Jeon Hyun-kyung, a fashion painter who paints women's secret subjective desires

Sung Il-kwon / Cultural Critic, publisher of the Korean version of Le Monde Diplomatique
 
Painter Jeon Hyun-kyung's paintings feature colorful young women dressed in wonderful clothes. As if a fashion designer wears a piece of clothing sewn with his hands to a model he has occupied, Jeon Hyun-kyung wraps the model in the painting with his own costume piece reconstructed with a delicate brush touch. If there is Haute Couture like fashion in the painting, it will be like that of Jeon Hyun-kyung. With the delicate and sometimes relentless touch of a brush, the reborn model looks lively as if she would tear up the canvas and walk out at any moment. The faces of the women in his paintings are surreal (or de-real) and dreamy, as if slightly out of reality. It is impressive to have an intense desire for something and a confident figure. The gaze of a young woman in high-heeled red high-heeled high-heeled shoes staring straight ahead with a luxurious handbag in colorful Haute Couture fashion makes me feel thrilling and ecstatic as it seems to see through my inner thoughts.

The model's arrogant eyes lying on the floor in a bright costume that seems to flap like a butterfly's wings when the wind blows are reminiscent of the fatal fascination of Nymphs, a beautiful spirit in Greek and Roman mythology. Without any hesitation or fear, I am unwittingly sucked into the model's big eyes staring at the visitors confidently. The magical story of the artist's emotion makes the model Cinderella and Snow White, which stimulate the envy and jealousy of the witch, and if you look into the model's subtle facial expressions and gestures for a long time, you feel drunk by the witch's magic.

Visitors try to dissect the fatal secret of femme fatale from the deep and deep gaze of the woman in the painting, but the more so, the woman hides in a secret maze. It is hypocritical to argue why it is beautiful without immediately acknowledging it while being against beauty. The model and fashion in the painting are beautiful, but Jeon Hyun-kyung actually pursues invisible beauty more than striking beauty.
 
Those who see his paintings are trapped in a maze that he secretly sets on the canvas and only realize the true beauty of femme fatale after a long turn. In order to express 'invisible beauty' well, above all, 'invisible little beauty' must be drawn well. Jeon Hyun-kyung paints on a large canvas, but does not leave any fringes of the canvas in vain. This seems to have been a unique work of the artist by mixing the painting method of contemporary art without a standardized frame while following the Chinese classical characterization technique that values the line of the brush.

The painter's brush touches on fascinating-eyed figures, flashy costumes, bags and handbags containing some secret keys, wriggling cats and dogs, breathing flowers and plants, secret mirrors and closets, a fabulous modern building that seems to pull the collar, and an old castle that a witch is likely to live in are so meticulous and descriptive that they summon fairytale stories we've forgotten for quite some time since we became adults. The meeting with Snow White and Cinderella, who have been lovers in my heart since I was young, gives the secret joy of "adult fairy tales."

On a large canvas of 300 rooms, more than 10 young women wearing high-heeled high heels are so detailed that they show off their slim angular beauty in fancy clothes and luxury handbags, but the artist's intention is not just "visible beauty." A young woman's fashion outfit, which expresses her desire without addition or subtraction, reveals the bourgeois-owned desire of visitors, whether male or female, and their hypocrisy of not being able to honestly reveal that desire. What a beautiful reversal?

He majored in pottery at university and worked on fashion paintings based on feminism after earning a master's degree in oil painting at Guangzhou University in China, but he is not a commonly referred media feminist. As he said, he wants to express the image of a woman as a confident subject as a woman who was hurt like women living in her contemporary era. For him, fashion is not just a garment that wraps around a woman's body, but a tool and symbol for expressing psychology and desire. The artist's fashion on the canvas is sometimes colorful and elegant, sometimes visceral, primitive, and even combative. The space in the picture chosen by the artist is vivid and three-dimensional. This may be because the model in the picture reveals that it is not just a dependent model that is drawn, but a subjective protagonist living in the present.

Above all, the women in his paintings show a provocative figure with a confident gaze. Secular luxury goods are merely consumables that support women's primary desires. In the artist's work, geometric shapes or patterns are clearly expressed with a modern sense, which also means human diversity. "My experience as a display designer in my youth and my love of fashion led me to become a fashion painter," the artist said. "I want to describe the secret psychology and desire of women hidden in the ever-changing fashion trend."

The artist always wears his dog in the studio. Perhaps due to his regret for his old dog limping after losing his hearing, he pays a lot of attention to pets such as dogs and cats these days. Looking at his picture of a dog and a cat posing with a handbag while wearing cool fashion costumes, you can guess how much he loves animals.

While I was appreciating the artist's works, I asked because I had a question.

"Why don't you draw a man?" You are also interested in pets....”

"Well, I don't want to paint a man yet. I want to give women and pets a sense of self-reliance and freedom."

The artist's world of work reflects the journey of life.