The voices of street art in S. Korea

Work done by Royyal Dog for Pow! Wow! Guam festival. / Royyal Dog

By Chyung Eun-ju and Joel Cho

Lately, more and more South Korean artists are gaining recognition for their contributions to street art. Artists like Royyal Dog, Xeva, Yoon Hyup and Jay Flow are growing in popularity locally and abroad.

Xeva was sought out by Google Korea, IQOS Seoul and Jeongok Prehistory Musuem, Royyal Dog worked with LG Uplus, Hyundai Motors and Korea Tourism Organization, Yoon Hyup collaborated with Dior, Nike, HUF and Disney, Jay Flow worked with Reebok, K-Swiss and Hermes. These artists have made their mark across the globe and their growing success is altering the perceived legitimacy of street artists in the country.

Ironically, what was once considered vandalism depreciating urban spaces has now gained artistic appreciation from the people in South Korea. Just three years ago, the common understanding was that graffiti artists were lawbreakers, having even articles compare them to vandals for showcasing their work throughout the streets of Itaewon.

Today, however, the number of graffiti projects commissioned by the government has had staggering growth. South Korean street artists are playing an important role in contributing to the urbanscape of major cities like New York, Seoul and Hong Kong.

Royyal Dog's "Michelle Obama" mural on display in Chicago, Illinois. / Royyal Dog

Mural by Xeva at IQOS store in Garosugil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul. / Xeva

Xeva's mural for Shake Shack's first regional opening in Daegu. / Xeva

In South Korea, street artists started to surface with the emergence of hip-hop bands like Seo Taeiji and Boys, Drunken Tiger, DJ DOC, in the late 1980's ― following the end of authoritarian military rule. At that time, street art was not particularly known or well accepted, so artists had to draw on walls without permission, usually at night. But soon circumstances changed, and they started to find ways to monetize their art, slowly helping the market grow.

"Street culture came later to South Korea, but trends catch up fast here," said Brian Kim, founder of Prism.er, an art entertainment agency, who led several mural projects with South Korean street artists. "Street art caught on as a trend, but when it first came here there was a divergence between the artists' intentions and the people's response.
"People are starting to find more murals with graffiti and recognizing what the artists are doing. People are perceiving graffiti as an interdisciplinary form."

For a more personal glimpse of street art in South Korea, we chatted with Xeva and Royyal Dog, two recognized South Korean artists, who contributed to forming the local street art scene we see around the cities today.

In a conversation with Xeva, the artist delved into a bit of his own experience growing up watching street art's increasing influence in pop culture.

"Album covers were made by graffiti artists at the time [the 1990s]," Xeva said."I remember seeing Limp Bizkit's album cover and feeling inspired. And then H.O.T. released their album with a graffiti cover.

"The first graffiti work I did was during high school. It's called Hip Hop, and it was featured at Lotte Hip Hop Festival. I started working with spray paint back then and soon finished my major in art. I remember I was really interested in typography and hip-hop culture at the time, so naturally I started gaining more interest in graffiti as an art form as well.

"So, I started to delve into graffiti more and more; soon I began designing album covers featuring graffiti. I think graffiti has always influenced my work, directly and indirectly."

But album covers were just the beginning for Xeva.

As street art started catching up in Korea, artists here started receiving support from government-funded projects, which allowed local artists to reach a much larger audience. With a greater audience, South Korean artists were able to explore and develop their art, not just within the cities in Korea, but outside the country as well.

With the growing visibility of his works, Xeva was discovered on the opposite side of the world, in Barranco, Peru, and was asked to draw on the Biblioteca Municipal.

Even achieving success and witnessing a greater acceptance of street art as a legitimate form of art in South Korea, the artist still believes there is room for growth.

"[…] there is still a slightly negative association here [with street art]," he said. "In the case of foreign countries, like Peru, people are more used to murals. People have been doing murals for a long time. Our country does not have this same history, so there is a cultural barrier when Koreans approach murals."

South Korean street artist Royyal Dog recounts his journey as a street artist who found his voice abroad.

"After living a year in Australia, I moved back to South Korea where I made ends meet by working odd jobs at a construction site, changing wallpapers and installing WiFi at subway stations, that kind of stuff," he said. "But the financial burdens were tough, so much so that at one point I even considered putting my art on hold.

"Along with the financial struggles, I was also dealing with an under-appreciated art scene [in South Korea]. All of these things started to affect me and my personal life, and I realized something had to change.

"I went to the U.S. in 2016 where I started drawing in the Bronx, New York, and then eventually I was offered the opportunity to paint a mural at the Containment Yard in Los Angeles. That is when I got the assurance that people liked my artworks where I showcased the roots of my South Korean culture, which gave me the confidence to realize I had something special to show."

Royyal Dog started gaining international attention with his emblematic paintings of women in hanbok in Los Angeles, including depictions of Michelle Obama and Rihanna in the traditional South Korean costume.

Similarly to Xeva, although he was able to establish himself in the street art industry, the artist pointed out that there was still more room to grow as he compared his experience as an artist both in South Korea and in the United States.

"When I work in the U.S. I feel like I am more respected, more acknowledged," Royyal Dog said. "Artists in South Korea are not perceived as well as in the U.S. It is difficult to get that kind of recognition in S. Korea.

"All artists must have some complaint about their own country's appreciation for the arts, but in the case of South Korea, it's a recent thing for local artists to receive enough money to make ends meet, and people there are still too busy to appreciate culture.

"Fans in the U.S. genuinely show support to artists they appreciate, where it is much more common for them to pull the trigger and buy the artist's work. Their reaction to art is simply priceless."

So it seems that although local artists are gaining more recognition and success due to the recently found appreciation for street art, they want to see it grow even more. South Korea's history with street art is recent, so naturally there is a more limited audience than other countries with deeper roots, like England or the U.S.

But there is no doubt that demand for street artists is still growing ― recently, Xeva finished working on the walls of the Shake Shack in Daegu, Royyal Dog is working with World Vision in Yeoido, and Jay Flow and Royyal Doghave finished their collaborative work for Caliphash ― and these projects seem to keep on coming.

Be it a trend or not, South Korean street artists definitely are finding their way to communicate their unique visions and showcase them to the world.

Eun Ju Chyung (ejc@wtfm.kr) and Joel Cho (joel@wtfm.kr) are editors at WTFMAG (http://www.whatthefunmag.com)

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