Bae Young-whan (b. 1969) is known as one of South Korea's representative contemporary artists, working across a variety of media, including sculpture, painting, drawing, photography, installation, audience-participatory public art projects, and even film scripts.
 
Born in 1969, the artist has lived through significant periods of upheaval in Korean society, such as the democratization movements of the 1980s and the IMF financial crisis in 1997. His art reflects themes of nihilism prevalent in those times, as well as stories of individuals marginalized by society.

Utilizing everyday materials like discarded wood from construction sites, broken bottles, and popular song lyrics, Bae has expressed both the surface and underlying aspects of Korean society through his poetic sculptural language.
 
One of Bae's early signature works is the Pop Song series, which captures the sensibilities of Korean society in the 1980s and 1990s. He transcribed lyrics from popular songs of the era onto everyday objects like pills, cotton, glue, and fragments of broken liquor bottles. By employing these mundane materials to address elements of popular culture, his work extends beyond the highbrow to connect with the lived realities of ordinary people.

He describes his art as a tool of comfort and healing, similar to a popular song. The Pop Song series, much like the songs themselves or pain relievers, provides solace to people who have endured the social and political hardships of the time, soothing the wounds of everyday individuals.

In 2005, Bae introduced his renowned The Way of Man series, in which he collected abandoned mother-of-pearl dressers from residential neighborhoods and repurposed them into guitars, crafted in the traditional manner. The Way of Man series evokes the portrait of men from the 1970s and 1980s acoustic guitar generation. These works resonate with themes of youth, romance, and resistance, while simultaneously expressing empathy for those who have since become silenced and marginalized.

In 2008, Bae explored similar themes in his installation Luxurious Miserable Insomnia, which incorporated shards of broken liquor bottles into a chandelier-like structure, adorned with green owls symbolizing insomnia, a prevalent issue in Korean society.

The juxtaposition of “luxurious” and “miserable” elements in this work highlighted the psychological fractures within the society. And with these works of art, the artist empathizes with and comforts modern people who still lose sleep over anxiety and worry, by depicting their lives.

In this way, Bae has continued to metaphorically depict the Korean society of the time and the psychology of contemporary people through everyday materials, while also working on public art projects that explore and experiment with the practical role of art.
 
For instance, in The Homeless Project: On the Street (2001), Bae created and distributed notebooks containing information about support facilities for the homeless. He has also worked with visually and hearing-impaired students on collaborative mural projects, exploring art's potential as a tool for social engagement and experimentation.

Bae launched the Library Project (2009), in which he built libraries in the form of containers and modules and installed them in culturally marginalized areas. The Library Project was a project that sought to move beyond mere formality to provide truly functional libraries for the communities they served.
 
In 2009, Bae exhibited a conceptual blueprint of this project at the Art Sonje Center in the exhibition Platform Seoul 2009: Bae Young-whan – Library Project “來日(Tomorrow)”. The exhibition featured life-size models of libraries constructed from wood and cardboard, creating warm, inviting spaces for local communities.

In 2012, Bae held a solo exhibition at Samsung Museum of Art, PLATEAU, titled “Pop Song, Song for Nobody”. He installed a large golden ring, measuring 350cm in both width and height, in front of Rodin's The Gates of Hell. Titled Golden Ring – A Beautiful Hell, this work was inspired by a line from Rainer Maria Rilke’s The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge, “People come to this city to live, but I see them all dying here.”
 
In Golden Ring – A Beautiful Hell, 'Golden Ring' combines 'gold', one of the symbols of capitalism, and 'ring', a stage for boxers to compete, to metaphorically represent the reality of urban people who cannot escape competition with others.

Earlier this year, after a seven-year hiatus, Bae held another solo exhibition at BB&M titled “So Near So Far,” where he presented the Mindscapes series, a continuation of his Pop Song series.
 
Mindscapes is inspired by songs Bae first encountered as illegal bootleg tapes from street vendors during his youth, featuring artists like Pink Floyd, Neil Young, and David Bowie.
 
The result, rendered in 3-D reliefs assembled into abstract panels with expanses of translucent painted layers and gold-leafed crests and ridges, is aptly titled Mindscapes. This term finds its correlative in shimsang (literally “an image in the mind”), a central concept in the tradition of Asian landscape painting that resonates with Bae’s practice.

Throughout his career, Bae Young-whan has visualized abstract concepts such as personal anxiety and societal shifts, using art as a medium for reflection and empathy. Though he has often addressed societal issues, his primary focus lies not on political systems or mechanisms, but on the ordinary individuals navigating their way through these structures, uncovering the lived experiences of those often overlooked.

“If we could each find the dignity that already exists within us, we could change the world. This is why we must value differences, not sameness. … I want to sing of the dignity in our humble selves.”

Bae Young-whan has held institutional exhibitions at Seoul Museum of Art (2018); National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, Korea (2016); Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2013); PLATEAU, Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul (2012); Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai (2010); and the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York (2009); among others. He has participated in various international biennials, including Gwangju Biennale, Sharjah Biennial, and Venice Biennale.
 
He is the recipient of the Grand Prize, Korea Public Design Award (2015) and Today’s Young Artist Award (2004), both from the Ministry of Culture, Korea; and Gwangju Biennale Site Award (2002). He was a finalist for the APB Signature Art Prize (2018) and Hermès Foundation Missulsang (2007).

References

• BB&M, 배영환 (BB&M, Bae Young-whan)
• PKM 갤러리, 배영환 (PKM Gallery, Bae Young-whan)
• 세계일보, 현대인 자화상·인간의 욕망 ‘형상화’, 2012.03.06
• 국립현대미술관, 배영환 | 유행가-크레이지 러브 | 2006 (National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Korea (MMCA), Bae Young-whan | Pop Song – Crazy Love | 2006)
• 경기도미술관, 배영환 – 아주 럭셔리하고 궁상맞은 불면증 (Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art, Bae Young-whan - Luxurious Miserable Insomnia)
• 아트선재센터, 플랫폼 서울 2009: 배영환 도서관 프로젝트 “투머로우(來日[Tomorrow])” (Art Sonje Center, Platform Seoul 2009: Bae Young-whan – Library Project “來日(Tomorrow)”)
• BB&M, So Near So Far