Han Un-sung (b. 1946) received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Department of Painting at Seoul National University in 1970 and 1972, respectively, and another master’s degree from Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia, United States, in 1975. Dispatched by the Ministry of Culture and Education, Han used to serve on the faculty of California State University, Long Beach. He held multiple solo exhibitions at home and abroad including one at Geumho Gallery in 1999, receiving several awards at DongA Art Festival, Seoul International Miniature Prints Exhibition, and Seoul International Print Biennale, among others.
Han Un-sung has established a matchless art world of his own with his hyper-realistic representational paintings since the 1970s, a time when the Korean art scene was dominated by abstraction. Magnifying trivial, overlooked everyday objects to fill the whole canvas, Han says his work can be interpreted as “an urge to capture today’s reality in such a concrete and materialistic world we live in.” Han has changed his subject matter at three or four year-intervals: discarded cola cans in “Greedy Giant,” supporting beams of street trees in “Brace,” and broken traffic lights covered in cloth in “Blind Traffic Lights.” All these items are a metaphor for the contemporary society and people living in it, and by depicting them, Han has striven to comment on the existential state we are in.
