장산곶매

Born 1960 in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province

Dropped out of Hangwang Commercial Vocational School

Began working life as a laborer from middle school: newspaper seller, Chinese restaurant deliveryman, lathe assistant, sewing-machine repairman, boiler operator, electric welder, carpenter — moved through dozens of jobs while remaining inside the labor scene

In his early twenties, lived near the Dangin-ri Power Plant with his childhood friend Kim Hwan-young (a figure in the Sinchon mural incident, producer of "The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly"), and built friendships with art students from Hongik University

In his twenties, was severely injured in a motorcycle accident; injuries to his hands from his laborer years went untreated and led to military exemption

The vinyl greenhouse in Gupabal that became a hangout for Hongik art students

Involved in both the Sinchon mural incident ("Working People") and the Jeongneung mural incident ("The Diagram of Coexistence") — landmark cases of art censorship and suppression

The processes of mural-making and of murals being erased, of related artists being detained, and of being labeled "painter" by state power

Through the influence of his friend Kim Hwan-young, frequented "Geurim Madang Min" and became involved with "Minmihyeop" (Korean Minjung Artists Association); joined Minmihyeop and worked on the mural division (co-produced "100 Years of Solidarity" with artists including Ryu Yeonbok)

During the June 1987 Democracy Movement, encountered a newspaper article featuring a photograph of Lee Han-yeol, a martyr struck down by police tear gas

With help from Mun Yeong-mi, Mun Yeong-tae, and others, produced prints and the large hanging painting "Save Han-yeol," installed at the Yonsei University student union

Oral history of producing and deploying iconic 1980s hanging paintings of the Korean cultural-arts movement, including "Diagram of Labor Liberation" (1989), "Mt. Baekdu" (1989), "Anti-War Anti-Nuclear Diagram" (1988), and "Jangsangot Falcon"

Bears witness — relatively as an outsider — to the explosive growth of small cultural-arts movement collectives in the mid- to late 1980s

A bona fide laborer-turned-full-time painter; even after the cultural-arts movement subsided, continued regional art activism (environmental and ecological movements) in places like Yeosu, South Jeolla