Brick painter Kim Kang Yong: "Every grain of sand, every brick is a reflection of us.”

Brick painter Kim Kang-yong (70) is holding an exhibition showcasing around 160 works from his early works to his most recent at the Seonggok Art Museum in Seoul.

Seonggok Art Museum is holding the exhibition 'Kim Kang-yong: Hyper-realistic Bricks' as part of the 'Korean Senior Artist Invitational Exhibition' until September 20th.

Upon entering the exhibition hall, a variety of brick paintings in various colors and configurations overwhelm the viewer. These brick paintings are so realistic that they are difficult to distinguish from real bricks, and even the texture is faithfully recreated using sand.

Kim Kang-yong, a graduate of Hongik University's Department of Western Painting and Dongguk University's Graduate School, has been creating "brick paintings," hyper-realistic depictions of bricks, for 50 years, since the 1970s. Why has the artist dedicated his life to painting bricks?

Artist Kim Kang-yong explained that the work is "a metaphor for human dignity," and that it conveys the idea that just as sand gathers to form bricks, and bricks build buildings, so too do individuals come together to form society and a nation. Ultimately, each grain of sand and each brick represents the members of our society. Only then do we understand the different colors of the bricks in each painting, and the differences in their stacking methods and shapes.

Since the 2000s, his work has moved away from hyperrealism and closer to abstraction. While bricks are bricks, their geometric compositions make them abstract forms. Artist Kim Kang-yong says, "In the past, I painted bricks, but now I don't paint bricks; I paint shadows. I apply sand to the canvas and draw shadows, and it looks like bricks." This demonstrates that his brick paintings have entered a new phase.

The artist's process resembles that of a monk. It begins with collecting sand from around the country. The color and grain of the sand varies depending on the location, such as the east coast or the west coast. To color the sand, he grinds and mixes it with stones. Once the materials are prepared, he attaches them to canvas and paints shadows according to the composition, completing the brick painting. While each work takes a long time to complete, he dedicates every step to it. He believes that painting each brick is his calling.

by. eggroll@sportsseoul.com / https://www.sportsseoul.com/news/read/950302?ref=naver