Dongwan Kook, Mira Park, and Jihyoung Han have been selected for the “CKD Yesuljisang 2023.”

“CKD Yesuljisang 2023” is a project jointly organized by Chong Kun Dang Pharmaceutical Corp., the Korea Mecenat Association, and the alternative space Art Space HUE, with the aim of discovering and supporting emerging artists and revitalizing alternative art spaces, thereby contributing to the development of contemporary Korean art.

Now in its 12th edition, the 2023 CKD Yesuljisang targeted painters under the age of 45 who participated in exhibitions at alternative and nonprofit art spaces or were selected as resident artists at major national or public creative studios and nonprofit institutions during 2022–2023.

The first round of the judging was conducted by Jun Kim (Professor at Kongju National University), Sangjin Yoon (Director of Wonder Medium), and Junhyung Lee (Professor at Kookmin University Department of Fine Art). The second-round judges included Joowon Kim (Chief Curator at Daejeon Museum of Art), Jihyun Lee (Director of OCI Museum of Art), and artist Taeseok Joo (former professor at Hongik University College of Fine Arts). The final selection of Dongwan Kook, Mira Park, and Jihyoung Han was based on artistic potential and development capacity, along with the project’s core values of creativity, life, and healing. These three artists exemplify how painting continues to evolve in contemporary Korean art.

Dongwan Kook works across drawing, painting, and sculpture using a range of formats and media. His practice, while focused on the intimate world of the individual, increasingly reveals how society, economy, capital, and politics permeate and affect private life. His works depict experiences and subjects from the realm of consciousness through bleached-out images or explore personal identity and existential issues through bodily transformation.

Recently, Kook’s paintings have visualized the relationship between Korea’s economic reality and the life of the artist. These works are inspired by the visual experience of economic indicators, such as real estate market graphs, and use drawing to express underlying structures and difficult-to-identify anxieties and tensions in his own distinct way.

Mira Park has developed her own world through a series of black drawings that confront the darker sides of humanity. She produces drawings and animations that fill the surface with black, densely populated with various objects and beings. Her drawing series portrays a fantastical and surreal world, filled with mystery, darkness, fear, and anxiety. They depict adult fairytales (grim fairytales) that twist the cruel and indifferent forces of reality into imaginative narratives.

People with animal heads and various strange figures act out grotesque dramas. Through surreal motifs like holes, trees, insects, volcanoes, cliffs, animal heads, masks, and falling figures, the artist expresses existential anguish and the unconscious. She does not provide detailed explanations of what happens in the images, allowing viewers to encounter her black fantasy as allegory or myth reflecting the unseen aspects of human society.

Jihyoung Han’s work explores amorphous, organic images across various materials and surfaces, expressing motion and energy. What might the future look like? The artist imagines a reset state—just before new sensations and movements begin to unfold after the complete disintegration of existing civilizations. Her images are not rooted in specific subjects, events, or stories. They are speculative forms, free from meaning and interpretation, and do not exist in the present.

As if experiencing unfamiliar sounds or incidents, Han translates these imagined experiences into visual form. Her paintings resemble computer-generated visuals of humanity’s collective fantasies, characterized by dreamy colors and ethereal compositions. They focus on pre-linguistic sensations, images, emotional experiences, and atmospheric nuances.

Using the keyword “transformed body,” she speculates on the evolution of humanity in the context of molecular biology, information networks, nanotechnology, and the transformations driven by cutting-edge tech and capitalism.

Each of the selected artists—Dongwan Kook, Mira Park, and Jihyoung Han—will receive a total of 30 million KRW (approximately 22,000 USD) over three years, with 10 million KRW (approximately 7,300 USD) awarded annually to support their creative production. In the final year of the support period, a group exhibition showcasing their work will be held.

Meanwhile, a special exhibition for the three artists selected in 2021—Jaehun Lee, Haeminson Lee, and Jiksung Jung—will be held at Sejong Center Art Gallery 1 from September 21 to October 2, 2023, as part of the 10th edition of CKD Yesuljisang.

References

• ‘종근당 예술지상 2023'에 국동완, 박미라, 한지형 작가 선정
  Dongwan Kook, Mira Park, and Jihyoung Han Selected for ‘CKD Yesuljisang 2023’)