Son Donghyun, Munjado-Marlboro, 2006 © Son Donghyun

Son Donghyun (b.1980) began to gain attention two years ago after presenting Portrait of Hero, James Bond at Gallery Kkot and holding his solo exhibition 《Pop-Icon》 at Art Space Hue.

Starting from these exhibitions, the artist presented a series of portraits depicting characters familiar to us through Hollywood films and Disney animations—such as Batman, RoboCop, Bugs Bunny, and Gollum. These characters are painted on yellowed hanji using traditional East Asian painting materials.

In addition, each work is given a title constructed by phonetically transcribing the characters’ names and titles into Sino-Korean sounds, accompanied by a red seal, thereby completing portraits that appear all the more convincing. At first glance, they resemble portraits one might encounter in a museum; yet unexpectedly, we are met with contemporary characters.
 
In contemplating the fusion of traditional and modern sensibilities, the first question the artist posed was: “What would Kim Hongdo have painted if he were living in the present?” From this perspective, the streets of Dongducheon that we walk today could easily appear in Kim Hongdo’s genre paintings; the television stars we admire could take the place of high-ranking officials in portraiture; and anthropomorphized animals could naturally emerge before traditional East Asian landscape backgrounds.


Son Donghyun, Munjado-Adidas, 2006 © Son Donghyun

In this exhibition, the artist takes a step further. He replaces the logotypes of globally recognized brands that permeate our everyday lives—such as Nike, Adidas, Burger King, and Starbucks, all rendered in visually appealing and desirable typography—with the format of munjado (文字圖), a traditional genre of Korean folk painting.

Munjado is a format that interprets characters in a literal and material way, combining text and image so that both the form and meaning of the character are fully activated. For instance, in a composition centered on the character “忠” (loyalty), idioms and symbolic imagery associated with loyalty fill the pictorial space, allowing the character itself to express its inherent meaning. Historically, the frequent appearance of characters such as “忠” (loyalty) and “孝” (filial piety) in munjado reflects how these values functioned as central social virtues of their time.

In this context, Son Donghyun’s munjado presents the brand name A-D-I-D-A-S as a sequence of four segmented characters, effectively creating a logotype that seamlessly connects the relationship between product and consumer. Various characters transformed into logos simultaneously absorb and return the layered meanings they originally carried, while also taking on the imagery of consumer goods.

Furthermore, the work subtly suggests a shift in values: where virtues such as “loyalty” and “filial piety” once occupied a central position, in today’s era—where consumption itself has become a virtue—brand names that actively stimulate consumption have come to take their place.


Son Donghyun, Bird and Animals paintings, 2006 © Son Donghyun

We invite you to encounter the further development of Son Donghyun’s practice—marked by his deft fusion of traditional East Asian painting forms with aspects of contemporary life that he himself inhabits—at Doo Art Gallery, opening on April 4.

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