Jury’s Statement

The artists nominated for this year’s DOOSAN Yonkang Arts Awards engaged a wide range of issues, from material explorations and questions of identity to urban and ecological sensibilities. Together, they offered important insights into the layered terrain of contemporary Korean art. 

At the outset, the jury was not able to reach a unanimous decision, so each juror narrowed their three nominees down to one, and discussions proceeded from these individual selections. While this procedure was not without limitations, it was a necessary means of building toward a concrete consensus. Through discussion, the jury’s deliberations converged on the fundamental questions that Wu Bak’s work poses to the medium of painting. The jury also took into account which artist would most benefit from the international residency program awarded as part of the DOOSAN Yonkang Arts Awards. Particular attention was given to an artist at a critical juncture in their practice, whose inquiries could be meaningfully extended and transformed within a different environment. 

Bak is an artist who contemplates the conditions of painting in a comprehensive way. He closely examines the visible elements of painting, such as material, tool, and technique, while at the same time surveying and interrogating the historical and contemporary frameworks that sustain painting. His approach goes beyond formal experimentation, capturing simultaneously the environments that threaten painting and the mechanisms that make it possible. Moreover, his work probes new possibilities within abstraction, making “painterly time” perceptible through shifts in process and material. Beyond his studio practice, Bak has also curated exhibitions of various sizes, working dynamically with his peers and serving as an active connector across a younger generation of artists. 

DOOSAN Yonkang Arts Awards is presented to young artists whose new perspectives and experimental spirit continue to challenge contemporary art. The jury found deep resonance in Bak’s fundamental inquiries into painting as a long-standing medium and is confident that his work will become an important reference point in expanding the discourse around painting. Believing this to be a timely moment for him to reflect on his practice and experiment with new directions through the residency program, the jury selected him as the recipient of the 2025 DOOSAN Yonkang Arts Awards. 

Jury: Je Yun Moon, Mun Hyejin, Park Gahee, Bae Myung-ji 

The 16th DOOSAN Yonkang Arts Award Brochure download(click)