Monthly Exhibition Guide | Artist of the Month

June 19 - June 30, 2014

Gana Insa Art Center, 1st Floor Main Exhibition Hall

(T. 02-736-1020, Insadong)

Artist of the Month

Kim Hyun Jung (Korean Painter)

[Image] Swag or Die: Spring of a Professional Housewife, ink-wash coloring on Korean paper, 191×130cm, 2013

[Image] Swag or Die: Naive Lady, ink-wash coloring and collage on Korean paper, 112×134cm, 2014

Kim Hyun Jung Solo Exhibition

Naesoong Olympics

For me, the tension surrounding the 'string' reduces to the tension between the gaze others cast upon me and my own self.

Through my work, I hope to reveal the substance of that primal, likely inescapable, controlling force.

Written by: Sun Seung-hye (Head of Curatorial Affairs, Seoul Museum of Art; Adjunct Professor, College of Fine and Applied Arts, Ewha Womans University)

Message: The Pop of Korean Painting, "Lifting Myself"

Artist Kim Hyun Jung is an idol of Korean painting, much like Girls' Generation. She paints herself with audacious confidence. She's pretty, and audacious, and yet she calls it 'naesoong' (coy pretense). Let's spread "Korean-painting Pop" through Kim Hyun Jung. Kim Hyun Jung's "Korean-painting Pop" is joyful. Watching it, a smile spreads across your lips without your noticing. I love how, gazing at her own adorable self, she hoists herself up with an exuberant "heave-ho" in 'Naesoong: Lifting Myself' (2014). The artist calls it 'naesoong,' but to others, it looks like 'the energy of self-affirmation.'

The naesoong girl wears hanbok. Shin Yun-bok's 'Portrait of a Beauty' has been transformed for the 21st century. An icon dressed in hanbok belongs to no one exclusively — each artist holds their own 'creative right' in how they choose to transform and express it. Where Shin Yun-bok's women enjoyed outings and bathing, the naesoong girl eats ramen and exercises. A woman who looks as though she'd be dining at an elegant table instead eats ramen atop a box. Working out on neighborhood exercise equipment, she calls it the 'Naesoong Olympics.' She draws viewers into empathy with cheerful middle-aged women unfazed by others' stares. Through 'naesoong,' she slips just past the dignity of traditional portrait painting and, in doing so, gains freedom. Following the 'Naesoong' series, the 'Swag or Die' series reveals a subtly feminine charm within the masculine sports of billiards and golf. A shift has occurred within naesoong itself, revealing a touch of bravado and posturing, as if to say 'live by the pose, die by the pose.' I'm curious to see how the girl's naesoong will continue to evolve.

Charm: "Subtly, Subtly Semi-Transparent"

The 'naesoong girl' is cute, yet sultry, yet audacious. The eye naturally lingers on the audacious charm hidden within her cuteness. Why is that? The answer lies in three elements: 'face,' 'body,' and 'costume.'

Her face is pretty. It belongs to the lineage of beauty portraiture. It's simply pleasant to look at — no need for highbrow rhetoric. You want to look, and look again. Men respond instinctively to a pretty face; women, competitively. The moment viewers learn that artist Kim Hyun Jung is herself a beauty, they come to recognize and immerse themselves in the beauty portrait as a self-portrait, as though seeing the artist directly within the painting. This is the birth of an exceedingly rare kind of self-portrait — a beauty painting a beauty. It's a self-produced 'pin-up.' Like a pop idol star, the artist herself electrifies her own fans.

The eye is drawn to the body. Through the hanbok, the outline of the body shows through, subtly, subtly. She first draws the body in a thin outline, then paints the clothing over it — a process as delightful as dressing a paper doll. The faint coloring of the body evokes delicate, peach-toned skin. The body's outline shows through, barely visible, just at the edge of perception. This beauty stimulates the viewer's voyeuristic instinct, but more fundamentally, it is the vital glow of youth itself.

Hanbok isn't worn only for holidays, weddings, and sixtieth-birthday celebrations — it becomes the very style that shows me at my most beautiful in that moment when I most want to play coy. In particular, the technique of rendering the skirt in light ink wash so it appears see-through, like a dragonfly's wing, is executed at an exceptional level.

This is a mode of expression that sets her apart from other artists who paint hanbok. The technique of rendering the skirt semi-transparently, so the body shows through, shares its lineage with the technique of Goryeo Buddhist painting. Notably, in Goryeo depictions of the Water-Moon Avalokiteśvara, unlike Chinese and Japanese Buddhist paintings, the robe is rendered semi-transparently, letting the skin show through. Artist Kim Hyun Jung has precisely understood and applied the technique by which Goryeo Buddhist painting expressed transparency by drawing the robe with white outlines.

Her 2014 new works show newfound confidence in bodily gesture and line. Where the figure's lines in her 2013 works carried a subtle trace of hesitation, the 2014 works are more buoyant while revealing greater inner strength. There is visible effort behind the volume matching her popularity, and also the wisdom to turn that popularity into nourishment. The 'naesoong girl' has grown more self-assured. The slight hesitation has disappeared, and she presents herself with greater confidence. That's why I love artist Kim Hyun Jung.

Spread: Twenty-Seven Years Old — Looking Forward to What's Next

Artist Kim Hyun Jung's contribution to art history lies in bringing Korean painting onto social media and spreading it among the public. Like 'You Did Well Today, Too' (2014), she posts diligently on social media every single day, as though hoisting a barbell with a hearty "heave-ho," and responds sincerely to comments. The heat around Kim Hyun Jung's Korean painting runs high, fueled by the joy so many people feel in communicating directly with the artist. In 'Oops' (2013), her painting of a woman cooking ramen in an aluminum pot, eating it off the lid while eyeing a Louis Vuitton bag and a Starbucks cup, went viral on social media. The moment people saw that painting, it was shared countless times amid humorous, sympathetic reactions of 'that's actually me too.' In this way, artist Kim Hyun Jung's 'naesoong' has captured widespread public interest on social media all at once, forming her own dedicated fanbase for Korean painting.

Even without the grand banner of 'Korean painting,' people captivated by her work are buying paintings, attending lectures, and visiting exhibitions for the very first time. It's gratifying to see a fanbase for Korean painting forming among people in their 30s and 40s in 2014. I count myself among the fans, too. Just like the title 'Naesoong' suggests, I had assumed she was simply a demure, pretty Korean painter on the surface — only to find that she works diligently, meticulously archives her own practice, and never shies away from new projects and challenges. She's now 27. I admire the courage it took to paint self-portrait-like figure paintings. I like the audacity she expresses through 'naesoong.' It's even more delightful that the everyday moments women enjoy alone have become the subject of her paintings.

[Image] Naesoong: Marathoner, ink-wash coloring and collage on Korean paper, 200×121cm, 2014

[Image] Naesoong: You Move Me, ink-wash coloring and collage on Korean paper, 130×196cm, 2013

Written by: Kim Hyun Jung, Artist's Notes

Naesoong Olympics: A Record of Fierce Growth

Growing up manifests as a change in which the colors and fragrances of life become more richly and delicately felt. Events I encounter for the first time in my life sometimes surprise and bewilder me, but it's fortunate that, through new experiences I once felt unprepared for, I come to grasp a different sense of life. At the threshold between twenty-six and twenty-seven, I experienced a leap so large it felt almost overwhelming.

One day, in the heart of autumn, I found myself drawn out by the sky toward the neighborhood park near my studio. The exercise area in the park was brimming with energy. The aura I felt from each person — in their varied clothing, varied faces — arrived to me, together with the clear air, the deep blue sky, and the vivid autumn foliage, like a feast of many colors. That very radiant image became the starting point of 'Naesoong Olympics.' Through familiar, game-like exercises easily encountered in daily life, fragments of vivid emotion — passion, tenacity, elation, being moved, anger, frustration — are expressed. It's much like a prism dispersing and revealing the individual colors mingled within white light. The Olympic rings, symbolizing the world, reflect the diverse colors of life. The Olympics represent the richness and diversity of life. In 'Naesoong Olympics,' the 'Olympics' goes beyond meaning a sports festival — it is a festival of diverse colors and fragrances revealed through the cross-section of exercise.

The awareness of the tension between the world that surrounds me and my own self, and the exploration of self that takes place within that tension, continues in this 'Naesoong Olympics' as well. I still play tug-of-war across the string that connects me to the world. Within that tension — sometimes loosening, sometimes drawing taut — I've tried to hold my ground and face the world with my whole body. I've been hurt at times, but I've sought my way through life by comforting myself with "you did well today, too." And I believe I've taken one more step forward. The confidence to hold up a "red card" against the many things in the world that press down on me is an expression of my own agency, and the "naive lady" who cries out "Victory is mine!" is a self-portrait grown that much sturdier. My works are, in a sense, a diary containing the many impressions that filled me over the past year. I've tried to capture more densely and vividly the complex, layered feelings I experienced — the sense of helplessness and fear about life, along with the elation and joy that suddenly arrive in between — and confess them through the metaphor of naesoong.

Through the process of working and writing artist's notes, I look back on myself and draw a clearer line around things that had felt unclear. Over the past year, I lived fiercely, and through that process, I felt my own thinking and convictions grow more solid. I still waver, but I feel myself improving little by little. With 'Naesoong Olympics,' I offer the world a record of the fierce growth of this past year.

[Image] Naesoong: Fighting Spirit, ink-wash coloring and collage on Korean paper, 111×129.5cm, 2013

Self-Exploration Through Naesoong

Written by: Baek Yun-su (Former Full-time Professor, College of Fine Arts, Korea University; Former President, Korean Fine Arts Association)

The artist secures common topics with others by gathering various information through tablets, comics, remote controls, and mobile phones, and through this tries to make others understand that she is no different from them; through this medium, she also tries to reveal her true self by actually conversing with them.

To infer the artist's original, underlying self, we can turn to the everyday, mundane props that appear in works such as 'Hidden Story,' '1 A.M.,' 'Trembling,' and 'Emptiness (空).' By painting a hobby horse, a stuffed toy, a thimble doll, a toy bat, and other toys used in childhood; everyday items like sunglasses, a hair dryer, and shoes; and animals such as an elephant, hippopotamus, zebra, and crocodile — objects that ordinary people always love and use — she emphasizes that the thoughts and desires hidden within herself are no different from anyone else's.

We can confirm, through 'Immersion,' that what the artist reveals to the outside world is not something she thought up casually for a brief moment, but the result of long, deliberate reflection. In particular, 'Immersion' playfully captures the movement of a big toe, unconsciously moving through the autonomic nervous system in the moment one becomes absorbed in something, showing that all of this proceeds from a conscious state all the way into an unconscious one. As we commonly experience, things in the world don't always go as intended. Unexpected mistakes creep in along the way, producing results we never anticipated or leading others to misunderstand us — we experience this constantly, and it becomes a fresh source of stress each time. And yet, we can feel a human charm, a sense of kinship and solidarity, toward people who make these kinds of trial-and-error mistakes. So, viewed from another angle, such mistakes may in fact be indispensable to living, and we need the presence of mind and wit to turn a mistake into a blessing in disguise.

We can see this process in 'Oops': having shopped for many things, hands full of shopping bags, distracted and in a rush, one's shoe slips off — a genuinely flustering moment. Even more amusing is the case where the switch on a portable gas burner is set to 'off' yet the flame still faintly flickers — a common mistake made when one is completely absorbed in painting, thinking of nothing else. Through this quick-witted transformation of a momentary slip into the title 'Oops,' we sense the artist's inner ease — accepting the mistake as it is and turning it, instead, into humor.

The artist adopts a format in which nearly every thematic composition is rendered without a background, a traditional approach exemplified representatively in Kim Hong-do's 'Album of Genre Paintings,' one that achieves the beauty of empty space while also powerfully presenting the subject. And with the figure's face turned right, left, down, or up in varied poses, she displays a confident command of brushwork. Furthermore, her fluent use of line alongside her skillful command of ink and light coloring shows that she is aiming for the realm of what Jing Hao called 'having both brush and ink.' This depiction of theme relies heavily on the artist's powers of observation in capturing familiar processes we constantly experience in our daily lives, which serves as a highly appropriate vehicle for conveying sincerity to the viewer. In particular, by revealing her themes with wit and without exaggeration, she strongly signals that there is something more within the painting beyond simply rendering something beautifully.

Looking at the paintings in this exhibition, one can clearly sense that the artist finds genuine enjoyment in the act of painting. The Analects say, "To know something is not as good as to love it; to love it is not as good as to delight in it." I look forward to the artist elevating her painting to the level of true delight.

[Image] Naesoong: Planned Coincidence, ink-wash coloring and collage on Korean paper, 129×153cm each, 2014

[Image] Swag or Die: I Am Reliant on You, ink-wash coloring and collage on Korean paper, 131×194cm, 2014

Kim Hyun Jung

2013 Master's coursework, Department of Oriental Painting, Graduate School of Fine Arts, Seoul National University

2012 Bachelor's degree, Department of Oriental Painting, College of Fine Arts, Seoul National University

Bachelor's degree, Department of Business Administration, College of Business Administration, Seoul National University

Solo Exhibitions

2014 Naesoong Olympics, Gana Insa Art Center, Seoul, Korea

2013 Art Seoul Invitational Exhibition, Hangaram Art Museum, Seoul Arts Center, Seoul, Korea

Invitational Solo Exhibition for Outstanding Korean Art Graduate Students, Woorim Gallery, Seoul, Korea

Invitational Solo Exhibition, "She, Naesoong?", Gallery A-in, Busan, Korea

Group Exhibitions

Major International Exhibitions

2013 Im Zickzack durch die Welt, Museum Neuruppin, Neuruppin, Germany

ZigZag, State Academy of Art and Design Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany

BANK ART FAIR, Island Shangri-La, Hong Kong

SQUARE, SPACE WOMB, New York, USA

Major Domestic Exhibitions

2014 G-LOVE: Fundraiser for Heart Surgery for Haitian Children, Seoul, Korea

Seoul National University College of Fine Arts, Graduate Oriental Painting Dept. Exhibition 50106, SPACE 599, Seoul, Korea

Open-in-out, Amway Art Museum, Gyeonggi, Korea

2013 Strange Ideal, Seoul National University Useok Hall, Seoul, Korea

3rd JW Joongwe YOUNG ART AWARD, Hongik Art Center, Seoul, Korea

Anyang Arts High School Faculty & Instructors Exhibition, Anyang Arts High School, Gyeonggi, Korea

'IMMATURE' 3-Person Exhibition, Seoul National University Useok Hall, Seoul, Korea

Speaking of Emotion, Gallery IS, Seoul, Korea

ASYAAF Part 1, Former Seoul Station, Seoul, Korea

2012 Alchemists of Lacquer Exhibition, SPACE50, Seoul, Korea

Insa Art Festival, Future Artists Exhibition, Ara Gallery, Seoul, Korea, and others

Awards and Career

2014 Selected for Dong-A Ilbo's '100 People Who Will Shine Korea in 10 Years'

2013 JW Joongwe YOUNG ART AWARD, Seoul Art Association Chairman's Award

2013 Selected as 'Future Artist' / 'Artist in Her Element' for Perrier's 150th Anniversary

2013 Guest Lecturer, Anyang Arts High School

2012 Seoul National University Alumni Association President's Award

2011 Grand Prize, Korean Painting category, 14th World Peace Art Grand Exhibition

2011 Gold Prize, Korean Painting category, 12th Korea Women's Art Grand Exhibition, and others

Major Institutional Collections

Seoul National University Alumni Association, Seoul National University Hospital, KEB Hana Bank (Korea Exchange Bank), Shinhan Bank,

GE Korea, Deloitte Anjin LLC, Daishin Asset Management, Game Talent Foundation,

Joymax, Coffine Gurunaru, and various private collections, among others

Press

2014 MBC Human Documentary: People Are Good (2014/05/17)

JoongAng Ilbo Economist: ART Sun Seung-hye's Emotional Codes Read Through Art_

'Tomboys in Hanbok, Into Contemporary Art' (2014/03/03)

2013 MTN Money Today: The Leader; Episode 26, Artist Interview (2013/12/02)

MBC Culture Reflections; Episode 374, Artist Feature (2013/11/04)

National Assembly Broadcasting: Culture Sense; Episode 32, Artist Interview (2013/09/13)

MBC NEWS: The Radical Transformation of Korean Painting (2013/08/27)

TV Chosun: News Wide, Artist Feature (2013/08/20)

YTN SCIENCE: Kim Dong-ryul's World of Everything; Episode 7, Artist Feature (2013/08/01)

JTBC: Work Introduction (2013/07/07)

2012 SBS Morning Wide, Episode 5412: Work Introduction (2012/11/20)

KBS 2 Good Morning Korea: Work Introduction (2012/01/03), and others

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