Duryun and Jiri, a Canvas of Great Ink: Woo Yongmin's Ink Painting

Woo Yongmin paints big ink on hanji. Duryunsan 545 cm wide, Jirisan's Banyabong 360 cm — his SAF works bring the Year of the Red Horse (Byeongo) at intimate 71×36 cm.

Woo Yongmin, Horse of Byeongo 1, 2026, ink on hanji, 71×36 cm

Woo Yongmin's brush is large.

His Duryun, held by Haengchon Museum since 2020, is 198×545 cm. Snow Flowers (2022) is 180×720 cm, collected in 2023 by Jeonnam Provincial Museum of Art. Banyabong of Jirisan is 181×360 cm. His surfaces, ink on hanji, carry the big breath of Korean ink painting into today.

But the two SAF works are 71×36 cm — a comparatively small format. With a different breath from his major collection pieces, the same brush draws up 2026's Byeongo (Year of the Red Horse) Horse.

Haenam, The Center of Ink

Woo Yongmin's practice moves around Haenam, South Jeolla.

2020 Duryun, Haengchon Museum, Haenam
2022 Hwaeom Jiri, Hwaeomsa Sungbo Museum
2022 Tigers Descend, Blessings Descend, Sinan
2021 Moon and Stars at Kim Hwanki's Old House, Kim Hwanki Residence
2025 Ink—Four Gentlemen, Haengchon Museum, Haenam
2024 Birch of the Heavens, Birch of Injae, Miracle Library, Injae

He joined the Jeonnam International Sumuk Biennale four times (2017, 2018, 2021, 2023), and exhibited abroad — Bangkok Poh Chang International Art Festival (2023), Poetic Landscape at Norburga Gallery in Innsbruck, Austria (2024), Chiangmai International Art Festival (2024).

Two Books

His large ink works are collected in two books.

Duryun (Hexagon Publishing, 2020)
Jiri (Hexagon Publishing, 2025)

Duryunsan and Jirisan. Placed side by side, the books make visible the time Woo Yongmin spent translating the mountains of Namdo into ink and hanji.

Byeongo — Two Horses

Woo Yongmin, Horse of Byeongo 2, 2026, ink on hanji, 71×36 cm

Horse of Byeongo 2 — Byeongo's second horse

The two SAF works are both from the Horse of Byeongo series.

Horse of Byeongo 1 — ink on hanji, 71×36 cm, 2026
Horse of Byeongo 2 — ink on hanji, 71×36 cm, 2026

2026 is Byeongo — the year of the red horse. In the year of the horse, an artist who has held the line of ink painting releases two horses onto hanji. Though the titles share a series, each horse carries a different posture and ink tone. Hung as a pair, the two horses seem to gauge direction from each other, outside the surface.

Between Collection and Publication

His work has been steadily entering public collections — Haengchon Museum, Jeonnam Provincial Museum of Art, Austria's Gallery Northbruga. Twelve or more collection records at home and abroad. A solid position as a large-format ink artist.

The SAF works are a more accessible scale than those major pieces. A practice that opens the chance to collect as solidarity between general collectors and peer artists. A small horse by a large brush becomes a passage onto private walls.

Where Byeongo's Horse Will Run

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.

Byeongo's red horse has traditionally symbolized vitality and transition. When Woo Yongmin's two horses hang on someone's wall, that wall's owner gains a year's vitality — and at the same time, vitality-resources move to other artists. As ink seeps into hanji, one work spreads into a community's movement.

Big Surface, Small Surface, Same Ink

The brush that put Jirisan's Banyabong onto 181×360 cm and the brush that draws 71×36 cm Byeongo's Horse are the same brush.

Format differs; ink tones and hanji textures do not. That is ink's old promise. The two works at SAF 2026 show that Woo Yongmin's 40 years of ink can breathe at the same depth on smaller surfaces as well.