▲ Artist Baek Jong-im

Baek collects her sentiments in life and untangles the feeling onto canvas. She delivers realistic images of familiar scenes of nature with lyrical sentiments. Familiarity, in a way, is similar to forgetting about things we use daily. <Power Korea> met artist Baek Jong-im at Gallery Migwang.

Nature’s vitality is mysterious

Entering Gallery Migwang immediately captures our eyes to burning maples and swirling water in the valley. The first impression is hard to erase and a true feeling is hard to hide. Baek seems to have this innocence of a girl but her life’s wisdom is strongly present in the work at the same time. 

A French art critic Rene Huyghe said that there were three creative methods provided to artists: imitation, composition and expression; and they were replaced with reality, beauty and poem. In other words, the delivering power of reality, formativeness and soul are the vitality and wilderness of art. 

We can find this noble vitality in Baek’s works. It preserves life and eternity of disappearing nature and delivers messages of coexistence and hope. And the result is an accomplishment of a lonely artist and her enlightenment. 

Baek is a winner of the grand prize of the Grand Art Exhibition of Korea and of the Mokwoohoe International Art Fair. She is received as a rising woman artist in Korea for her excellence in detailed depiction and lyrical landscapes. As also a judge of the aforementioned exhibition and fair, she is now making her strong presence in the Korean art circles. 

“I don’t pay attention to something splendid or meaningless. I just focus on things I understand and things I recognize like the landscapes around me” says Baek; we might feel a homesick and peace through her use of warm and bright colors in her works. 

Communication with nature and limitless vitality

Baek pours all her soul and energy into each work. Art lasts forever when it delivers us the vitality of nature over time and space. Baek’s works call out of our nostalgia dormant deep down in our subconscious.

“I wanted to express the vitality of objects I wish to draw and the inner truth of myself. The colors and compositions I used represent my feelings and I prefer using warm and familiar subjects and materials.”

Baek pays a great attention to things around us we meet in daily life. She sees them with special interest and is touched by its freshness and beauty. “I liked flowers very much since I was a little girl and I feel most happy when I bring back those beautiful colors again on the canvas. Naturally, many of my works have wild flowers, trees and mountains.” 

Baek has held 41 solo exhibitions and numerous group exhibitions. 

▲ 계곡의 향연 162.2×130.3cm Oil on Canvas