Choi Minhwa (1954- ) graduated from the Department of Western Paintings at the College of Fine Arts, Hongik University in 1978. He held solo exhibitions including 《Study》 (Catholic Cultural Center, Seoul, 1971), 《With Your Wakeful Eyes》 (Hangang Museum, Seoul, 1988), 《Memories of the Twentieth Century Painting》 (21st Century Gallery, Seoul, 1995), 《A Pink Guitar》 (Indipress, Busan, 2008), 《The 30th Anniversary Exhibition for the June Democracy Movement: All Reminiscence is Unfaithful because "Oblivion" is as Fundamental as “Massacre”》 (Alternative Space Loop, Seoul, 2017), 《The 18th Leeinsung Art Prize Winner’s Exhibition: A Thousand Detours》 (Daegu Art Museum, Daegu, 2018), and 《Choi Minhwa: Once Upon a Time》 (Gallery Hyundai, Seoul, 2020). He participated in group exhibitions such as 《Zeitgeist》 (The Third Gallery, Seoul, 1983-1985), 《Art of Life》 (Arab Cultural Center, Seoul, 1984), 《Tendencies and Prospects》 (Seoul Museum, Seoul, 1991), 《Across the Pacific: Contemporary Korean and Korean American Art》 (Queens Museum, New York, USA, 1993), and 《Korean Figurative Painting》 (Kwanhoon Gallery, Seoul, 2011). He served as a member of the Central Committee of the Korean People’s Artists Association (Minjok Misul Hyeobuihoe) and served as the manager and representative of the 21st Century Gallery opened in 1994. In 2017, he won the 18th Leeinsung Art Prize. Choi Minhwa (real name Choi Chulhwan) has used the pen name “Minhwa,” since 1982, meaning “Minjung (the people) are flowers.” The name does not indicate his intention to place people at the center of history, politics, and reality. He rather aims to place people within aesthetics, art, and painting, or between art and history. Accordingly, since the 1980s, Choi Minhwa has worked on documenting Korea’s historical and political situations as well as expressing his artistic desire. Choi’s large size hanging picture 〈With Your Eyes Open〉 was used at the funeral of the late democracy activist Lee Han-yeol in 1987. Through this work, Choi Minhwa is acknowledged as a representative Minjung artist of the 1980s. Meanwhile, his paintings in the 1990s developed with a focus on the use of pink color. For Choi Minhwa, pink means more than just a color. His subtly mixed pink, covering the extensive spectrum between white and red, encompasses conflicting attributes, such as beauty and sadness, tenderness and resistance, everydayness and unfamiliarity, vulgarity and dignity, and individual and whole. At the same time, the color is also connected to the artist’s political-aesthetic belief and his signature concept that penetrates Choi’s entire artworks. Since then, the artist has been working on the theme of Korean history and reality by presenting various series of works such as 〈Memo of Joseon Ancient History〉 (2003- ), 〈Gray Youth〉 (2005-2006), and 〈Joseon-style, Too Joseon-style〉 (2018- ).