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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.
Dream Haven
Yoon Gyeom
- Category
- Painting
- Material
- Oil on canvas
- Size
- 31.8×40.9cm · Size 6 · Small How big is this? →
- Year
- 2025
- Price
- ₩1,000,000
- Availability
- SOLD
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 Search of a Place — Searching for My Place, My Fortress
My work begins with the repetitive act of drawing lines and the immersion that comes with it. The process of drawing lines and stacking them in layers is not merely a formal technique; it is a process of restraining inner anxiety and conflict and gradually refining them, rather than dispelling them all at once. Within repetition I tame unstable emotions and create a new order and structure within them. It is a conscious act of holding myself together. The patterns formed where necessity and chance intersect become my own fortress. The fortress is a space of protection and shelter, and at the same time a metaphor for life that, still incomplete, keeps moving toward the light.
I have long observed how creatures like insects and birds gather materials around them to build nests. Their nests function as concealment and camouflage and serve as ground for survival, while also being places that empty out and fill again in cycles. I, too, take up the materials of repeated patterns and afterimages of light to construct a fortress, and within it I reflect on unstable reality and on my inner life. This process reveals me as an incomplete being, while also carrying the strength to move toward hope even within anxiety.
In recent works I place small object-images on top of the repetitive patterns. These objects are not mere additions; they function as devices through which, from the observer's vantage, I can look back upon and overcome my inner self. Objects like airplanes, houses, submarines, and hang gliders — symbols of movement and stillness, exploration and shelter — reveal the artist's self-portrait within the world of repetition. They expand the earlier notion of the fortress and lend the surface a more concrete, self-portrait-like narrative.
My fortress is still an unfinished, undetermined fortress. It is not tightly sealed; it is an open, layered space into which viewers can pour their own experiences and senses. This fortress, growing solid little by little through the process of repetition and immersion, is in the end a self-portrait — and it resembles all of us who live unstable lives.
— from the Artist's Note —
The repeated act of drawing lines reveals the self that cannot bear to see the world as incomplete. While I am absorbed like this, I fall into an indescribable selflessness. As lines are drawn and the surface fills, an undefinable new world appears on the canvas. This world reveals the self who has no choice but to see the world differently from others.
The forms that appear on the surface through extremely simple, repetitive movement are like a path of seeking the self. Through line-drawing — or line-painting — I explore the formal variations that arise out of repeated labor. The countless accumulated moments of choice, drawn between necessity and chance, generate "patterns of lines" that transform into mysterious natural images — cacti, ocean coral, clouds, ripples, forests, mountain ranges — or into imagery of the still-undetermined inner mind.
Key Career Highlights
Related materials
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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.