Korean Painter Kim Byung-jong Opens Major Guangzhou Show, Eyes Direct Challenge with Chinese Art
Creatrip Team
a month ago
Kim Byung-jong (age 73), a celebrated Korean painter known for blending traditional Korean ink painting with contemporary aesthetics, is holding a solo invited exhibition of about 30 works at the AIO Museum in Guangzhou. Works range from large-scale canvases (e.g., 272×120 cm) to smaller pieces and display his distinct techniques—such as pounding mulberry paper pulp with an effect like buncheong (Korean ceramics)—and a fusion of Eastern and Western methods that resist easy classification. Kim, who retired from Seoul National University’s art faculty in 2018, said he has long pursued a philosophy of ‘east way, west utensil’ (東道西器) and now seeks to test his art directly against China’s millennia-old ink tradition. The Guangzhou AIO has given him VIP treatment, including a five‑star hotel dinner with prominent collectors; the museum and Kim’s Namwon City museum have signed an MOU. Known in China as “the painter associated with Xi Jinping” after the president accepted one of his works during a 2014 state visit, Kim is planning more shows in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Paris and has received invitations from Berlin. He also discussed completing long‑standing religious-themed paintings he had once been criticized for, and donating many works and books to his hometown museum in Namwon. (buncheong: a traditional Korean pottery style)
