Artist Chung builds world of color

By Kwon Mee-yoo

Artist Chung Chan-kyung is an artist who developed his own creative world.

Chung is born in Sinan County, South Jeolla Province, which is a cluster of inhabited and uninhabited islands along the western coast of Korea. The region’s unique sentiments influenced Chung's artistic world.

Chung majored in Western painting at Hongik University, one of Korea’s top art schools. He has held 10 solo exhibitions and taken part in over 300 group exhibitions.

In the early 1980s, Chung painted landscapes with improvisation, but his style gradually became more abstract and geometric.

The shift came in the early 2000s, when color bars and black lines started to appear. Unlike previous specific images in his previous paintings, his later works restructure objects in an abstract way, while maintaining the concreteness.

Recent works feature color bars in the background which create various patterns, and thick, bold lines reconstitutes familiar images. One of his frequent subjects is the port of Sinan, which arouses nostalgia.

Critic and Andong National University art professor Seo Seong-rok said the colors from Chung’s works invoke a profound and mysterious light coming through stained glass.

Chung is actively involved in a number of art-related organizations, including an adviser position at the Korean Fine Arts Association. He also led the judges of the 29th Korea Fine Arts Competition in 2010.