Study on Shipjangsaeng in the Show Window of the Hanbok Shop and on Apartments

Acrylic painting on wall, 2018

The recent work, Study on Shipjangsaeng in the Show Window of the Hanbok Shop and on Apartments (oil on canvas, 180㎝×460㎝), is a painting of a show window on a hanbok (Korean traditional costume) shop located near an apartment complex, where the ordinary urban middle-class owner lives a normal life, preparing wedding attire for customers. 

The artist says she “wants to portray the different family traditions held by various groups that consider themselves middle class, and how decorations function as a mechanism

concerning the wedding ceremony, through her images.” Another aspect she wanted to paint was “the contemporary landscape as a byproduct of middle-class desires, which

include both aesthetics and convenience, portrayed through the contrast between the plants that can be seen through the show windows of cafes or commercial spaces and the trees planted outside along the street.” The artist’s unique paintings, which combine artificial and light colors, such as yellow, pink and blue, amorphous shapes, and elements

of different height and perspective, are neither the cold and objective high-brow paintings that have frequented the mass media, nor unskilled works of B-rated sentiment, and

demonstrate novel sensibility and formativeness.

Kim, Mijin, Professor Hongik University, Seoul

Extract on Forbes Korea, P.286, March, 2018