Wonchul Jung, The People of the Village Daiseokri (08), 1995, linocut; recipient of the International Jury Prize, 21th International Biennial of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana, 1995.
The exhibition included fourteen woodcuts made between 1988 and 1997. South Korean artist Wonchul Jung convinced the international jury of the 21st International Biennial of Graphic Arts with his imposing, almost hyper-realistic portraits in large formats. The images in his prints are mostly real people from various social environments. His human figures are thus witnesses of the present. The honest depiction of reality makes his works very powerful. The goal of Jung’s prints is a precise description, but not a documentary one, since he makes the prints in a very aesthetic way by using fine shades, hachure, small details, but also loose delineations. He employs the techniques of woodcut or linocut and, due to the expressive power of the image, avoids colour. He revives the traditional conception of printmaking in a contemporary way.