Baek Byung-yeul is a journalist at The Korea Times focused on cultural content, including films and cultural events in South Korea. You can contact him at baekby@koreatimes.co.kr to share your insights.
Hong Kong on exhibition
“Hong Kong1” by Kim Seong-ho
By Baek Byung-yeul
By Baek Byung-yeul
Do Min's “Enjoyable”
Five distinguished Korean artists are holding an exhibition at Insa-dong in downtown Seoul, showing every inch of Hong Kong, inspired by their six-day-long travel.
Hong Kong has long been a popular business and travel destination. It is one of the world’s most densely populated cities with a population of seven million people. It also emerged as a key art market.
As China’s new rich began to cash in on high-end contemporary art works that are traded in Hong Kong, the city rapidly rose as a global art market powerhouse in recent years.
Sally Wong, sponsor of the exhibition and the Principal Hong Kong Economic and Trade Representative, confirmed that Hong Kong has risen as a global art market powerhouse, emphasizing that “the increasing number of wealthy Chinese and Asian collectors has added to the buoyancy of Hong Kong’s market.”
To etch its status as Asia’s leading art market, the governing economic body of Hong Kong invited talented Korean artists, who are in their 30 and 40s, providing a chance to see every corner of the city for six days, last May.
Those five artists — Kim Seong-ho, Do Min, Shin Gun-woo, Won Seung-won and Jang Seung-hyo — are holding an exhibition at the Insa Art Center in Insa-dong, downtown Seoul.
The exhibition, titled “Colors of Hong Kong,” is sponsored by the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office and the Hong Kong Tourism Board and organized by Seoul-based auction house, the Seoul Auction.
Entering to the exhibition hall, “Patron Saint of Hong Kong,” a blue-colored, two-meter tall and human-shaped statue wrapped with various images of Hong Kong attracts the audiences.
“Whenever I travel in the big cities, which has a slew of must-see items, I feel like I am floating on air,” its creator Jang Seung-hyo said.
“Hong Kong gave me the most diverse feelings and I expressed my thoughts on the city, combining lots of images that I took pictures of.”
“I have visited Hong Kong many times but I never paid as much attention to the details as this time. I drew paintings expressing the feelings from travelling every nook of the city,” Photo artist Won Seung-won said.
Her 40 drawings, named “Happy Resource HK,” covers various aspects of Hong Kong, from dim sum to late movie star Leslie Cheung.
Painter Do Min, who stayed in Korea, concentrating on his art works for seven years without visiting overseas, said this trip was greatly “refreshing” for him.
In his three-painting series titled “Enjoyable,” Do describes the Chineses’ favorite color, red, and favorite number, 8, by using red dices.
Installation artist Shin Gun-woo, who visited Hong Kong for the first time, expresses “a feeling of disjunction,” combining paintings and sculptures on the canvas.
He has two images of Hong Kong — the one that he has imagined through films, magazines and photos and another that he personally experienced through the trip.
“On the canvas, I stressed the differences in my thoughts that I had felt before I went to the city and after I came back,” Shin said.
Painter Kim Seong-ho portrayed the nightscapes of the city on large-sized canvases.
The Insa Art Center, in Insa-dong, downtown Seoul, is located near exit 6 of Anguk Station, subway line 3.
The exhibition runs through July 30. Admission is free.
For more information, call (02) 736-1020 or visit www.insaartcenter.com.