Kim Jonghwan makes heads from broken printer parts — motors, gears, leftover pens. A printmaker running *Panhwabang*; picture books, etching, lithography.
In Kim Jonghwan's studio, nothing is easily thrown away.
"I've never simply discarded things I've used once. I opened up a broken printer and found pretty good parts. A few motors and gears, metal rods, odd parts, leftover nails, leftover ballpoint pens, things that are now old…"
Those gathered parts become heads on his canvas. A whole era's junk is mobilized to make one face. He majored in printmaking at university and now runs a print studio, Panhwabang. Member of the Korea Contemporary Printmakers Association and the Hongik Printmakers Association. Once taught at Kaywon School of Art and Kaywon University of Art & Design.
Etching, Drypoint, Lithography
His three SAF works are all from the Head Study series — but the techniques differ.
- Head Study — etching, drypoint (2018)
- Head Study — Portrait of a Giant — lithography (2018)
- Head Study — With a Parting 1 — mixed media (2024)
Etching, scratching metal plate with needle and acid; lithography, using the repulsion of stone and oil; and mixed media, where object meets print. All of printmaking's techniques layered on one subject. Making "familiar, or unfamiliar shapes." The artist's words.
The Path from Picture Book to Print
For many, Kim Jonghwan was first known not as a printmaker but as a picture-book illustrator.
Banjjokie, Dokkaebi's Ssireum Feast, Hong Gildong, Hanbija, +-×÷ Magic Show, Joseon's Dream in Hanyang, Golden Dragon and Rainbow. Plenty of monthly-magazine illustrations too. Old tales, arithmetic, and the urban planning of Joseon — through his hands, they became a book children open.
In 2017, his The Difference — Daily Printmaking, It's OK Even if You're New was published as a specialty text. A book organized so those new to printmaking could learn a little each day. The attitude of teaching seeps into the title.
Right and Wrong — Three Solo Exhibitions
Solos are concise. Starting with The King's Memory at Mac Gallery Cheongdam in 2004, Transformation Episode at alternative space Loop in 2006, then Right and Wrong at Moon Fragment Gallery in 2018. Each title reads like a small manifesto.
The Era and the Studio
He received the Best Prize in Printmaking at the 2005 Danwon Art Competition and the Excellence Prize in Printmaking at the Haengju Art Competition, and in 2004 the Yi Sang-uk Prize at the Korean Contemporary Print Open Call. He steadily participated in Korean Contemporary Printmakers Association exhibitions — Metaprint 2022 (Hongik University Museum of Contemporary Art), Post Print 2021 (Kim Hee-su Art Center). He also joined the Korea–China Print Exchange Exhibition (Lu Xun University, China, 2005) and the Korean Contemporary Print Exhibition in Sweden (Inplan Museum).
Participation in 60 Years of Korean Contemporary Printmaking — Making Print (Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art, 2018) is the official record that he sits within a generation's print lineage. Moving between studio and school, picture book and gallery, he has built printmaking's public seat.
From Panhwabang to SAF
Kim Jonghwan contributes three Head Study works to SAF.
84.9% of Korean artists are excluded from institutional finance. Sales of works by SAF-exhibiting artists cycle into a mutual-aid fund, returning as low-interest loans to fellow artists.
Printmaking is originally a medium that can be pulled many times. An image starting at one person's fingertip crosses — through repetition — to many walls. The nature of print is close to solidarity. From one work to another life, from that life to yet another. The repetition Panhwabang has made now extends into another inscription — the fund.
Broken Things Becoming a Face
One printer part, one motor, one leftover ballpoint pen. Each was almost to be thrown away. Gathered, they make one head.
That is how Kim Jonghwan's print speaks. If you gather what would have been thrown away, an unfamiliar but clear form emerges. SAF sits in exactly that place.
Works by Kim Jonghwan
Related reading
If this piece helped, you may also enjoy these related articles:
- A Roundtable with Five Women Artists — Artists are not born with a gender, but life places gender's weight differently. A roundtable with five women artists who endured the triangle of childcare, livelihood, and creation.
- Studio Visit: A Day in the Life of SAF Artists — The deepest path to understanding an artist's work is the studio. We visit the studios of SAF artists and document how their days unfold.
- Shin Hak-chul: Five Decades of Painting the People — An artist who has never put down his brush from the 1970s through the 2020s. Fifty years of work that weaves the pain and hope of Korea's modern history through bodies, mountains, and rivers.
View all works by Kim Jonghwan →
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Collecting Guides
Seed Art Festival
Published April 20, 2026
