[Gallery Walk] The Power of K-Fantasia Captured with a Brush 'Saengmyeong Gwangsigok, Kim Byeongjong'

Gongjinwon, 'K-Fantasia Project' First Planning Exhibition
Kim Byeongjong Artist Art Archive Exhibition
Held at Culture Station Seoul 284 Until October 24

"A painter who writes the poem of life with vigorous brushstrokes and beautiful colors, like a flying fish leaping through the water."

The archive exhibition of Painter Kim Byeong-jong, who has captured nature and life on canvas, titled 'Ode to Life, Kim Byeong-jong,' is being held at Culture Station Seoul 284, the old Seoul Station.

The Korea Craft & Design Foundation (KCDF) announced on the 26th that along with the global spread of 'K-Culture,' it will launch a special project called the 'K-Fantasia Project' from this year, exploring our cultural identity and comprehensively surveying it across the arts.

As the first exhibition of this project, the art archive of Kim Byeong-jong, who has pursued diverse literary activities alongside his artistic work, is unveiled to the audience using the various spaces of Seoul Station.

The exhibition is notable for adopting the form of a rhapsody, planned in six 'movements.' Various contents including paintings, literature, and objects showcase the artistic world the artist has pursued throughout his life.

Exhibition installation view of artist Kim Byung-jong's exhibition 'Symphony of Life Light, Kim Byung-jong'.
[Photo by Korea Craft & Design Foundation]

The prologue, 'Forest of Imagination,' offers visitors a time for contemplation through the blue forest created by the artist’s new work 'Pungjuk.' Then, in the first movement, 'Memories of Innocence,' the artist’s representative works such as 'Songhwabunbun' are displayed in the third-class waiting room of the old Seoul Station.

In the second movement, 'Ephemeral Flowers,' works like 'Hwahoeng Sansu' and the artist’s chronology are presented in the west corridor. The third movement, 'Hidden Spring,' explores the artist’s experimental attempts realized in ink painting and handmade Korean paper through the 'Forest' themed series.

The fourth movement, 'In Search of the One and Only Existence,' exhibits over 80 illustrations and writings from the artist’s 'Painting Travelogue' and 'Poetry Travelogue' series serialized in daily newspapers since the late 1990s, along with archival materials. The final movement, 'The Endless Journey,' introduces the 'Foolish Jesus' series as an exhibition within the exhibition.

Widely known as the 'Painter of Life,' Kim Byeong-jong served as dean of the College of Fine Arts and director of the Seoul National University Museum of Art before retiring in 2018. His works gained attention when they were presented during the visits of Chinese President Xi Jinping and former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence to Korea in 2014.

From 2018 to 2022, he donated 441 of his works free of charge to Namwon City, where the Namwon City Kim Byeong-jong Art Museum opened in 2018.

Exterior view of Culture Station 284. [Photo provided by Korea Craft & Design Foundation]

This exhibition allows visitors to explore the worldview of Kim Byeong-jong, a 'consilient artist' who has unfolded boundaryless thinking across genres such as Eastern and Western painting, art, and literature.

Culture Station Seoul 284, where the exhibition is held, restored the original form of the old Seoul Station, a major stage of modern and contemporary Korean history and a gateway for transportation and exchange, and opened as a complex cultural space in 2011. It operates diverse programs including exhibitions, performances, markets, and lectures across multiple genres as a platform for cultural and artistic creation and exchange.

Above all, it has established its position as a complex cultural space enjoying the diversity of culture and arts without being limited to any single genre such as media art, fine art, lifestyle, craft, architecture, design, performance, market, and lectures.

During the exhibition period, guided tours with the curator who planned the exhibition will be held every Friday at 3 p.m. for a total of six sessions. Goods related to the exhibition will also be produced and sold.