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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.
Kabari of the Jungle Library
Cheon Jisu
- Category
- Painting
- Material
- Oil on canvas
- Size
- 91×72.5cm · Size 30 · Medium How big is this? →
- Year
- 2025
- Price
- ₩3,600,000
- Availability
- SOLD
About the Artist
Cheon Jisu is an artist working across painting, illustration, and book criticism. From 〈Giggle〉 at Moro Gallery in Seoul (2001) to 〈Library Fantasy〉 at The Space Gallery in Osan (2025), she has held nine solo and curated invitational exhibitions, with international engagements including 〈A Midsummer Night's Dream〉 at the Korean Embassy in Italy in Rome (2005) and a two-person exhibition at Kuga Museum of Art in Fukuoka, Japan (2018). She received the Grand Prize (Primo Premio) at the 4th Giovanni Pericone National Art Competition in Italy (2003), and in 2008 participated in the rock mural restoration at the UNESCO-designated Serengeti National Park in Tanzania. In 2021, she published the illustrated book-review collection Reading Atelier (Cheonnyeon-ui Sangsang). Her works are held in the collections of the Korean Embassy in Italy, the Rotary Club Fiuggi, and the Asia Publishing Culture Information Center.
Artist Statement
Library Fantasy
I have been making "painting book reviews" for years — paintings and writings inspired by my reading. I deconstruct, in painting, the order an author has laid down inside a book, then reconstruct it, recording that very process in sentences — that is, expressing a "meta-gaze." This work of taking apart structured, dominant stories and images has, for me as a painter, made an alternative imagination possible. Between the acts of reading, painting, and writing, a peculiar kind of solidarity and chemistry arose, and along the way many kinds of inspiration began blooming in my head. I call them "seeds of creative inspiration." Those seeds have made possible series of works in many shapes, depending on the story of each book.
The "Library Fantasy" series began by imagining a library as a "fantastical, enormous living being." That place is a world of a new dimension, where knowledge, nature, and time are fused. I feel a book not as a mere bundle of information but as a being of life that crosses time and space. The primal nature where lives breathe, and the library, share a common memory. The things conceived and born from books and from nature grow imagination, and create and expand a space-time without borders. So I observe and imagine a new ecosystem of book and nature, and give birth to yet another universe.
The worlds born inside books make knowledge and wisdom; entangled with nature, the ecosystem becomes an organic being in constant motion. My observation and study of this living, fantastical library is, like inspiration's endlessly rising seeds, without limit. Like the life of the universe……
Key Career Highlights
Related materials
Magazine
Paintings Born Inside Books: Cheon Jisu's Painting Book Review
Cheon Jisu reads before she paints — *Painting Book Review*. Books deconstructed, reconstructed into jungles, libraries, and the memory of an African commission.
Apr 20, 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 Cheon Jisu
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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.