Woori-deul News | ‘The Idol of Korean Painting’ Kim Hyun Jung Takes Part as the 133rd Torchbearer of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics
Korean painter Kim Hyun Jung took part as the 133rd torchbearer of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics torch relay on the evening of January 16, 2018, along Yeouiseo-ro in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul. Born the year of the 1988 Seoul Olympics, she has a deep connection to the Olympics and previously held the solo exhibition 'Naesoong Olympics,' themed on 'the Naesoong Girl's Olympics.' That day she took part in the torch relay wearing athletic wear instead of her trademark hanbok.
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The Naesoong Girl Carries the 'Olympic Flame'
'The idol of Korean painting' Kim Hyun Jung participated as the 133rd torchbearer in the PyeongChang Winter Olympics torch relay.
According to the Kim Hyun Jung Art Center on the 19th, painter Kim Hyun Jung ran a 200m stretch along Yeouiseo-ro in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul on the evening of the 16th, the 77th day of the torch relay. This marked the first time in 30 years, since the 1988 Seoul Olympics, that the Olympic torch relay passed through Seoul. About 600 people, including citizens and celebrities, took part in the Seoul leg of the relay from the 13th to the 16th, running a 103km route divided into four courses.
Born in 1988, the year of the Seoul Olympics, Kim Hyun Jung has a deep connection to the Olympics. In her signature 'Naesoong Girl' series, she imagined a scenario called 'the Naesoong Girl's Olympics' and painted numerous works around it, and in 2014 she gathered the related pieces for a solo exhibition titled 'Naesoong Olympics.'
Kim said, "Having been born the year the Seoul Olympics were held, I unfortunately never had the chance to watch an Olympic Games held in my own country in person. I had always wished, at least once in my life, to see an Olympics held in my home country with my own eyes. Fortunately, the PyeongChang Olympics let me fulfill that small wish. And on top of that, I was given the even greater opportunity of taking part as a torchbearer. It's a tremendous honor."
[Korean painter Kim Hyun Jung's work 'Acha']
Instead of her trademark hanbok, Kim wore athletic wear for the torch relay. The torch, carrying the slogan 'Let Everyone Shine,' will be passed from hand to hand among many runners before being delivered to the PyeongChang Olympics opening ceremony on the 9th. Kim said, "Unfortunately, there isn't a work in 'Naesoong Olympics' on the theme of the torch relay," adding, "If the opportunity arises, I'd like to paint a Naesoong Girl story on the theme of the torch relay as well."
Kim's 'Naesoong Story' drew attention and became a hot topic when every piece in her 2014 solo exhibition sold out.
[Exhibition view of 'Naesoong Amusement Park']
Since then she has remained highly active, holding numerous solo exhibitions, including an invited solo exhibition at New York's Metropolitan Museum in January 2016, and, as the youngest artist to take part, an invited exhibition at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea spotlighting the history of Korean painting.
In March 2016, she held her solo exhibition 'Naesoong Amusement Park' at [Gallery IS] in Insadong, Seoul, recording a single-day high of 5,026 visitors and a cumulative total of 67,402 visitors. She is regarded as a promising rising star in the Korean art world, praised as 'bold' for her fresh ideas, themes, and modes of expression, while also attempting change grounded in the theory and technique of orthodox Oriental painting. In 2017 she was selected for the '30 Under 30 Asia 2017' list by the globally renowned American magazine Forbes.
Through social media, which she actively uses, Kim Hyun Jung continues to communicate with roughly 100,000 followers and enjoys great popularity, and she is recognized for her art-historical contribution of expanding the realm of pure art by fusing Oriental painting grafted onto everyday life with contemporary media.