ARTIST STATEMENT

A Universal Tragedy 

Most of my works are portraits. Every person is a protagonist of his or her own tragic story.
  The Bar series became the starting point of a lager series of work. Two years ago, I worked at a bar and had to defenselessly face man-anyone from their 20s to 60s - and they are the ones depicted in this series. They included a wide variety of people, such as salaried workers, doctors, shops owners. All of them talked about themselves and complained that they were absolutely unhappy. I had to listen to all kinds of stories. Some were very private, while others made me choke just listening to them. As it went on, I felt as if I were being inundated by their explosive rage and grief. It was like they were ghost and would stay in one corner of the bar with the same slovenly faces even when they went back to work the next day. Even though they had no personalities, they were all similar faces tangled within my mind-and they never left. One day i started to draw them on a memo pad given to me by a daily installment loaner, and the drawings led to paintings. I hated, pitied, and identified with them. I had no choice but to pay attention to them and I've constantly painted people like them since then. These were people going through very ordinary, daily misfortunes. As humans, we need to embrace the ceaseless misfortunes we've experienced in our lives and will also face in the future.  Each of us has an absolute and universal tragedy. I find this kind of tragedy in my life and other people, and then collect and gather to paint their portraits.

BIOGRAPHY