Modern art

Kang Yobae

Even the smallest elements of nature come alive in his work. Radish leaves, cats in a yard, and flower petals drifting in the wind are rendered with remarkable vitality and familiarity. Kang also uses unconventional tools, including folded paper, dried kudzu root, and brooms, working them through thick layers of paint to create rough, irregular textures.

His landscapes are deeply rooted in Jeju, his hometown. Rather than simply depicting its scenery, Kang seems to capture the forces at work within nature—the movement of wind and water, the weight of moisture in the air, and the vitality of living things. This deep connection to Jeju gives his paintings their distinctive power.

Song Younghu

Song Younghu demonstrates a unique perspective through his continuous artistic practice. He tries to compress, break down, and blend the world and images. He compresses each image into a thin strip of color just 1 cm wide. He applies this method to historic photographs of Korea from the past 100 years and then connects the vertical strips horizontally. The result is a large-scale work about 10 meters wide. It brings together historic events in Korea, yet it looks like abstract art.

In another work, he breaks down an image into individual elements of color. He likens this concept to the inside of a semiconductor, especially NAND flash, where circuits are intricately layered and interconnected. The elements that make up an image are broken down into individual pieces and then layered.

In another work, he blends colors to create numerous variations. He uses only six basic colors, but their combinations produce countless colors. These colors are analog, not digital. Compression, deconstruction, and blending form his artistic grammar for interpreting the world. His work reminds viewers that images and colors are composed of many elements and that recombining these elements can sometimes lead to countless unexpected possibilities.