Sangsangmadang Gallery

  KT&G Culture Planet Sangsangmadang invites artist Tae-joon Hyeon to host the Opening Exhibition.  He is not only a representative artist producing outsider images of Korea, but has steadily gained recognition in commercial art areas as an illustrator, a cartoonist, an essayist as well as a toy-maker.

  The reason to invite Tae-joon Hyeon as the Opening Exhibition artist lies in the fact that he is a central figure who has devoted himself to educate and inform the public about university-culture-spectacles. He has watched over the younger generation and its unique self-generated sentiments which formed around Hong-ik University in 80’s and 90’s. He and his contemporaries are now reaching the age of 40, an age that often makes one introspect on oneself and contemplate prospects of the future. Koreans call these men AJeoSi, which means the senior generation of the society. With both sweet and bitter experiences and the aesthetic taste of their youth, they involuntarily have arrived at an age where they can serve as role models for the next generation.

  The importance of this Solo Exhibition is to view his works as a deviation or a rebellion against the ideology of 1970’s Korean society, where all that mattered was rapid economic growth and there was only the demand for being an economic Puritan and having a sound mind as a worker. This viewpoint is grounded on his eccentric character, way of talking, taste, imagination and rhetoric as well as his work, which deconstructs the aesthetic and ethical norm of the established traditions. Also, the current standard of taste and competence of common art appreciators and critics has progressed far enough to understand his work properly.

  Although it is questionable to tell exactly how successful this exhibition will be in helping people understand his works and their aesthetic significance in art world, we believe that there will be a certain amount of success in this trial because the surroundings and cultural contexts where he was brought up are similar to those of the common people. And we also believe that appreciators, as common people, can meet and understand his work open-mindedly since they have lived similar lives to his. This is why we are optimistic about this exhibition.

About Artist

Hyeon Taejoon Biography