akive

Kang Hyungku’s portraits of faces with piercing gaze take hyper realist’s techniques. However, characteristics of the subject in his painting differs from the subject in ‘Hyperrealism’ or ‘Photorealism’ as the artist neither paints from a photograph nor uses silkscreen, grid, or slide projection. He strictly paints his subjects manually in the manner of artisanship. Kang Hyungku asserts that raison d’etre of the work will be lost once he uses mechanical aids when he paints. In other words, his hyper-realistic approach is to weave characteristics of the subject that is different from taking photographs. His meticulous depiction of the subject’s skin and each thread of hair with piercing gazes create profound, humane relationships between paintings and its audience.