Solo Exhibitions (Brief)

Son Donghyun started his career with the group exhibition 《Funny Funny Ⅳ》 at Gallery Sejul(Seoul, Korea) in 2005. He has opened up a new chapter in Oriental painting through a special melding of traditional Korean portrait techniques and mass cultural popular icons through his first solo exhibition 《Pa-Ap Icon:波狎芽益混》 at Art space HUE(Seoul, Korea) in 2006.

Starting from these works, artist painted portrayals of Michael Jackson, portraits of familiar characters in Disney animation or Hollywood movies, and fashionable logos while depicting the zeitgeist.

He presented experimental work reinterpreting subjects appearing in modern popular culture as works of East Asian art, using traditional trends, techniques, methods, and distinctive qualities of mediums that are well known in his solo exhibition 《PINE TREE》 (2014, Space : Willing N Dealing(Seoul, Korea)).

His 《Early spring》(2021,Perigee Gallery(Seoul, Korea)) completed in this way interestingly demonstrates a combination of different materials and techniques, presenting Ten-Fold Folding Screen with Landscape.

Group Exhibitions (Brief)

Participated in group exhibitions held at The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art(Seoul, Korea), Seoul Museum of Art(Seoul, Korea), Doosan Gallery(New York, USA), Aando Fine Art(Berlin, Germany).

Awards (Selected)

In 2015, he received the grand prize at the ‘15th Songeun Art Awards’ (Songeun Art Foundation) and the ‘Today’s Young Artist Award’ in 2011

Collections (Selected)

His works are in collections of various museums and foundations such as The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art(Seoul, Korea), Seoul Museum of Art(Seoul, Korea), Daegu Museum of Art(Daegu, Korea), SongEun Art and Cultural Foundation(Seoul, Korea).

Originality & Identity

The artist Son Donghyun explores the modern meaning of traditional East Asian paintings. He presents his art in a traditional East style, applying materials he finds in contemporary popular culture. In particular, he has developed character paintings focusing on the myth of ‘heroes and villains.’ It is a theme encompassing the artist’s work.

In his early work (from his undergraduate), some characters represent heroes and villains of Hollywood movies and pop culture stars like Michael Jackson and he shows them as traditional portraits. Also, he reinterpreted typographical logos with various commercial brands. His works are evaluated (or interpreted) as a satire of the current era to spur contrast between materials and forms. It generates a cross-section of Western culture in the oriental method.

Son Donghyun’s early portrait painting captures and visualizes the spirituality of real people and expands to the work of making new characters from the project on Hwaje(畵題) of East Asian Painting. It started with his solo exhibition 《PINE TREE》 in 2004.

It is again connected with the general painting theory in East Asia, like Four Gracious Plants (called ‘Sagunja’), and the relations between ink, text, and image. In his solo exhibitions, 《Ink on Paper》 (2015, Gallary2, Seoul, Korea)와 《Ink on Paper Ⅱ》 (2020, Gallary2, Seoul, Korea), the artist’s works illustrate Eastern style with an explorative expression, medium, and colours.

There is a major stream of Son Donghyun’s works, shown in ‘Island’ series (2010), the ‘battlescape’ series (2013), and ‘Early Spring’ (2021). Although the overall artwork unravels inside the portrait-type frame, his interest in text and language is revealed by the early titles using phonetic scales.

For instance, since 2010, the artist has produced logos for series works and signboards for solo exhibitions. In 《Ink on Paper Ⅱ》, a trial is made to bring the character picture (munjado) into the portrait painting (Inmulhwa). Likewise, he researches the relation between images and characters, drawing and writing using various media.

Paying attention to the English character ‘ink,’ his art view is transferred the meaning to an invisible form of objects which flows from existing figures.

Style & Contents

Son Donghyun debuted as an artist in 2005. He has continued to reinterpret the East Asian traditional painting methodology. Accordingly, painting materials are the basis of conventional colored painting or ink-or-wash painting. However, the artist introduces calligraphy ink, acrylic ink, and fluorescent pigment into his artworks. To experiment with various effects on his creation techniques such as spraying, rubbing, graffiti, and the use of cartoon speech word box.

Also, the artist diversifies the direction of artwork installation to pursue painting application into large canvas, folding screen, picture scroll, folding paper fan, and picture book. By using these materials, he creates a strong sense of frontality.

The artist constantly looks for novelty in his artwork. He has stuck to an unchanging method, ‘the referencing’, in the middle of the working process. It means for his artwork to conduct references from hundreds of images surrounding us that are stacked from the past.

The origins of these countless image references include portraits of the Joseon Dynasty, landscape paintings, literary paintings, and calligraphy as well as pop, comics, and cartoon (manga).

Topography & Continuity

Son Donghyun has been praised as a novel Asian painter who came up with an unconventional alternative during the Korean painting crisis—beginning his debut by combining East Asian traditional painting with popular culture usage. 

He is one of the representatives of the so-called Korean Pop Art in its pedigree. In modern art, portraits usually do not receive a lot of attention. However, Son Donghyun incorporated portraits into modern art by combining portraits with familiar public images.

Son Donghyun’s work occupies a unique position in domestic and international art history by summoning, illuminating, and experimenting with the concepts and media of East Asia Paintings. It has a meaningful notion regarding the East Asia painting and media call for today’s era. 

The artist participated in many overseas group exhibitions such as Yokohama, Beijing, New York, and Berlin. Also, he was invited to 《Future Pass》 (Abbazia di San Gregorio, Venice, Italy), which introduced Asian artists as a special exhibition linked to the 2011 Venice Biennale. In 2012, Son Donghyun also held his solo exhibition, 《Where Evil Dwells》(2012, Aando Fine Art, Germany).

At the 10th Art Busan (2021), the artist planned a group exhibition 《Art Accent》 with ten contemporary artists who interpreted their works into Korean paintings in modern ways. In this fair, he shared his concerns about the ‘inheritance of tradition, modernization of convention.’ By doing so, he introduced other artists who share his sense of addressing issues in Asian history art.

Hence this shows that the significant issues exposed by his work are not limited to one-time matters.