Oh! Creator | The Story of Korean Painter Kim Hyun Jung — Daily Life and Tastes
The final installment of 'Oh! Creator' covered Kim Hyun Jung's everyday life and personal tastes — her daily routine and ways of relieving stress, why she loves wearing hanbok, the work she feels most attached to, the artists she admires, and the kind of artist she hopes to become.
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The Fifth Story of Korean Painter 'Kim Hyun Jung'
Kim Hyun Jung's 'Likes'
She sends updates to 100,000 followers almost every day, and tens of thousands of people line up to visit her solo exhibitions. She studies while teaching students, and lectures in front of hundreds of people and cameras. Wearing a lovely hanbok, neatly put together from head to toe, standing before the public with a bright face — that's Korean painter Kim Hyun Jung.
She may seem like a flawless, exemplary (?) artist whose daily life is glamorous and airtight, but it turns out she's also an ordinary thirty-year-old woman who checks SNS first thing when she wakes up, loves going to the nail salon, and loves sweet ice cream. Even "Kim Hyun Jung" must find it hard sometimes to smile and work every day, right? Isn't it only natural that she, like anyone, has worries and things she wants to do? The final installment of 'Oh! Creator — Kim Hyun Jung' is a story about small everyday moments and the things she loves.
Q What's your daily routine like?
It's been about five years since I've had a proper day off. These days I barely manage about five hours of sleep. I usually head to work at the Kim Hyun Jung Art Center, where my studio is, around 9 a.m. I don't really eat lunch, so I sometimes use lunchtime to exercise, and I often work late. I plan out what to work on each day and aim to leave by 7 p.m., but it's routine for things to run late once I get into the work.
Q Are you sensitive to stress?
I tend to overthink things. Sometimes, after thinking for a long while, I catch myself and wonder, "Why am I even worrying about this?" I am sensitive to that kind of stifling stress, but I also think I gain energy by overcoming it. These days, overcoming stress has become a bit more natural and comfortable for me.
Q How do you relieve stress?
Even when busy, I make sure to exercise and arrange flowers once or twice a week. Some pieces in 'Naesoong Olympics' came from ideas I got while exercising with equipment at a nearby park. When stress still won't go away, I go to the Yangjae-dong flower market near my studio, look at flowers to get a lift, and buy an armful cheaply to make a bouquet. (Q: Did you originally like exercising?) No. After years of mostly eating delivery food or fast food and rarely exercising, I felt the need for it at some point. Since then I've been trying to keep it up consistently.
Q What are you worrying about these days?
Quite a lot, honestly. My friends call me the "worry factory manager." As in other fields, I've often seen many senior women struggle to balance family and work, so lately I've been thinking a lot about marriage. And since I spend almost all my time on work, I sometimes wonder if I'm missing out on other precious things I could be doing at my age.
Q Being at exhibitions, you must have met so many people. Any visitors who left a lasting impression?
There have been so many — someone who cried saying the work healed them, a male student who comes wearing hanbok to every exhibition, mothers who came wearing hanbok they'd bought for their wedding and kept tucked away in the closet ever since. I promote wearing hanbok to my exhibitions quite a bit, and seeing friends or couples come together in hanbok, enjoying the work, genuinely fills me with pride.
Q We can't skip the topic of hanbok. It's almost strange to picture Kim Hyun Jung not wearing hanbok. Is there a reason you love wearing it?
Maybe because I do Korean painting, I've loved the colors, textures, and accessories of hanbok since I was young. I mostly wear hanbok for lectures, cultural events, interviews, and exhibitions, and generally wear modernized everyday hanbok otherwise. I feel like perceptions of hanbok have changed a lot lately. In places like Insadong or Samcheong-dong, you see a lot of people wearing hanbok, and in fact, many visitors came wearing hanbok to my <Naesoong Amusement Park> exhibition in Insadong last year. It makes me happy to think that the Naesoong Story might have helped, even just a little, bring people closer to hanbok.
Q What hanbok styles do you like?
I wear any color without discrimination. Even primary colors that might be hard to pull off in Western clothing feel bright and elegant in hanbok. Among accessories, I like hair ornaments like baessitaenggi, tteoljam, hairpins, and binyeo. Being short is a bit of a complex for me, so I mostly wear pump-style high heels, and one of my treasured possessions is a pair of shoes my mother made by hand to go with hanbok.
Q What are the pros and cons of wearing hanbok as everyday clothing?
The advantage is that it's comfortable! At first I thought hanbok was uncomfortable, but the wide, full skirt actually covers a lot, making it easier to move around than you'd expect. The high waistline also makes your legs look longer, and it doesn't show weight gain as easily. It's a garment that grows more appealing the more you wear it. The downside is that it's hard to wear on hot days, since traditional hanbok looks best worn in layers. These days there are more hanbok made with lighter materials and modern designs, which I appreciate.
Q You've painted so many works by now. I'm curious which one you feel most attached to.
I'd say it's 'Narcissus,' the first work I painted under the theme of 'Naesoong.' It's personally meaningful to me since it won the Gold Prize at the Korea Women's Art Competition. I'm also attached to a piece called 'Unfamiliar, or Familiar,' which expresses the moment I reached a turning point in my practice. It visualizes the moment I realized that the figure I had drawn to caricature people who are different inside and out was, in the end, myself — depicted as two women sitting face to face, each holding an incompatible game console. That's when I began confidently and in earnest painting naesoong as self-portraiture.
Q Which artists do you admire?
Do Ho Suh and Japan's Takashi Murakami give me a sense of direction as an artist. I think it's truly wonderful how Do Ho Suh's work reinterprets elements of Korean beauty to create beauty that resonates universally. Takashi Murakami is an artist who proved, through brand collaborations, that art can permeate everyday life — showing that having art reach into the realm of commerce can be one valid method. I too am working to become an artist who can confidently present our culture to the world and gain recognition for it, while helping more people enjoy art up close.
Q Finally, the last question. What kind of artist do you want to become in the future?
I want to become an artist who scratches where people itch. I believe the role of an artist, as a professional, is to clearly express, through a relatable message, the issues that many people vaguely sense but can't quite put into words. To do that, I try to be an artist who doesn't get lost or biased within my own world, but instead stays sensitively attentive to and communicative about the world around me.
Planning | Design Press Editorial Team
Reporting and writing: Design Press Editor Moon Han-a
Photography: Kim Jan-deu (516 studio)
Materials provided by: Kim Hyun Jung Art Creative Center
Design Press selects one creator each week for the series 'Naver Design — Oh! Creator.'
Meet a variety of design stories from noteworthy contemporary designers and artists, every day at Naver Design :-D
Oh! Creator — Korean Painter Kim Hyun Jung
1. A Profile in Keywords
2. Kim Hyun Jung's Naesoong Series (1)
3. Kim Hyun Jung's Naesoong Series (2)
4. Surviving as an Artist
☞ 5. Kim Hyun Jung's 'Likes' (Daily Life and Tastes)