Hyangmok Baik

Have you ever woken up from a dream so vivid it lingers all day? That's the effect that Hyangmok Baik recreates in his graphic paintings. The influence of Pop Art is clear – solid blocks of colour create flat perspectives and multi-coloured figures pose theatrically. These characters are amalgamations of people he encounters in daily life. Friends, family and strangers alike. But the cartoonish figures disguise a heavy reality. In a world of isolation, Hyangmok sees togetherness as otherworldly. His canvases embody this – they’re a parallel universe where the sky is pink and your neighbour is an ostrich.

Since the pandemic, Hyangmok has been exploring ideas of paradise. His subsequent shows reimagine motifs of Christian art. In particular, the nude. Garden of Eden (2021) depicts Adam and Eve in a field of flowers. There are two unicorns, one on the ground and the other flying in the sky. The figure of Eve is cut off below her breasts. Only Adam is whole, standing in the foreground. Centre stage is his technicolour penis. In this work it’s orange, but Hyangmok has painted them in every colour of the rainbow. His paintings are subversive without moralising – full of playful humour, irony and wit.