Huh Myoungwook

Korean, b. 1966

Huh Myoungwook creates his own colors every morning, mixing hues to express his emotions at the time. He applies these layers, one by one, on a supporting background medium, experimenting with various media to embody his desires. After years of effort, he achieved his goal of creating sensuous colors through his lacquer coating technique, “Ottchil”. For Huh, color is the embodiment of that day’s emotions and the medium that carries its thoughts. He uses these hues to express his feelings, and every morning, he starts his day by creating colors. Without any formal structure, he relies solely on the characteristics of color to add depth and uniqueness to his work. Through the labor-intensive process of Ottchil, Huh not only creates materiality and tactility but also conveys lyric sensibility through his colors. In essence, his work is his life. The sensuous colors he creates every morning, along with the sequence of labor-intensive tasks like applying lacquer, stacking, erasing, and drying, ultimately represent his existence. To Huh, who believes that art and life are deeply interconnected, color is no different from a language he uses to narrate his story to viewers.