Schreiben/Moonseo Baek
Education
Hongik Univ. Textile arts and Fashion Design
Solo Exhibitions
2024 108 EXTENDED/For Himalayan Birkin, Angeli Art Museum, Yongin-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea.
2023 108, Art Space LeeSeen, Busan, South Korea.
2023 Peter Pans' Phantasm, Youth Jakdangso, Busan, South Korea.
2023 Busan Hillbilly Goes To Seoul : Seoulian-Beast, 523Gallery, Busan, South Korea.
Group Exhibitions
2023 1st Outrageous Forum : Subject and Expression, Aither, Busan, South Korea.
2023 2th Mockggoji Member Show BLACK RABBIT : higher and further, Igong gallery, Daegeon, South Korea.
2022 28th National Art Exhibition of The Republic of Korea, Hongik Daehangno Art Center, Seoul, South Korea.
2022 1st National Outstanding Student Art Exhibition, Angeli Art Museum, Yongin, South Korea.
2022 Birth of Ideas, Gallery Byulil, Busan, South Korea.
2022 Change of Mind, Youngart Gallery, Daejeon, South Korea.
2022 Autumn Fairytale, Youngart Gallery, Daejeon, South Korea.
2022 Human Extinction : 1. Personal Extinction, Gallery Aither, Busan, South Korea.
2021 31st Korea-Japan Exchange Exhibition, Osaka University of Arts, Japan.
2021 27th Hongdae Street Art Exhibition, Hongdae Boulevard, Seoul, South Korea.
Awards
2022 Angeli Art Museum National Student Outstanding Art Exhibition - Grand Prize
2022 The 28th Korean Grand Art Exhibition - Pop Art Special Selection
2021 The 8th Seoul International Illustration Competition - Fashion Illustration Selection
Press Coverage
2023 Art Continue Nominated Artists Magazine. Art continue, 2022.
GSG Magazine Vol.2, Moado Cultures, 2022.
Monthly Illust Vol. 287, 2023.
Artists These Days, Moado Cultures, 2023.
Art Collected By
Angeli Art Museum
Art Space LeeSeen
Anonymous Individuals
Artist's Statement
‘Visual beauty’ is the number one priority for my painting. First, because the ‘visual’ element is only unique to painting among other numerous mono-media. Second, art without ‘beauty’ cannot give aesthetic pleasure to the audience.
There is a social notion that beauty is subjective and non-formulaic but this is not true. Visual beauty can be designed rationally through thorough calculations, and the formula for this can be organized by studying visually beautiful classical art.
Modernism art focused on removing all elements from the canvas except for ‘flatness’ that is only unique to painting. As a result, abstract painting was born that gave up the reproduction of three-dimensional space. Examples include paintings by Jackson Pollock, Piet Mondrian, and Mark Rothko. Their paintings were non-representational, unlike traditional paintings - paintings that beautifully reproduce people or objects on a flat medium to give the audience aesthetic pleasure. Nevertheless, they were found decorative and were able to gain great popularity, because they derive aesthetic pleasure from color balance and its composition. In other words, by analyzing their work, we can formulate what combination of color and arrangement of elements is considered beautiful.
My work aims to succeed to modernism and give aesthetic pleasure to the audience through color combination and composition. At the same time, unlike modernism, I do not completely give up on the representation of three-dimensional space, because I desire to make something more than just pretty ornaments. So I add characters and narratives to the work, so that the audience can get aesthetic pleasure from the sensuality of the human body and the sublimation of emotions. By doing this, I hope to create an impression that the character in the work is alive.
Therefore, I focus on drawing representational pictures that look non-representative. I study how to make the picture feel flat rather than three-dimensional by designing the audience's attention to be dispersed across the entire image instead of it leaning on one side. Through this, I ultimately aim to study how to make figurative paintings look like abstract paintings.
Based on this critical succession to the modernism, the following elements were added.
First, fashion. In the high-fashion world, elegance and classiness are valued, which is a match for what I strive to achieve in terms of beauty. Thus I take fashionable images as references.
In particular, I like to take inspirations from the works of fashion artists such as Miles Aldridge, and Malika Favre and Fauvism artists like Henri Matisse. I find beauty comes from elegant color combinations, graceful gestures and silhouettes, and artists above and the fashion industry are good with those.
Second, therian-thrope. I look up to beings who live strong and hard, like a beast. They make me snap back to reality and work harder. We need arts that comfort and console people. But many people are already on it. That's why I draw stimulating and aggressive pictures featuring extraordinary characters, expressing the deepest desires and adventurous spirit I possess rawly.
Humans are not strong enough of an image for me. So, I draw therian-thrope. When beastmen is in the present, images become much more ferocious and aggressive.
Third, craftsmanship. I study how I can put more effort into my work, and how to improve the level of perfection. This is because the weight of the finished image becomes lighter when you work primarily with efficiency in mind. Any detail I notice, it being mere a 1-millimeter big one mostly invisible to others, I elaborate. This is because such small details once gathered emit intense resonance. I carefully examine the drawing after completing it, so that where ever you’re looking at, you‘re looking at a well-constructed image.
When working with digital tools you can be incredibly precise. But such perfectly structured images often fall into an uncanny valley. It feels mundane. So, I refrain from copy-pasting and straight-line drawing, to deliver the human-touch even if it’s digital tools I’m working with. There is a totally different aura emanating from an image made of straight lines versus one made of bumpy lines.
Last, narrative. The first three are important, but it's somewhat lacking with only them. It feels like making an ornament, hollow inside. Not just pretty things, but beings that have a life of their own, is what I strive for. When I create a character, give it a narrative, and shape it into a real thing, I feel the joy of being a creator, god in their own world. What I experience at that moment is the reason and motivation for my work.
It takes more than just a good façade to create a vividly animate being. So I study narratology and incorporate it into my work. The following are four essential elements to create a 'vividly animate being' that I set studying narratology.
First, the character. When designing a character, they must be as ‘human’ as possible, because people don't care how non-human beings think or behave. Humans have background story, their emotions fluctuate in a complex but subtle way, and their thoughts are completely unreadable. That's why at some point, they do something unexpected and strange. I design characters with these in mind.
Second, conflicts. When designing plots, I design them so that conflicts occur. Conflict makes the story entertaining. It also is an effective means to show a character's personality multifariously by stimulating the character to change.
Third, the world. It would be awkward to throw a character I designed into the world we live in. Because reality is made to fit us, not fictional characters. Characters must live in a world custom-made for them. It is only when conflicts arise within it that world characters can appear 'vividly animate'.
Finally, time. No matter how elaborate a figure is, if it is still, it is as good as dead. Only as time passes, characters can move, conflicts can arise, and the world can reveal itself : narrative cannot be completed without time. So I use mediums such as animation and robotic art. With them, time can be given intuitively because the image itself moves.
But with illustrations, the image itself is still. So I create time by animating the attention of the viewer instead of the work itself. I design images so that the narrative in the picture cannot be grasped at one glance, but can be understood only by tearing it apart, looking into every corner of it.
I'm young, lack knowledge and wisdom. And I still would be even if I were to get older and experienced. So I vowed not to write moral fables. Unless I’m God, I’m not qualified to lecture anyone.
Instead, I'll do what I can do best.
If Disney is a hideout for people who are tired of reality, I'll be their reality. I'll illustrate our world as rawly as I can. Because reality isn't something you can ignore and avoid. And I want people to question our world, and themselves.
