Published by the Gwangju International Center since 2001
In this installment of People in the Arts, we meet artist Kim Kyung-joo, who founded the Gwangju-Jeonnam Art Community and was a participant in the minjung art movement with woodblock prints and ink paintings. What follows is the interview that I recently had with Mr. Kim.
Heo Dal-yong was born into the Heo family, which was continuing the line of the painting referred to as namhwa (남화). Namhwa is a style of painting that originated in China. It is also called “literary painting” because this style was mainly painted by Confucian scholars rather than by professional artists.
This year, from April 7 to July 9, the Gwangju Biennale will host its 14th Biennale, showcasing works from 79 artists, half of which are new works that have never been exhibited previously. Of the 79 artists, the Gwangju News is fortunate to have reached Anne Duk Hee Jordan, an established artist based in Berlin who will debut a suite of interactive robots at the Biennale.
Lim Nam-jin is a painter who gives us subject matter to ponder, and her paintings give us a space to step into.
The place where I first met Yoon Nam-woong’s artworks was at Daein Market in downtown Gwangju. When the old market, where I used to go grocery shopping with my mom as a child, was gradually emptying out because of the newly emerging shopping malls, young artists came into the vacated shopping areas and created their own work spaces. One by one, small, unique galleries were created like nothing I had seen before, and people began to visit Daein Market to see their artworks. I remember that “The Arts Market” was opened every weekend and that my family also went to Daein Market to enjoy the various artistic works as well as the fresh foods.
Happy New Year, fair readers and listeners! The past year has been another very strong one in new music from both the old pros and the young upstarts, but you know, there’s just too much of it out there. Thankfully for you, I do this full-time so you don’t have to listen to the latest amateur outfit’s “epic” debut (I’d have added another word to that description most of the time), or that old band you love making an incredible return to form with their 348th career LP (which sucked, let’s face it… we still love ‘em but c’mon).
The band describes its music in online bios as “seomin punk,” with seomin meaning “the commoner class or ordinary people.” But it’s not to be confused with working-class pride, a common theme among many other punk bands.
“Art is said to be spoken in various languages, depending on the viewer, but my self-portraits are my view of my art in my 20s, when I was intensely concerned about human instincts and nature. They expressed the power of love to blossom new lives in the midst of the fear of people who could not be free from the pain of those times. The theme of my works was then about the myth of love that provides the energy that humans have been pursuing.”
