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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

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.

Authenticity

One-of-a-kind original

What "edition" means →

CategoryKorean PaintingMaterialAcrylic on canvas Size72.7×72.7cm · Size 20 · Medium How big is this? →Year2025Price₩9,000,000

Full collecting guide →

About the Artist

Song Gwangyeon is a painter known for the 〈Dream of a Butterfly〉 series, which combines Korean iconography with the visual language of Pop Art. After completing her M.A. in Western Painting at Yeungnam University, she has held 24 solo exhibitions at venues including Gallery Sun (Seoul), BNK Kyongnam Bank HQ Art Gallery (Changwon), and Ulju Culture & Arts Center. She was selected as a Solo Booth artist at the 2017 START Art Fair at Saatchi Gallery in London. Her international exhibitions include the 2016 invitational at the Korean Cultural Center in Washington D.C. and the 2017 invitational at the Korean Cultural Center in Shanghai. Her works are held in the collections of the Ulsan Museum of Art and the Korean Folk Village Museum.

Artist Statement

Butterfly's Dream
An act of yearning toward humanity's innate dream and happiness
The overarching title of this body of work is The Dream of the Butterfly.
The Butterfly's Dream series began from the wish that, before the human warmth drained away by excessive desire and the materialist mindset of contemporary people, we might return to our innate human posture and, through ceaseless effort like the order of nature, pursue a precious life of happiness. This is my dream, and at the same time a wish that it may become a dream shared with our contemporaries.
In Butterfly's Dream, a butterfly always appears, filling the emptied design of a peony painting with embroidery. The peony painting motif — a special code and identity of the work — does not only borrow the imagery of Korean traditional folk painting (minhwa); it also absorbs the inner nutrients the motif carries. In the traditional sense the peony signifies wealth and glory and bears a quality of prayer for blessing (gibok), and I have used it as a form that branches out into my own personal meaning, reflecting my view of the work. By giving form to the act in which the butterfly fills, stitch by stitch, the embroidery of life for tomorrow's still-to-be-completed dream, I was able to visually amplify the essential meaning of the particular and pure yearning that human beings hold.
What I focused on most in the work was projecting the ideal motto and values I want to convey, drawn from the Eastern — and more specifically Korean — sensibility, into my view of art. As a painter holding a brush, I chose the most familiar, basic, and elemental medium of paint (acrylic) and used it to depict an entirely different material — the textile of an embroidered peony painting — as if it were a three-dimensional, realistic object. The moments of replicating it stitch by stitch like embroidery I sublimated into "a yearning for happiness, an act of prayer for blessing."
All the works take a contemporary situation as their backdrop, and some borrow works of pop art icons such as Andy Warhol or Lichtenstein, drawing upon the meanings their works carry — their period, the loss of humanity, and the pathologies of society. In particular, using as a background code the mass-produced prints of these masters — directly opposed to the meaning of embroidery filled with the diligence, effort, and earnestness that the Butterfly's Dream series emphasizes — also implies a deliberate, direct satire.

Key Career Highlights

M.A., Western Painting, Yeungnam University

24 Solo Exhibitions
2025 K-POP ART Song Kwangyeon, PAC Gallery Opening Curated Invitational, Jinju
2025 Dream of a Butterfly - Song Kwangyeon, Gallery Sun Invitational, Seoul
2025 Dream of a Butterfly - Song Kwangyeon (Ulsan Foundation for Arts and Culture Art Support Selected Project, 2020/22/24/25), Ulsan
2024 Dream of a Butterfly - Song Kwangyeon, BNK Kyongnam Bank HQ Art Gallery Invitational, Changwon
2019 Song Kwangyeon Invitational, Ulju Culture & Arts Center, Ulsan
2018 Dream of a Butterfly - Song Kwangyeon, DGB Gallery (Gallery G&G Curated, Daegu Bank 2nd HQ) Invitational, Daegu
2016 Dream of a Butterfly - Song Kwangyeon, Art Hub Online Gallery Invitational
2015 Dream of a Butterfly - Song Kwangyeon, Chilgok Kyungpook National University Hospital Healing Gallery Invitational, Daegu
2014 Dream of a Butterfly - Song Kwangyeon, Gallery Cheongdam Invitational, Daegu
2010 Dream of a Butterfly - Song Kwangyeon, Gallery H Invitational, Hyundai Department Store Ulsan
2010 Dream of a Butterfly, Song Kwangyeon Invitational, Dongwon Gallery, Daegu
2008 Maekhyang Gallery 32nd Anniversary Song Kwangyeon Invitational, Maekhyang Gallery, Daegu

Solo Booth
2017 START 2017 (Selected as Solo Booth Artist), Saatchi Gallery, London, UK

2-Person Exhibition
2016 POP of KOLOR (Kyungjoo Park & Kwangyeon Song), Korean Cultural Center at the Korean Embassy in the US Invitational, Washington DC, USA

2-Person Exhibition
2021 Into the Aesthetics of Tradition, 2-Person Invitational Curated Exhibition Im Sangjin & Song Kwangyeon, Gallery Mua, Busan

3-Person Exhibition
2017 Ongojisin, Korea-China 3-Person Exhibition, Korean Cultural Center in Shanghai, Shanghai Hyanggang Gallery Curated Invitational, Korean Cultural Center in Shanghai, China

60+ Curated Exhibitions
Infinite Painting, Flowers Have Bloomed, Cheonan Museum of Art, Cheonan
Wow~! Funny Pop, Gyeongnam Museum of Art, Changwon
A Certain Art Community: Boogie Woogie Museum, Ulsan Museum of Art
True Luxury with ART (StART Art Fair Seoul 2022 Preview), Grand InterContinental Seoul Parnas
STEP-UP: MOMENTUM, Rina Gallery, Seoul
Marilyn Monroe and Korean Pop Art (Shinsegae Centum City Grand Opening Special Exhibition & Shinsegae Touring Exhibition, Busan, Seoul, Gwangju)
Paintings That Bring Happiness (Sejong Center Curated), Book Seoul Dream Forest Art Center
Art & Joy (Park Youngduk Gallery / Insa Gallery), Insa Gallery, Seoul
Power of Ulsan Art, 25 Mid-career Ulsan Artists Invitational, Ulsan Culture & Arts Center
Blue Dot Asia, Hangaram Art Museum, Seoul Arts Center, Seoul
Korean Pop Art, Insa Art Festival, Seoul
Time Travel Exhibition, Art Park Gallery, Seoul
Beauty Painting Exhibition, Insa Gallery, Seoul
Eye-Catching, Blue Dot M Gallery Opening Exhibition, Changwon
Philosophy-Clad Artists, Geumgang Museum of Art, Changwon
Aesthetic Paradox, Namgaram Museum, Jinju
Colores de Corea, Korean Cultural Center in Spain Curated 4-Person Exhibition, Madrid, Spain

Art Fairs: START Art Fair (Saatchi Gallery, London), Art Singapore, Art Beijing, Art Taipei, START Art Fair Seoul, Seoul Open Art Fair,
Korea International Art Fair, Art Busan, Galleries Art Fair, Daegu Art Fair, Asia Contemporary Art Show (Hong Kong), BAMA,
Seoul Art Show, LA Art Show

Collections: Ulsan Museum of Art, Korean Folk Village Museum, Gallery Wi (Pyeongtaek), Leeahn Gallery, Insa Gallery, Gallery Art Park,
Gallery Cheongdam (Daegu), Dongwon Gallery, and numerous corporate, hospital, and private collectors