Collection: Asian Art: New Korean Vogue

Korean art has become the new vogue, as it continues to intrigue and impress the art world. Traditionally, Korean art was about harmonizing with nature and refraining from expressing in extremities. But with the current Eastern-Western fusion wave, a new narrative is beginning to form. Whether it’s the 2012, ‘Gangnam Style’ or the recent Oscar winning movie ‘Parasite’ by Bong Ho, Korean art is everywhere. From incorporating their native art references with the ever-changing western one to starting their own movement, Korean artists are consistently challenging the conventional boundaries. Here are some outstanding Korean visual artists that have recently caught our eye.

Born in Seoul, Hyun Ae Kang is a famous second generation ‘Dansaekhwa’ or ‘monochrome painting’ artist. Her work follows a Buddhist and Taoist ideology where she creates abstract paintings and prays before initiating each painting process. She uses the canvas as a surface which is to be multi-layered with meticulously applied, thick paint strokes. The viscosity of the texture and the methodology is reminiscent of her sculptural practices. Her color choices and strokes, create a vibrant, energetic sensation, much like Divisionism, and the laborious process of paint application is meant to remind one of the painful Buddhist meditation that is practiced repeatedly in order to attain Nirvana. Having received recognition in 1993, Kang’s works are housed in several prominent museums. Her work can also be seen at an upcoming retrospective at Muzeo Museum and Cultural Center in Anaheim, California, in 2021.

Kim Seungwoo painstakingly assembles hundreds of thousands of coins and buttons to create hyper- realistic human body figures and sculptures. His life-sized figurines and flowing geometric patterns are made to communicate the question in his mind – ‘Art is Money, or Money is Art?’ These remarkable, detailed sculptures are so hypnotic that they make one temporarily forget that they are made out of a token of monetary value. As the coins themselves are assembled with a lot of hard work, the sculpture itself becomes reminiscent of the phrase- ‘hard earned money’, and its form comments upon the human desire to acquire it.

Seunwhui Koo’s works are a reflection and commentary of her life in New York city. Her work entails a combination of the human body and pig’s head displayed in various setups. Having received her Bachelor’s degree in Sculpture from Kyungpook National University, South Korea, Koo went on to experiment with the fusion between the Eastern and Western cultures. The idea of Good fortune (Eastern) and greed (Western) are two very different connotations of the pigs to her, and are the central motif in her work. She often uses either black and white, or vibrant colors, in a vast array of mediums to execute her ideas. The whimsical quality and the numerous pigs in her work, invites the viewer to indulge and investigate them further.