KANG Yo Bae
KANG Yo Bae (b. 1952) is a first-generation artist of Korea's Minjung Art. Active as a member of the influential art collective Reality and Utterance in the early 1980s, he is highly regarded for opening new horizons in realist painting and historical narrative in contemporary Korean art. KANG's work captures both the history of Jeju and the beauty of its natural environment. Rather than treating landscape as a passive object of observation, he approaches it as an active presence that reflects and responds to the inner transformations of the human subject. He has remarked that just as the landscape of life contains not only warm and peaceful days but also chilly moments and times of storm, each work should carry its own distinct emotional resonance.
He was born in Jeju, Korea. He earned a B.F.A. in Painting from the College of Fine Arts at Seoul National University in 1979 and an M.F.A. from the same institution in 1982. From 1981 to 1990, he was a core member of the Minjung art collective Reality and Utterance, deepening his artistic practice by engaging with the social realities and contradictions of his time. Beginning in 1988, he created Jeju 4∙3 Incident, a series of history paintings through which he brought the histo ry and reality of the Jeju 4.3 Incident to international attention and opened new horizons in history painting.
KANG has held numerous solo and group exhibitions, including at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, Daegu Art Museum, and Gwangju Museum of Art. He has held numerous solo and group exhibitions, and is the recipient of The Okgwan Order of Cultural Merit, Hoban Art Award, Special Prize of the Jeju 4·3 Peace Award, LEEINSUNG Art Prize, Lee Jung Seop Art Prize, and Minjok Art Award. His works are held in the collections of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, Seoul Museum of Art (Seoul, Korea), Jeju Museum of Art (Jeju, Korea), Jeonnam Museum of Art (Gwangyang, Korea), and Daegu Art Museum (Daegu, Korea).