ExhibitionHamji Solo Exhibition <Existence IV>




Hamji's Solo Exhibition "Existence IV" opens from 5.23~5.29 in Insadong KOTE's Gallery KNOV (3F) and first floor cafe/restaurant Joseon Salon.
Artist Kim Mirak creates contemporary images through traditional methods to express the serenity of nature.
‘You, who experience, understand, and embrace your life. The inner light you discovered through your own existential evolution becomes the brightness of the whole. Deeply breathing in the infinite love and devotion within the given life moment by moment, you finally meet the sky called ‘serenity.’- From the artist‘s note.
She uses a thick, triple-layered Korean paper made from mulberry trees, and mixes pigment powder and glue with her fingers to create her paints. This process results in “jinchae(thick color)” painting. Despite its complexity and labor-intensive nature, she continues to work with it. She says, “Oil paintings absorb light strongly and reflect it immediately, but jinchae paintings absorb the received light and give a soft and fluffy feeling like cotton wool.” Her works are warm and comforting as a mother’s embrace. Jinchai-painting is a quintessentially Korean coloring technique. However, this Korean painting technique has been suppressed by literati ink painting and distorted by Japanese colored ink painting. And now jinchai-painting is almost extinct, overwhelmed by Western painting styles. Jinchai-painting is a precious treasure and realm of possibility that can revive Korean colored painting traditions.