Hyundai Marine & Fire Hanuri | A 21st-Century Genre Scene Captured by the Brush

Your eyes are drawn to the elegant figure of a beautifully adorned woman, and then a chuckle escapes as you notice the cheeky irony of her eating fast food in such a refined outfit. Standing before the painting again, you realize that this scene is a self-portrait of our era, and a wave of poignancy follows. You come to understand why she achieved "the highest attendance ever for a solo exhibition in Korea," and you find yourself agreeing with why American magazine Forbes named her one of the "30 Under 30 Asia" of 2017. We met painter Kim Hyun Jung, dressed in an elegant hanbok as if she had stepped straight out of her own paintings.

Korean "Naesung" Captivates the World

Among portrait paintings, works with a woman as the main subject are numerically scarce. Even counting women from noble families, ordinary wives, and gisaeng, the number of known works can be counted on two hands. Painter Kim Hyun Jung paints only such rare and precious portraits of women. The woman in her paintings wears hanbok while delivering hamburgers on a scooter, going on shopping sprees with both hands full of bags, skateboarding with a confident stance, or falling into a deep sleep with a phone in hand. The depiction is realistic, and the content overflows with directness. That combination is mysterious. This woman, who could very well be living among us, is called "the Naesung woman," and Kim Hyun Jung is called "the genre painter" or "the idol of Korean painting."

"My Naesung Series depicts women wearing hanbok as its subject matter. Although they wear hanbok, a traditional garment, they ride bicycles with earphones in, or operate a tablet with their feet up on a desk. These are not images that match conventional etiquette or expectation — because this is what Koreans look like right now. What I want to express is the unexpectedness that arises from the contrast between the actions of a figure wearing hanbok and the props she carries. It's a kind of unconventionality or irony that shows the coexistence of traditional dress and modern daily life, and the Naesung of a woman whose outside and inside differ, revealing something unexpected. Perhaps because these depictions aren't uncomfortable to look at, many people seem to enjoy them."

If you feel a sense of catharsis standing before Kim Hyun Jung's paintings, it's likely because of the experience of becoming free from social convention and the judgment of others. Not only the Naesung Series that made her name known, but also 21st-century Korean spaces that are most distinctly local — bathhouses, jjimjilbang (Korean saunas), nail salons, street food stalls — are being captured and recorded as works by Kim Hyun Jung's brush.

"It was when I was exhibiting at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the US. A foreign visitor looking at 'Naesung: You Who Move Me,' which shows the Naesung woman riding a McDonald's delivery scooter, complimented me, saying, 'I've heard of a McDonald's drive-through, but I never imagined McDonald's delivery!' I remember enjoying introducing Korea's delivery culture to them. Even hanbok isn't that familiar to Koreans these days, so I had a vague worry about whether foreigners would understand it. But there was a lot of interest in Korean genre painting, and through overseas exhibitions I really felt that what is most Korean is also what is most global."

Learning and Experiencing Directly, Then Transferring It to Canvas

From the age of eight, when she showed exceptional talent for drawing, to now, painter Kim Hyun Jung has been reading the world through painting, revealing herself, and communicating with the world.

"There has never once been a moment when I wasn't happy while painting. It's physically exhausting to paint every day, but when I get to share many conversations with people through the paintings I love, I feel, 'I'm alive, and I'm happy.' And because I can't express something properly without knowing it well, I like to learn and experience things directly. Not long ago, I learned to skateboard. I expressed the joy I felt at that time in a work called 'Naesung: Enthusiast.'"

The Art of Appreciating Korean Painting

First, appreciation is an act of feeling with a trembling of the soul. Empty your mind and see with the eyes of people of the past, and feel with the hearts of people of the past.

Second, an appropriate viewing distance from a painting is about 1 to 1.5 times the diagonal length of the painting.

Third, people of the past wrote vertically from right to left. So when viewing Korean painting, let your gaze flow from the upper right to the lower left.

Although the Naesung woman in her works differs on the inside from the outside, Kim Hyun Jung as a painter is the same inside and out. "Having lived as a painter, there was no reason I had to be poor, or any need to be unhappy," she says candidly, adding, "The image of the short-lived, poor, eccentric artist that people readily associate with the profession is just a social convention." Indeed, she has collaborated with the City of Seoul and various other institutions and companies, so much so that her works can even be purchased at convenience stores. Making use of social media — a 24-hour exhibition space — she is also outstanding at communicating with fans, running events such as soliciting names for her works.

"I published a Naesung coloring book. I ran an event where people photographed their own colored-in pieces and submitted them, and looking at the entries, there were so many creative works that went beyond imagination. Fine art or art in general isn't really something only specific people can do, is it? I think the threshold needs to be lowered further for art to breathe together with society. I want to play a role that contributes to that."

A Painter Is Also a One-Person Startup Founder, Doing Her Best in the Present

The hand that holds the brush is a painter's hand, and the hand that communicates with readers via phone is also a painter's hand. Kim Hyun Jung defines herself as a "one-person startup founder." Indeed, her résumé is colorful — cotton candy vendor part-timer, flyer distributor part-timer, cram school instructor, private tutor, online shopping mall founder. There's a reason her eyes are keen at catching the essence of a phenomenon.

"I'm not in a position to give advice since I'm still learning myself, but if there's one thing I'd like to remind young Koreans who feel frustrated or powerless, it's to 'do your best in the present.' I think it's a shameful attitude not to give your best to the work given to you. I hope that this new year, everyone will challenge themselves again and do their best together."

These days, painter Kim Hyun Jung says she's deeply into flower arranging, exercise, and the fun of online shopping. Though her achievements are already solid, she has even more plans she wants to carry out.

"I'd like to learn scuba diving and paint the haenyeo (women divers) of Jeju, which has been designated a UNESCO world cultural heritage. I want to introduce Korean culture such as K-drama and K-pop to the world through my paintings. I also want to let people know that many artists are devoting themselves to 'Korean painting,' which carries our country's unique sensibility."