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
68 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.
Snow Field 02
Hong Jinhui
About the Artist
Hong Jinhee is a painter who unfolds 'forests drawn with thread' in a painterly language. After graduating from the College of Fine Arts at Hongik University, she has held over 16 solo exhibitions—including 〈Forest Drawn with Thread〉 (KB Kookmin Bank Seocho PB Center, 2011; JH Gallery, 2012; Seongbuk Art Creation Center, 2015), 〈With the Forest〉 (Gallery Or, Yongin, 2025), 〈Forest, Circulation and Healing〉 (Beotyi Museum, 2024), 〈Forest of Memory〉 (Gallery Gabi, 2017), and 〈Pink Forest〉 (Gallery Life, 2016). She received the Excellence Award at the 2nd Local Color New York Competition (2013), was selected as a Yongin Special City and Yongin Cultural Foundation artist (2024–2025), and has been a multi-year grantee of the Gyeonggi Cultural Foundation and the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture. She published Healing Forest Created by Threads (2012). Her works are held in MMCA Art Bank and the Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art.
Artist Statement
Just as countless warps and wefts cross to become cloth, dozens of layers of thread are stacked one upon another to complete my forest. Letting fine cotton thread build into tower after tower and form a forest demands a long patience. The work is hard and exhausting, but the joy of seeing thin lines come together into surfaces, and surfaces become a forest, is truly overwhelming. I draw and work with thread instead of paint. I chose thread as my material because it offers soft and rough textures and minute volumes that paint cannot express, and because countless changes in form can be pursued through delicate fingertip manipulation. Furthermore, thread carries a dual nature: it can be adjusted in brightness like paint, and it can be affixed and built into three dimensions like an object.
Thread is generally seen as a material for sewing or knitting, and its true value is recognized when it is woven into a fabric. But paradoxically I work with thread in its most fundamental and instinctive state, breaking the conventional frame and creating a new pictorial paradigm. The primal carries qualities both pure and mysterious. Seen from afar, my work resembles East Asian ink painting or watercolor, but up close one finds the layers of air and dimension held within the stacked threads, as well as a precise density and depth — a beauty and emotion that paint can never convey.
I paint forests of nature. Nature, especially what may be called its essence — the forest — is, I believe, a passage that can correct our mistaken thoughts and values. For me, nature is not merely a subject to be reproduced but a sensory world that embraces all that exists between heaven and earth. And that world flows naturally into my work. Rather than concentrating on color or form, the principal elements of painting, I focus on expressing fundamental emotions — joy, sorrow, anger, longing, compassion, fate. What is wonderful is that those who view my work also sense these emotions of mine. In those moments I feel a connection, as though we are holding an invisible thread that links us without the need for words. Tolstoy said, "Art is a means of uniting people"; for me, the thread that is the medium of my work serves precisely as that medium, bringing person to person.
Key Career Highlights
B.F.A., College of Fine Arts, Hongik University
Solo Exhibitions
2025 With the Forest, Gallery Or, Yongin
2024 Forest, Circulation and Healing, Beotyi Museum Gallery, Yongin
2023 In the Summer Forest, Dongbaek Bookstore Gallery Invitational, Yongin
2022 Spring Is Coming, Asan Hospital Gallery Invitational, Seoul
2021 Your Forest, Gallery Gabi Invitational, Seoul
2021 Small Forest, Donuimun Museum Village Artist Gallery Selected Artist Exhibition, Seoul
2020 When I Miss You, Gallery Gabi Invitational, Seoul
2019 Spring, Fly Up and Bloom, Daelim Changgo Gallery Invitational, Seoul
2017 Forest of Memory, Gallery Gabi Selected Artist Exhibition, Seoul
2016 Pink Forest, Gallery Life Invitational, Seoul
2015 Forest Drawn with Thread, Seongbuk Art Creation Center Gallery Maejeum Selected Artist Exhibition, Seoul
2014 Forest. Breath. Rest., THE K Gallery Invitational, Seoul
2012 Forest Drawn with Thread, JH Gallery Selected Artist Exhibition, Seoul
2011 Forest Drawn with Thread, KB Kookmin Bank Seocho PB Center Invitational, Seoul
2009 When I Miss the Green, Gallery Topohaus, Seoul
Group Exhibitions
2025 50 Artists' Early Spring, Eaglrak Art Space, Seoul
2024 Art Gyeonggi Run Festival, Gallery Kki, Paju
2024 100 Artists 100 Works, Artree Gallery, Seoul
2024 Gallery 71 Art Market, Gallery 71, Seoul
2023 Majungmul Art Market, Kim Ria Gallery, Seoul
2023 Art Festa Jeju, Jeju International Convention Center, Jeju
2022 Comply with Peace, Jeon Tae-il Memorial Hall, Seoul
2021 Up Close 03, Platform-L Museum, Seoul
2021 Art DMZ Festival, Studio Kki, Paju
2021 Sinjang-dong Halloween Art Market, Collaboration Space Hanchigak, Pyeongtaek
2021 Art Gyeonggi x Art Road 77, Gallery Um, Paju Heyri
2021 Ecological Art Connecting Nature and Humans, Gyeonggi Provincial Office Northern Branch Gyeonggi Millennium Gallery, Uijeongbu
2020 38th Galleries Art Fair, COEX, Seoul
2019 Art Living House Art Fair, Gyeonggi Imagination Campus Space 1986, Suwon
2019 Art Gyeonggi x Union Art Fair, S Factory, Seoul
2019 5th DOUZ Exhibition, Lee Jeonga Gallery Competition Artist Exhibition, Seoul
2018 3rd Art Gyeonggi Our Home One Painting, Icheon World Ceramics Center & Gyeonggi Touring Exhibition Venues
2018 36th Galleries Art Fair, COEX, Seoul
2017 51st Korean Fine Arts Association Exhibition, Hangaram Art Museum, Seoul Arts Center, Seoul
2016 Singapore Affordable Art Fair, F1 Pit Building, Singapore
2015 Joyful Beginning, Heesu Gallery Competition Artist Exhibition, Seoul
2015 Encountering Dreams, Gallery Ilho Competition Artist Exhibition, Seoul
2013 2nd Local Color New York Competition, Manhattan, New York
2013 47th Korean Fine Arts Association Exhibition, Hangaram Art Museum, Seoul Arts Center, Seoul
2013 Happy Tuesday, KB Kookmin Bank Star City PB Center, Seoul
2012 Seven Perspectives, JH Gallery Competition Artist Exhibition, Seoul
2011 Seoul Arts Center Artist Studio Exhibition II, Gallery 7, Seoul Arts Center, Seoul
2011 45th Korean Fine Arts Association Exhibition, SETEC, Seoul
2011 6th Kyunghyang Art Competition, Kyunghyang Gallery, Seoul
2010 AW Convention Center Gallery AW Artist Competition, AW Convention Center, Seoul
2010 14th Na Hyeseok Art Competition, Suwon Art Museum, Suwon
2010 The Realism, Gallery Gaga Competition Artist Exhibition, Seoul
2009 38th Gusang Exhibition, Seongnam Art Center, Bundang
2009 Contemporary Art & Vintage, Gallery Young, Seoul
2008 Korea-US Exchange Exhibition, Gallery Hun New York, Gallery Ho Seoul
2008 1st Seoul Arts Center Artist Studio Exhibition, Hangaram Art Museum, Seoul Arts Center, Seoul
Awards
2025 Yongin Special City Cultural Arts Competition Project Selected Artist
2024 Yongin Cultural Foundation Exhibition Culture Competition Selected Artist
2021 Songjeong Art Culture Foundation Creative Support Selected Artist
2021 Gyeonggi Cultural Foundation Selected Artist
2020 Seoul Donuimun Museum Village Artist Gallery Selected Artist
2019 Gyeonggi Cultural Foundation Selected Artist
2018 Gyeonggi Cultural Foundation Selected Artist
2015 Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture Seongbuk Art Creation Center Selected Artist
2013 2nd Local Color New York Competition Excellence Award
2011 6th Kyunghyang Art Competition Encouragement Prize
2010 14th Na Hyeseok Art Competition Selection
2009 38th Gusang Exhibition Selection
Collections
MMCA (Art Bank), Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art, Sanhak Cooperation Foundation, Haesung Korean Medicine Hospital (Gangnam Branch), E-Wide Plus Co., Yeonhong Development Co., Cafe Coin (Myeongdong Branch 1), Gallery Gabi, JH Gallery, THE K Gallery, Daelim Changgo Gallery, and numerous private collections
Current: Member, Korean Fine Arts Association
Related materials
Magazine
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.
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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.