▲ Artist Euiwoong Ro

(PowerKorea) “I can still grasp the memory of my childhood running the golden field and catching grasshoppers and making them into a necklace. The bright full moon rose up at the Thanks Giving Day night and the clouds bloomed in the day like a beautiful landscape painting. The steam locomotive passing Taebong Mountain into rivers and forests makes me still sentimental although many of the landscapes disappeared now for apartment blocks and commercial buildings. I’m still missing my lost hometown and it gives me heartache.” <Artist’s note>

Artist Euiwoong Ro built Ro Eui Woong Gallery on a 1,322 square meter land on Suchunan-gil, Namgu, Gwangju City. The gallery consists of a residence, a workshop and an exhibition hall where 3,500 of his work are kept. Exhibition takes place once a month and many of his works are themed on fantasy, hug, human shape clouds and spreading flower seeds in large sizes. The cloud angel series in particular is realized clouds showing different shapes season by season with Mother Nature as background. 

The clouds are pure like baby angels and they hit us adults with fresh impact that reminds of us how much we are tainted by materials and selfishness. The clouds in a way are vitamins for us to look back ourselves and to have a heart like an innocent child. One cannot help feeling happy by appreciating works of the artist. 

Ro Eui Woong Gallery serves as a place where residents gather together to appreciate art and culture and a place for a rest. “The gallery is not big in size but it has beautiful scenery morning and night during which I take a stroll to see sunrise and sunset” says Ro.

Ro was born and grew in Gwangju. His family moved to other region when the urbanization took its full swing. He served Dean of Honam University College of Arts and relocated to the current residence after 14 years since he retired. He regrets such a change of his hometown even the name and the air. 

Whenever he is filled with this melancholy feeling, he grabs a brush and releases it onto canvas. Then his lost hometown becomes alive with the very smell and the sceneries. The landscape of his hometown encourages him to throw off his shirt of folly and stubbornness and to find instead true self. He works 10 hours a day and keeps away from drinking and smoking which is the reason he boasts sound body and mind despite his more than 70 years of age. 

Ro is holding an invitational exhibition themed on clouds at Insaartplaza Gallery from February 23 to March 1 next year. He has held, invited and participated in hundreds of exhibitions in many galleries and places including the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art and the Seoul Arts Center. He also has served as a judge of numerous national art competitions. 

His wife also is an artist who majored in western painting. His third daughter majored in craft, western painting and sculpture and his granddaughter is studying art at an art college. His family has collaborated exhibition together a number of times and their nameplates are attached on the entrance of the gallery. 

“I realized that I always go back to my childhood no matter what I do. Thinking of hometown makes me feel calm and peaceful and my themes such as mountains, thatched houses and cloud angel are the very landscapes of my hometown.”

Ro has painted Paektu Mountain 200 times and a work titled ‘Feast On Mount Kumgang’. 

▲ 구름천사 162x130cm 캔버스에유채 2019

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