India Art Fair, the Indian subsidiary of Angus Montgomery Arts, an art exhibition consulting firm based in London, is one of the largest fairs hosted by the company around the world.

Artists, galleries, and institutions from major developed nations like the United States, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Australia, Singapore, and Indonesia, among others, will be present at the 2024 Expo, which opened on February 1.

Participated in the institutions’ section on behalf of Korea, the K-Art exhibition booth featured three representative works by media artists such as Lee Lee Nam, Chochungdo, and Kim Hong Do.

Lee Lee-nam is a world-renowned media artist who presents works combining digital technology with famous paintings from the East and the West. The work, Cartoon-Folding Screen 1 is a digital folding screen work created in collaboration with the works of Korea’s leading cartoonists, Lee Doo Ho’s Mudori, Shin Mun Su’s Robot Jiibba, Park Soo Dong’s DolmenGobau, and Yoon Seung Woon’s Stubborn Frog School were held at an exhibition hosted by the Korea Cartoon Museum and other Asian classical paintings. The artwork digitally transcends the boundaries of monitor frames, eras, and countries, satirizing the power dynamics in contemporary art through the metaphor of cannonballs flying through art history and modern issues. It aims to critique the cartoon-like nature of the real world by encapsulating stories from ancient times to the present within the beauty of the four seasons.

The work ‘Chochungdo’ is based on the two works of ‘Chochungdo’ by Shin Saimdang, a female artist who excelled in poetry and calligraphy during the mid-Joseon Dynasty. The author tried to show a new painting method by adding modern digital techniques while preserving the painting quality of the original as much as possible. To fully express the existence of still grass and insects, the artist tried to express Shin Saimdang’s delicate expressiveness with a modern sensibility by adding vitality to the paper.

Kim Hong Do’s Painting of Bamboo is a digital reinterpretation of the ink and bamboo painting by Kim HongDo, a representative painter of the late Joseon Dynasty. It breathes new life into a work that has lost its light trapped in the canvas by expressing the invisible wind flow and snow scenery digitally.

Artist Lee Nam Lee expressed his feelings about participating in this India Art Fair, saying, “Thank you for inviting me to this great India Art Fair. I am grateful for allowing me to showcase the media artworks that reinterpret world art history, religion, philosophy, and aesthetics whose content combines Indian art culture with traditional Korean paintings.”

Hwang Il Yong, Director of Korean Cultural Center India said, “Despite the great interest in Korean culture in India, there is a lack of understanding of Korean artists and Korean art in its art field. We are trying to form a discourse about Korean art through continuous promotion, participation, and exhibitions. The organizers of the Art Fair specifically proposed the participation of Korean art, especially in the media art to us. Through this art fair and K Art’s successful debut stage, we will continue to create an opportunity to promote and introduce the status of K-Art.”