SAF Painters — From Korean Painting to Abstraction | SAF Online Gallery
SAF Painters — From Korean Painting to Abstraction
Art Knowledge · 2026-04-20 · 씨앗페 매거진
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.
SAF 2026's painting lineup almost single-handedly covers the breadth of contemporary Korean painting. From core members of the 1980s Reality and Utterance group to a KAIST graduate who picked up a brush; from masters reproducing Goryeo-era Buddhist paintings to MFAs in sculpture from the Royal Academy in Brussels. Forty-plus artists gathered in one room, grouped here into six lineages.
1. Senior and Mid-Career Painting
Min Jeonggi — Founding Member of Reality and Utterance, a Sansu Painter of Yangpyeong
Born 1949. Founding member of Reality and Utterance (1979); after moving to Yangpyeong in 1987, he has recorded Korea's sansu and terrain in oil and silkscreen.
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Lee Hongwon — The Painter Who Painted Dahnjae Shin Chaeho's Portrait
Fine arts at Dongguk University. Selected as a Notable Artist in 1984; 29 solos, 300+ group shows. Song of the Forest and Tiger Who Loved Flowers series.
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Nam Jin Hyun — From Revolutionary to Painter
Student activism at Seoul National University, 8 years in prison with SANOMAENG. Entered painting in earnest in 2008 after release; first solo in 2013; memoir A Painter Who Was a Revolutionary.
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2. Korean Painting, Minhwa, East-Asian Painting
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Jangcheon Kim Seongtae — Carrying Forward the Spirit of Korean Painting
Jo Irak — Carrying Forward Goryeo Buddhist-Painting Line
Dong-A and Pusan National University (Western painting) → MA in Goryeo Buddhist-painting reproduction at Yongin University. Twenty years of Goryeo reproduction; held by National Museum of Korea and Seoul Museum of History.
→ Carrying the Line of Goryeo Buddhist Painting: Jo Irak's Hanji and Seokchae
Kim Yeongseo — The Afterimage of Punctum, Jangji and Hobun
Kang Seoktae (Little Prince), Jung Mi-jung, Jung Seo-on, Choi Yun Jung, Lee Eun Hwa, Lee Ho Chul, Seo Geum-aeng, Kim Lacy, Kim Dong-seok, Kim Gyuhak, Hong Jin-hee — each story continues in the magazine.
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.
Over 40 painters standing in one show at once is rare. Korean-painting ink and Brussels-trained minimalism; the hand-colored woodblock of Grimmadang Min four decades ago and the oil painting of a KAIST engineer — all inside the same catalog. SAF is the place that gathers that unlike landscape under a single word — solidarity.
