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| Webtoon artist Kian84's "Time" (2022) / Courtesy of START.art Korea |
By Park Han-sol
Since the inception of webtoons (a Korean term for webcomics) in the early 2000s, Korean cartoonists have been producing content optimal for desktop computers as well as handheld device screens. However, in recent years, a number of creators have begun occupying art galleries with their work.
Cartoonist Kim Hee-min, who goes by his pen name Kian84, is best known for his hit webtoons series "Fashion King" and his TV appearance on MBC's reality show "I Live Alone."
After wrapping up his latest comics series "Bokhak Wang (King of the Returnees)" last year, Kian84 has launched a career as an artist, starting with his first upcoming solo exhibition that is scheduled to start on March 25 at the Superior Gallery in Seoul's Gangnam District.
Titled "Full Possession," the show will unveil 18 of his newest paintings that reinterpret the key characters and iconography from his webtoons in a style of colorful, dynamic pop art.
"Right at this moment, I am having fun as a creator of fine art, not webtoons. It feels precious to me," he said in a statement.
GuiGui, whose popularity rose through the martial arts comic series "Man of Passion," is another web cartoonist hosting a solo art exhibition that reveals a different facet of his work.
The show, running until the end of this month at SAGA and the KwanHoon Gallery in Seoul, brings together a series of oil paintings that have previously only been seen on-screen at the end of his webtoons episodes. The works will also be available for sale as non-fungible tokens (NFT) on OpenSea.
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| A view of the installation from last year's exhibition "Homin and Jaehwan" held at the Seoul Museum of Art / Yonhap |
The exhibition that has perhaps been a game changer in offering a chance to invite the webtoon aesthetic to be critically examined ― in terms of its artistic merits ― inside the gallery was "Homin and Jaehwan," held last year at the Seoul Museum of Art.
The show featured the two father-and-son artists: Joo Jae-hwan, a famed painter who was part of the "Minjung Art" (People's Art) movement during the political turmoil of the 1980s, and Joo Ho-min, a web cartoonist who debuted in 2005 and produced the mega-hit series "Along with the Gods."
Despite the apparent differences in their backgrounds, genres and medium, the exhibition discovered common ground between the two creators, notably their focus on Korea's everyday reality, use of satire to expose social injustice and a knack for visual storytelling.
Inside the museum's halls, the younger Joo's comic series was presented in multiple formats to help viewers engage with the work in as immersive a way as possible, such as smartphone screens ― original sketches, installations featuring memorable icons from the webtoons series, light panels and large electronic screens.
"Because I work with cartoons, not paintings, I never imagined that I would be given a chance to have my works displayed in an art museum," he said during last year's press conference. "It feels both amazing and weighty to showcase my pieces alongside my father's work."
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