Price
₩1,500,000
Art protects art
8 out of 10
artists are shut out by banks
354
loans extended to fellow artists
95%
repayment rate — trust comes full circle
~KRW 140M
interest saved vs. predatory rates
Until the next exhibition, the next performance. For artists, income gaps are an unavoidable reality. For fellow artists forced into predatory loans just to afford paint, canvas, and studio rent, proceeds from this artwork become the Seed Fund — extending a fair hand at fair rates.
Voices of fellow artists
“The memory of going hungry for three days, alone, so my children wouldn't know.”
— 50s, theater artist
“I've been putting off urgent dental treatment because I can't afford it. I should be seeing a doctor regularly, but enduring instead of going has become a habit.”
— 50s, actor
“I kept delaying ear treatment because I had no money, and the symptoms in both ears worsened.”
— 30s, musician
“I couldn't pay my hospitalized mother's bills, so we had to delay her discharge, and she had to give up tests and treatment she needed.”
— 50s, actor/broadcaster
“Because of money troubles I had nowhere to go — drifting between gosiwon rooms and rehearsal studios, and for a while sleeping rough.”
— 30s, musician
“Because of unpaid rent, my collective was forced to vacate our shared workspace and home. Neither bank loans nor artist loans could help.”
— 50s, actor
“Without money, life collapses — and creating art? Out of the question.”
— 50s, artist
“It's painful that solving this month's money problems has to come before the work itself. As an artist, I can only earn well when the work succeeds — yet I have to chase odd jobs every month instead. It feels like being trapped in a vicious cycle.”
— 40s, musician
“Debt collection calls disrupted my rehearsals and performances, and the psychological burden made every day painful and the next day frightening.”
— 40s, theater artist
“Many times the loan payments looming each month forced me to step away from performing and focus on part-time work.”
— 50s, actor
“Sleeping less than four hours a night, juggling part-time jobs and theater — but the more I performed, the more debt piled up. Eventually I decided to quit performing.”
— 30s, actor
“When things were hardest, I couldn't even attend close friends' weddings or funerals — and as a result, relationships were severed.”
— 50s, actor/broadcaster
“When I said I was a stage actor, the loan officer called me "unemployed."”
— 50s, actor
“The shame and severed friendships that came with borrowing from people I knew, the pressure of failing to pay it back, the helplessness.”
— 50s, cartoonist/visual artist
“Even with programs meant for low-income citizens, I feel shame when I can't produce enough documentation simply because I'm an artist.”
— 30s, film/broadcasting professional
One artwork becomes the oxygen that keeps a fellow artist creating.
Sales proceeds go to the artist mutual-aid fund.
Serenity Fortress
Yoon Gyeom
- Category
- Painting
- Material
- Oil on canvas
- Size
- 51×45cm · Size 10 · Small How big is this? →
- Year
- 2024
- Price
- ₩1,500,000
- Availability
- For sale
About the Artist
Yun Gyeom is a painter who translates the sentiments of healing and serenity into oil on canvas. Through works such as 〈Serenity Fortress〉, she unfolds the textures of daily life and inner peace through soft colors and forms. Together with artist Lee Yuji, she has presented two-person exhibitions including 〈1st Track—Healing〉 at Seojeong Art Center (2017) and 〈Exploring Life〉 at GG2 Gallery (2025).
Artist Statement
In a state of deep absorption, the artist repeatedly draws and erases lines, building up a formal image.
She calls this image, formed between necessity and chance, a "fortress," and invites viewers inside.
Through the repetition and immersion of the working process, she dissolves inner conflict and instability — a condition tied to the precarious reality of the worker. Drawing inspiration from nature, she finds clues for her practice in the way animals, plants, and insects build their own fortresses to survive. Their methods of camouflage, concealment, and adaptation echo the artist's formal exploration.
Working on the basis of the afterimage of light, she gives it form through the line. The fortress is at once a space of self-protection and part of a journey toward an ideal. Through the work, she experiences an incomplete world, and through the repeated act of the line falls into a state of selflessness.
The forms that emerge as lines overlap reflect the artist's visual and psychological experience. They achieve formal variations that are at once simple and complex, and extend into natural patterns and into psychological imagery. Cacti, coral, clouds, waves, forests, mountain ranges — all kinds of natural forms appear on the canvas, and in that process a formal world unfolds where necessity and chance cross.
Key Career Highlights
Related materials
Korean media · Original Korean article
This article text is currently available in Korean. Open the source to read the original version.
Brunch · Original Korean article
This article text is currently available in Korean. Open the source to read the original version.
Korean media · Original Korean article
This article text is currently available in Korean. Open the source to read the original version.
Korean media · Original Korean article
This article text is currently available in Korean. Open the source to read the original version.
Magazine
Yoon Gyeom — Lines, Repetition, Forests: Korean Contemporary Painter
Yoon Gyeom draws lines repeatedly — until they become a forest, then a fortress. A precariat artist building shelter of repetition.
Apr 9, 2026 · Seed Art Festival
SAF Painters — From Korean Painting to Abstraction
The 40+ painters of SAF 2026, read across six lineages — from Reality and Utterance founders to KAIST-trained painters, Brussels sculpture MFAs, and Goryeo-Buddhist-painting masters.
Apr 20, 2026 · Seed Art Festival
Contemporary Art Pricing — Artist, Medium, Size, Date: 4 Factors of Korean Art Market
“Is this price fair?” The question every buyer asks. To answer it you need to understand the four forces that set art prices: artist, medium, size, and date.
May 2, 2026 · Seed Art FestivalOther works by Yoon Gyeom
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Two beginnings made by one piece
- For you —
- One-of-a-kind in the world
- For the artist —
- the pride of standing with a peer
- For a fellow artist —
- a new ₩3,000,000 path of low-interest support
354 artists have walked this path of recovery; 95% returned to open it for the next.