Tigers Painted with a Brush: Joseon Minhwa on Display
Creatrip Team
2 months ago
Gallery Hyundai in Seoul is presenting two linked exhibitions through Jan 28 showcasing traditional Korean folk paintings (minhwa) alongside contemporary works that reinterpret them. The main show, “Majesty and Creativity: Variations on Korean Minhwa,” centers on an 8-panel 19th-century ho-pi-do (호피도, tiger-skin painting) whose dense brushwork gives the tiger’s fur vivid texture. The display explores how symbols of power like ho-pi (tiger fur) and royal motifs migrated between court painting and folk art, including playful “magpie-and-tiger” images and other genre scenes. Curator and artists highlight minhwa’s mix of humor, popular imagery and openness to modern life—a screen painting even subtly includes a train after the 1899 Gyeongin Line opening. In the adjacent show “Hwa-ido,” six contemporary painters present 75 works that revive and transform folk techniques: pieces range from modern ho-pi references that pair poetic lines with painted motifs to mixed-media and laser-cut reinterpretations of traditional landscapes. Both exhibitions are free through Jan 28.
