality of the artist’s work, which uses the external elements of the luscious beauty of Jeju Island as a metaphor for the artist’s inner world, invites outsiders to take a break from the rapid pace of life to experience different facets of the island’s beauty, such as the heat shimmering off of Jejudo’s famous oreum (small defunct volcanoes).
There are many artists who depict Jejudo’s breathtaking landscapes, but An is particularly noteworthy for his process of visualizing a comfortable and wider perspective of Jeju Island through an intensely personal approach that meshes these landscapes with everyday themes and signature painting style that tends to intermingle and overlap various elements. An frequently participates in group exhibitions and projects in both Jejudo and Seoul and has also held solo exhibitions at the Lee Jung Seop Art Museum and museums in Japan.
