This Artist Gained Popularity After RM BTS Purchased His Painting

This Artist Gained Popularity After RM BTS Purchased His Painting – Back in 2020, Artist Jung Young Joo received a lot of attention after news emerged that BTS’s leader, Rap Monster, had purchased one of his paintings.

Previously 20 years ago, a young artist was faced with the reality of being an artist when he had to return home right after graduating from the National School of Fine Arts in Paris due to the IMF that hit South Korea in 1998. This artist also had to give up on becoming an artist in Paris. France and back home.

Then for the next ten years, the artist had to face constant difficulties because he couldn’t become successful as an artist in Korea and ran out of money. During those difficult times, he even asked himself, “What’s the point of living?” It was then that his eyes caught sight of the old houses in a poor hillside village in Korea. A tiled roof with rarely missing corners, cracked cement walls, and a rusty gate where the artist explains that he feels like he empathizes with these tightly built and run-down huts compared to the beautiful buildings in the city. At the same time, he says he feels comfortable inside because they carry a nostalgic sentiment.

It was then that he decided to paint Daldongnae or the poor hillside villages. Artist Jung Young Joo held a solo exhibition at Hakgojae in Sogyeok-dong, Seoul, last July 27 and the exhibition was filled with 28 of his paintings of Daldongnae and he is one of the most popular artists on the rise these days.

Back in 2020, artist Jung Young Joo received a lot of attention after the news that Rap Monster had purchased one of his paintings. All of his paintings were sold out at Art Basel in Hong Kong, one of the largest art exhibitions, last year in May. The artist explains that Daldongnae in his painting is an imaginary space. Although he refers to hillside villages in Busan, where he lived as a child, along with Sillim-dong and Bongcheon-dong in Seoul, most of the scenes in his paintings are imaginary.

If you look closely, the texture of Hanji, Korean rice paper, is clearly visible on the canvas. This is because the “Papier colle” technique is used where these pieces of Hanji are cut and painted on canvas. Artist Jung Young Joo explained that he felt that he was creating another world as he built the village by painting these small houses one by one. and also receives comfort from creating his own world.