ANA DRONE | Inside the Naesoong Woman’s Space, Artist Kim Hyun Jung

There was once an artist in her twenties, full of dreams, but also full of ambition and stubbornness.

She passed through a fiery period in her twenties — an age when no one tells you where to go or whether the direction you're headed is right — a time when the passion of youth felt ready to burn down anything in its path.

Painting was the path that healed her lonely twenties, and through painting, this lonely artist began to communicate.

And now, with the maturity of her thirties, having just about learned how to control that flame, she is remaking the image of Korean painting all over again.

This is the story of Kim Hyun Jung, a globally recognized "artsumer" leading the popularization of Korean painting.

Stepping into the Naesoong Woman's Space

Kim Hyun Jung's atelier, where her space is shifting from the word "stubbornness" to the word "harmony," was well suited to catching a glimpse of her time and her heart. Her paintings, which speak of the absurdities of contemporary society through the honest character of "the Naesoong woman," are both herself and a representation of countless women today. Women who are unaccustomed to dressing themselves up in pretense, who naturally enjoy the convenience of delivery food and junk food, and who say they aren't hungry even as their stomach growls in front of a man they like. This is the artist Kim Hyun Jung, and these are the Naesoong women — today's version of the classical "paintings of beauties." Under January's grand theme of "ART & Drone," we meet the inner space and future-oriented vision of artist Kim Hyun Jung, who juxtaposes the traditional ink-wash and hanji techniques of Oriental painting, along with collage, against contemporary objects.

Could you give us a brief self-introduction?

I'm Kim Hyun Jung, active as a Korean painter from a young age, and I've earned the nickname "the idol of Korean painting." I think I got that nickname because I began working as a Korean painter at a young age. These days, I'm leading the popularization of Korean painting through advertising collaborations aimed at "artsumers" — a blend of "art" and "consumer" — and through active communication on social media. My work is currently held in the collections of institutions such as the Korea Racing Authority, KEB Hana Bank, Shinhan Bank, Seoul National University Hospital, and the Foundation for the American Immigration History Museum. At my 2013 exhibition "Naesoong Story," all 13 exhibited pieces sold out within two days, which became a topic of conversation, and in 2016, my solo exhibition "Naesoong Amusement Park," which ran for 27 days and drew 67,402 visitors, set a record for the highest attendance of any solo exhibition in Korea. I have held solo and group exhibitions at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Korea, the Seoul Arts Center, Sejong Center for the Performing Arts, the National Assembly, and the Seoul Metropolitan Council, and I have made my work known through a variety of other exhibitions at home and abroad. In 2016, I held the youngest-ever solo exhibition by a Korean artist at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. In 2017, I was selected for Forbes' "30 Under 30 Asia."

You followed the classic, traditional academic path of fine arts — Sunhwa Arts Middle School and High School, then the College of Fine Arts at Seoul National University. Could you briefly introduce how you first came to painting and your background as an art student?

Among my not-so-many early memories, the moment I first picked up a crayon remains vivid. I imagine that's somewhere near when I first began art. According to my parents' memory of me as a child, I was someone who could concentrate especially well when drawing. Around that time, my older sister started attending an art academy, and as a little kid who tagged along with her, I began learning to draw at a professional studio from the age of eight. That's how I started in art, and from then on my dream was always, always to become a painter. Perhaps that's why going on to Sunhwa Arts Middle School, Sunhwa Arts High School, and Seoul National University felt like a somewhat natural course for someone whose only dream was to become a painter.

It's known to be genuinely difficult to make a name for yourself as a young prodigy in the arts, especially in Korea's art market. Please tell us about the origin story of the "Naesoong woman" character, which has made you Korea's representative Naesoong-woman Cinderella, and about how the global art market views artist Kim Hyun Jung.

The Naesoong woman, the Naesoong Story, didn't start out as a self-portrait. I like to give my heart to people, but people would show me one face and a different one behind my back. "I'm treating this person with absolute sincerity, so why does what I hear about myself behind my back sound so different?" I came to resent people. It hurt at a young age, and I began painting the people who had hurt me. One day, while drawing the appearance of people I disliked as usual, I found myself thinking, "Could it be that I, too, am different on the inside from how I appear on the outside?" and the thought occurred to me: "Let me try painting myself wearing elegant clothes while behaving in a less-than-elegant way." As I did so, I realized that the figure in my painting was no different from the people I used to dislike. "Ah, so this was my own story all along" — and that is how the Naesoong Story began. Whenever something happened and I thought, "Oh! Ha! That's so Naesoong," I would try to express that situation in a painting. Enjoying myself and immersing in that process, I naturally fell into the search for my own identity — "Who is Kim Hyun Jung?" — and answers began to appear. I wanted to look more closely at myself, so I threw myself into it even more. That's how "the Naesoong woman" was born.

You've held overseas exhibitions in three places — New York, Hong Kong, and Germany. Given how Korean your sensibility is, I imagine you worried whether people abroad would relate to it.

There was indeed some concern about that. But as the exhibition schedule filled out, so many people related to it and found it fun. Watching that lead all the way to sales, I felt once again that "what is most Korean is also what is most universal." Recently, I was selected by Forbes, the largest business magazine in the US, for its "30 Under 30 Asia" list. I think this has become a stepping stone toward going global. I plan to devote myself fully to my work so that Korean painting can become widely known around the world.

Expressing something on a canvas, facing a wall, in one's own empty space for long stretches of time — beyond loneliness, it seems like a long solitude. What is Kim Hyun Jung's own know-how for overcoming that solitude alone?

I think being an artist is a happy profession, but one that can also be very lonely. Sharing thoughts and feelings with other people is necessary for an artist to keep working consistently. I believe that before being an artist, one first has to be a healthy person in order to sustain artistic activity as a "profession." So even while busy working, I try to meet as many people as possible to talk about my work, and I run my social media and blog to show my own story. It's true that a blog limits two-way conversation, but it has helped me a great deal by giving me a chance to objectify myself and look back on myself from various angles.

Protecting Oneself Through Painting

What does painting mean to you, Kim Hyun Jung?

Painting, for me, is less about delivering a message I want to convey to others, and more a process of protecting myself. I liked the time spent comforting myself by repeating "this is who I am" when I was struggling and exhausted. It gives me the power to heal myself. The more I paint, the more beautiful my life has become.

If you described your twenties in a few words as stubbornness and depression, how is the more mature Kim Hyun Jung of her thirties changing now? And could you also tell us about the Kim Hyun Jung of her twenties?

The Kim Hyun Jung of her twenties, who was trapped within herself, is now taking steps toward the world. Whether I've truly gained maturity, I suppose I won't know until I'm in my forties. In my twenties I had more energy than I do now, but I was also more impatient, and once I began working in earnest, I think I really worked incredibly hard. Even now, I don't think I could go back and work the way I did back then — there were times I pushed myself to the point of harming my health. Thanks to that, I experienced more in my twenties than many other artists, and through those experiences I've been able to respect other people more and become more careful with my words and actions. I think I've become a little more mature, and I believe I'll continue growing and maturing from here. Being a painter who communicates with the world through painting might sound clichéd, but it's also perhaps the hardest thing to do. In her thirties, Kim Hyun Jung intends to keep going while holding onto that goal of being a painter who communicates with the world.

You present yourself as a highly performative artist, and you're very active and outgoing. What is the driving force that moves Kim Hyun Jung?

The driving force comes from outside myself. It's the support of family and friends, and the interest of those who love my work and my art. My parents, truly, never hold back their support for me, and my gratitude for that always becomes something that keeps me grounded when I'm struggling and exhausted. The interest of those who leave comments through social media also gives me great confidence and courage, and I want to take this opportunity to say that the messages left by those who write to me give me great strength. And I also think it's possible because the moment I'm painting is the happiest moment of all. I still haven't found anything that could replace painting. I also want to be a realistic role model for the many students studying art as a female painter. That's why I focus even harder and stay actively engaged.

I Want to Keep Communicating with the Public Through Art

You grew from a girl of the 20th century into a woman of the 21st century, and moreover, into an artist living in a rapidly changing media era. You paint traditional Oriental painting in the smart era and communicate it with the world. Do you have any know-how for the space you occupy and the way you communicate in this rapidly changing era?

I dream of communicating with the public through art. Because of the nature of my profession, communication is difficult within a limited range of activity, so I communicate through social media. While painting, when I wonder what would suit what the Naesoong woman is holding, what color would suit her jeogori (upper garment), or what title would work well, I post questions on social media. Many people leave comments in real time and give me answers. Among those, I incorporate good ideas and opinions into my work, and I also communicate directly with audiences through art via lectures.

I'm curious about your future creative direction.

Currently, in order to live up to the nickname "21st-century genre painting," I'm trying to capture the way we live in the 21st century. I've created a Naesoong woman at a sauna, and I'm currently working on a Naesoong woman doing laundry at a self-service laundromat, a Naesoong woman getting her hair done at a hair salon, and a Naesoong woman putting on makeup. Also, someday "Naesoong" might become abstracted into the concept of "gaze" or "convention," and I think the issues of self, gaze, and convention are threads that connect to each other in the sense that individual selves interact with one another. As time continues to flow and the era continues to change, I'll need to bring out new subjects. It's something I keep pondering.

It just occurred to me while we were talking — how about flying a drone to paint a Naesoong woman exploring a voyeuristic gaze, or a man who wants to spy on her?

Ha ha ha. That sounds like a fun idea. If I actually painted something depicting spying on someone, it might raise some issues (laughs), but if it were done with the model's consent, it could be an interesting project. I've heard that privacy invasion using drones has become an issue lately, so my painting might even end up used as a poster at a police station (laughs). Aside from the type of painting the editor-in-chief mentioned, I've heard suggestions in various places about drawing "a Naesoong man." Once my worldview around my self-portrait, the Naesoong woman, is fully established, it might be interesting to try "the Naesoong man."

I'm curious about today's artists' perceptions of the future changes of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and about changes in art and galleries.

Artists have a vague fear about the phenomenon of converging with various technologies at the center of the Fourth Industrial Revolution discourse — 3D printing, VR, AR, the Internet of Things, and so on. Just looking at the match between Lee Sedol and AlphaGo, the future is a mixture of anticipation and fear for ordinary people. There have even been cases where AI painted a work, held an exhibition, and sold the painting. Still, I think one of the professions that will survive the Fourth Industrial Revolution is the artist. The originality of the artistic worlds that artists create may be a realm that is difficult to reach no matter how advanced artificial intelligence becomes. The fact that it was a human artist, not AI, who directly conceived and created the work could itself be a basis for evaluation. So, from an artist's perspective, I have great expectations for changes in art and galleries. Of course, even now we can see many online galleries emerging, with exhibitions running 24 hours a day. I feel that art is drawing closer to us in that way, too. I believe positive changes will continue to happen going forward.

If Drawing a Mural with a Drone

Is there a whimsical, eccentric image of the future that artist Kim Hyun Jung could create using a drone?

I've never actually flown a drone, but if there's a whimsical future image I could create with one, it would be painting a mural on a building. You can occasionally see street art graffiti done on walls. It would be fun if, when drawing, I could use a drone for the parts my hand can't reach. In particular, using a drone to charmingly paint the Naesoong woman on the high wall of a building beyond reach could itself become an art project.

This January 2018, the big theme ANA DRONE Magazine prepared was "Art & Drone." A magazine representing the Fourth Industrial Revolution selected the most Korean and most global artist Kim Hyun Jung as its representative for Art in January, and carried out a photo interview sketching her space, beyond her surface appearance. How was it?

First of all, it's truly an honor. Above all, I have an ordinary interest in the paradigm of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and the Fourth Industrial Revolution is precisely the new trend that I, as an artist, need to consider when preparing for the future — so being selected and interviewed by ANA DRONE, which represents that very trend, as an artist representing art, is truly grateful and an honor. It feels like I've met a friend whose thinking really clicks with mine. Having this conversation about drones and thinking about the creative work I could do through drones, I feel like new inspiration for a new creative direction is emerging. Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity to take a closer interest in drones — it was truly fun.

This photo shoot is special for artist Kim Hyun Jung. ANA DRONE and Kim Hyun Jung, together with an actress named "Yoon Ji-yu," recreated Kim Hyun Jung's Naesoong woman. This kind of photo shoot involving the imitation and reinterpretation of cultural content must be a first — how was it?

It was really fun and an honor. How should I put it — it feels a bit like watching a grandchild. When my parents watch my sister's children, that is, my nieces and nephews, they're truly delighted, and they say it's a different kind of joy from the one they felt raising my sister and me. I call my works my babies, and I really do have that much affection for them, so the photo work reborn through actress Yoon Ji-yu feels like watching a grandchild. It's truly rewarding and fun. I hope this kind of work reinterpreting my art continues in the future.

Finally, a message you'd like to send to the Kim Hyun Jung of ten years from now.

This is a question I was also asked when I was selected by Dong-A Ilbo as one of the "100 People Who Will Shine Korea in 10 Years." Well, honestly speaking, I think that in ten years, I should be quite different in some way. Moreover, having been selected as one of the "100 People Who Will Shine Korea in 10 Years," I'd like to think I'll be showcasing Korea's charm on the world stage. If I'm not doing that, I'll probably be back to basics, devoting myself even more to my work. Whatever form it takes, I want to cheer myself on to do my best. But I think my artistic philosophy, my joyful attitude toward painting, will remain the same now and ten years from now.

January is the time and mindset for starting everything anew. Hoping that 2018 would be a year as moving as art for everyone, ANA DRONE Magazine began its first year under the grand theme of ART & Drone. And it selected Kim Hyun Jung — a painter who must always seek out newness and herself — as its Muse of January, carrying out a project reinterpreting her work through actress "Yoon Ji-yu." Resembling the Naesoong woman herself, artist Kim Hyun Jung, in the process of finding her own answers as she heals her own wounds, was still growing — a dignified woman and a world-class artist. Having spent this photo shoot with her and shared many stories, we became convinced that her talent and cleverness will go on to represent 21st-century Korean genre painting. And we came to genuinely hope that she will grow into an artist who can communicate with insight, baring her inner skin, so to speak, with even more of the wounded Naesoong women out there.

Written by Kim Ji-young, editor, Hong So-hyun, Bae Jin-sung