Haenyeo painter Kim Jae-Yi
When it comes to haenyeo, people often think of a grandmother or aunt who is full of sorrows in life as much as the wrinkles on her face. However, Kim puts a lot of modern haenyeo with a young and confident image on the canvas. This is because the grandmother haenyeo had a young day.
After moving to Jeju in 2011 and drawing illustrations with a studio in Gapado, Kim asked for a photo shoot to put a haenyeo on canvas, but when he heard from the haenyeo,'When I was young and pretty, how would it be nice if someone told me to film it like now'. I wanted to draw the appearance of young haenyeo.
American exhibition at a turning point
After turning from an illustrator to a western painter in 2016, Kim moved to the United States, and is expected to return to Korea in June. The local evaluation of Kim's paintings in the United States is receiving a unique review that both sides, neither oriental nor western, can feel exotic. Sensual coloring and bold oil painting techniques are also a combination of another image that emerged from the conflict between Jeju Island and the United States.
Hot interest among art collectors
Artist Kim Jae-yi, who made headlines by recording a complete sale with a painting "Jeju Hae-nyeo" at the Red Wing Art Gallery in Minnesota, is drawing keen attention from Korean art collectors, including recording a complete sale in two individual exhibitions in 2019.
In the third solo exhibition in Jeju in November 2020, 80% of the exhibits were sold even during the corona epidemic.
Episode about a haenyeo painting
It is said that the impression that Americans received when they saw Jeju haenyeo paintings is like a figure from Greek mythology. Will it be somewhere between God and humans?
Most of them were unaware of the existence of Korean haenyeo and said it was fresh.but some of them had an wrong understanding than Japanese female diver were earlier than Jeju Haenyoe.
Another reason she draws Haenyeo includes a desire to let people know that Jeju haenyeo is an original one ahead of Japanese diver.
JAE-YI KIM