Concept

Sungju Ham’s realism goes beyond the literal meaning of realism (the accurate representation of things as they are) and exists in a world beyond the screen. From the popular culture and video games of the 1990s to today’s visual media, Ham’s practice focuses on the transformations and newly perceived meanings that images undergo when mediated through the artist’s hand. The flat images of liquid crystal screens gain a tactile, three-dimensional vitality in his paintings. Through this process, the same scene may reach viewers with altered meanings, or invite them to imagine what might happen next.

Just as realism has historically been practiced in various ways—whether to reproduce the act of seeing or to expose the absurdities inherent in contemporary society—Ham presents a new methodology of realism imbued with contemporaneity. He is recognized as one of the new generation of artists leading figurative painting in Korea.

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