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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
63 artworks sold, each becoming a seed of solidarity
One artwork becomes the oxygen that keeps a fellow artist creating.
Sales proceeds go to the artist mutual-aid fund.
Dream Haven
Yoon Gyeom
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
Education
2014 B.F.A. in Painting, College of Formative Arts, Daegu University
Solo Exhibitions
2025 Invitational, Loha Gallery, "In Search of a Place," Seoul
2025 Invitational, Umoha Gallery, "Blue Afterimage," Yongin
2024 "Nature Balance: Survival Harvest," Art Boda Gallery, Seoul
2023 Invitational, Collabo Collage Gallery, Ulsan
2023 "Undecided Fortress," Informel Gallery, Seoul
2019 "Mang'mang (Endless Boundary)," Artmora Gallery, Seoul
2017 "Asurai," Makeshop Art Space, Paju
2016 "Vertigo: Landscape of Reverie," Gallery Beone, Pangyo
2015 "Vertigo: Dizzying Landscape," Guoldam Gallery, Incheon
2014 "Refined World," New Frontier Art Space, Suseong Artpia, Daegu
Selected Group Exhibitions
2026 SAF 2026, Insa Art Center, Seoul
2025 Keepery Gallery 12-Artist Exhibition, Seoul
2025 Laporium Small Works Exhibition (3rd), Loha Gallery, Seoul
2025 "Exploring Life" Two-Person Exhibition, GG2 Gallery Seongsu, Seoul
2025 Dapsimni Art Lab, E-Land Foundation 16th Open Call Exhibition, Seoul
2024 Chuncheon Art Island 2024, Nami Island Pyeonghwarang Gallery, Chuncheon
2024 Art Record Cheongju, Geu Eotteon Gallery, Cheongju
2024 "The Wonderful Spring," FKI Center, Public Gallery, Seoul
2023 The Collection Art Fair & Exhibition, Hyundai Department Store Ulsan
2023 Mugungmujin Exhibition, Chunghwa Gallery, Seoul
2022 Playground, Sangsangmadang Gallery, Seoul
2022 ART Daejeon "My First Collection," Shinsegae Gallery Daejeon
2021 Art Prize, Gangnam Nonhyeon Furniture Street, Seoul
2021 ART 3.6.9, Platform L, Seoul
2021 Art Gyeonggi × Art Road 77, Camerata Gallery, Paju Heyri
2021 "Ecology of the Mind," Shinsegae Gallery Gwangju
2020 KEAs 2020 Ontact: Nevertheless, Art Dang, Seoul
2020 Young Korean Artist Collaboration Music+Art Design, Seoul Forest Cosociety, Seoul
2020 "The Moment," Artmora Gallery, New Jersey
2020 ASYAAF Asian University & Young Artist ARTISTY Special Exhibition, Hongdae Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul
2020 A1 Young Artist Exhibition, Geumboseong Art Center, Seoul
2020 "Still Life," Government Complex Gallery, Seoul
2019 ART 3.6.9, Yongsan Craft Center, Seoul
2019 "Bumurim: Erasing Boundaries," Pyeongtaek Art Center, Pyeongtaek
2019 "Nature," Artmora Gallery, New Jersey
2019 "Landscape and Beyond," Shinsegae Gallery Centum City, Busan
2018 Artmora Open Call, Artmora Gallery, Seoul
2018 A1 Art Office Emerging Artist Exhibition, Geumboseong Art Center, Seoul
2018 3rd New Drawing Project, Yangju Municipal Jang Ucchin Museum, Yangju
2018 Art 236, Place Camp, Jeju
2017 "Scene: Seen," Artertain, Seoul
2017 "Refill+ing," Seloart Gallery, Seoul
2017 "Small Gift" Exhibition, Art Eum Gallery, Daegu
2017 "Healing Thoughts" Two-Person Exhibition, Seojeong Art Center, Seoul
2017 Insa Salon, Gallery Misulsegye, Seoul
2016 "Landscape of the Mind," Gallery Kyoung, Daegu
2016 ASYAAF, DDP, Seoul
2016 PROLOGUE 2016, Makeshop Art Space, Paju
2016 13th Emerging Artist Statement Exhibition — Top 5 Finals, Gallery Misulsegye, Seoul
2016 MAKESHOP TOP10 2016, Makeshop Art Space, Paju
2015 13th Emerging Artist Statement Exhibition, Imlip Museum, Gongju
2015 13th Emerging Artist Statement Exhibition, Gallery Misulsegye, Seoul
2015 "I Am an Unknown Artist," Arko Art Center, Seoul
2015 Hidden Track, Beomeo Art Street, Daegu
2015 "Key.ddok." Exhibition, Kidari Gallery, Daegu
2015 "Summer, Beautiful," Tongyeong Art Gallery, Tongyeong
2014 A1 Art Office Emerging Artist Exhibition, Gana Insa Art Center, Seoul
2014 A1 Art Office Window Exhibition, A1 Art Office, Seongnam
2014 "Discovery," Art Center PPlus, Seoul
2014 ASYAAF, Culture Station Seoul 284, Seoul
2014 "Encounter," Tongyeong Art Gallery, Tongyeong
2014 "Aggregation and Convergence," Special Exhibition at the Republic of Korea Southern International Contemporary Art Festival, Daegu Culture & Arts Center, Daegu
Residencies & Awards
2022 5th Incarnation Culture & Arts Foundation Creative Grant
2019 Samsung Bespoke Rendezvous Design Competition, Finalist
2018 2nd Place Camp Jeju ART-236, Bronze Prize, Jeju
2018 3rd New Drawing Project, Selected Artist, Yangju Municipal Jang Ucchin Museum
2016 13th Emerging Artist Statement Exhibition, Excellence Award, Gallery Misulsegye, Seoul
2016 Makeshop Art Space STUDIO M17, Artist-in-Residence, Paju
2016 National University Art Competition, Selected, Seoul
2015 National University Art Competition, Selected, Changwon
2014 National University Art Competition, Selected, Changwon
Collections
Arko Art Center, Makeshop Art Space, Daegu University Industry-Academic Cooperation Foundation, Seoul Culture Headquarters Museum Division
Art Fairs
2025 Singapore Art Fair, Artmora Gallery, Singapore
2024 Jeju Art Fair, Emerging Artist Special Exhibition
2021 Euljiro Art Fair, Seoul
2020 Euljiro Art Fair, Seoul
2020 Art Fair 14C, Artmora Gallery, Jersey
2019 Art Gwangju, Artmora Gallery, Gwangju
2019 Art Busan, Artmora Gallery, Busan
2017 Cheonbyeon Art Fair, Artertain Gallery, Seoul
2015 Gyeongnam International Art Fair, Tongyeong Gallery, Gyeongnam
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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.
2026-04-09 · 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.
2026-04-20 · 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.
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Recently Sold
63 artworks sold recently
Two beginnings made by one piece
- For you —
- One-of-a-kind in the world
- For the artist —
- the next month of their practice
- 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.