Chosun Ilbo | “I Used Oriental Painting to Satirize a Society Where Outside and Inside Differ”
The Chosun Ilbo reported that Forbes named Kim Hyun Jung the first painter ever selected for its '30 Under 30 Asia' list. The article introduced Kim's world of work and career, including her 'Naesoong' series depicting hanbok-clad women rebelling against convention, and an anecdote from her graduation at Seoul National University's Oriental Painting department.
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'Oriental painter Kim Hyun Jung rebels against convention by depicting women in traditional hanbok playing pool or doing sit-ups. She challenges conservatism by revealing the outline of the woman's legs beneath the hanbok skirt. She has received various art awards in Korea and held a solo exhibition at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art last year.'
This is why the US business magazine Forbes selected Korean painter Kim Hyun Jung (29, photo) for its '30 Under 30 Asia' list last month. Singer G-Dragon, figure skater Kim Yuna, and actor Kim Soo-hyun have appeared on the annually selected list before, but Kim is the first painter to do so.
"Perhaps I was selected for contributing even a little to bringing art closer to the public?"
Kim appeared wearing a red hanbok made of patchwork fabric. She says that from following her artwork, wearing hanbok gradually became her trademark. Her social media accounts announcing news have 100,000 followers. A total of about 67,400 people visited her solo exhibition held in Seoul last year. Her 'Naesoong' series proved especially popular. A woman dressed in elegant hanbok does things that seem entirely mismatched with such refined attire — stuffing tteokbokki into her mouth at a street stall, or riding a hamburger delivery scooter with her legs bare.
"'Naesoong' is about the gap between what's outside and what's inside, right? Viewers burst out laughing when they see paintings that capture that exact moment." She paints familiar, easy-to-understand pictures using traditional techniques. "I dislike difficult art too."
She graduated from Sun Hwa Arts Middle and High School and Seoul National University's Department of Oriental Painting. "Competition was intense, and it wasn't an atmosphere where anyone acknowledged anyone else. I got tired of the 'Gangnam culture' where female students talked about luxury bags and plastic surgery." She painted a picture satirizing snobbish college friends who dressed elegantly but acted in unrefined ways — a work showing ramyeon boiling in a cheap pot beside a luxury bag. She submitted it as her graduation exhibition piece, but it was rejected for being 'too shallow a theme.' Angry, she painted a vase (hwabyeong, 花甁) titled 'Hwabyeong' (火病, literally 'fire sickness,' a Korean culture-bound stress syndrome) and passed her graduation review.
She participated in the Asian Students and Young Artists Art Festival (ASYAAF) for five years starting in 2009, gaining public recognition, and held her first solo exhibition in 2013. The piece rejected from her graduation review has now become her most popular representative work. "I even make my work into phone cases or frames so that people living alone can afford them. I want to keep drawing 'young Korean painting' that's loved by people close to it."