Hong Kyoungtack graduated from the Department of Painting at Kyungwon University (1995).
As the Marronnier Art Center of the Korea Culture and Arts Foundation was renamed Arko Art Center under the Arts Council Korea, the 2005 Planned Invitation Exhibitions I and II were organized as the inaugural exhibitions. Beginning on September 23, 2005, the exhibitions consisted of solo shows by Hong Kyoungtack and Choi Jin-wook, held in Gallery 1 and Gallery 2 respectively.
The planned invitation exhibition at Arko Art Center aims to highlight mid-career artists—often overlooked in favor of emerging artists—and to invigorate their creative drive while assessing the current state of Korean art. Now in its second year, the exhibition seeks to provide an opportunity to examine and shed light on the evolving artistic practices of established artists through their solo exhibitions, as well as to deepen understanding across various artistic disciplines.
While the 2004 edition focused on expanding artistic concepts through the integration of technology and art, as well as incorporating peripheral genres into visual art, the 2005 exhibition centers on how artists interpret contemporary society through their distinctive visual languages within traditional media such as painting and photography.
Thus, artists Choi Jin-wook and Hong Kyoungtack—who have continuously pursued painting grounded in manual, analog labor—were invited to explore new possibilities within the medium of painting and its relationship to contemporary contexts.
In Gallery 1, Hong Kyoungtack presents works based on personal experiences that expand into diverse variations. By filling the canvas with everyday objects such as cups, ballpoint pens, food, and books, he creates a dense, obsessive space devoid of empty areas, while questioning the institutional history of painting. Known for expressing his personal interests and tastes through plastic aesthetics and design elements, the artist now introduces “funk” in this exhibition.
As suggested by the exhibition title, “Funkchestra” is a coined term combining funk and orchestra. In this exhibition, he juxtaposes images reminiscent of sound vibrations emanating from speakers with funk-inspired imagery. These images, composed of symbols and text commonly found in funk-pop culture, are rendered in highly saturated colors and overlap with the visual landscape of contemporary urban life.
