Known as the ‘Miner Painter,’ Hwang Jai-Hyoung established himself as a Minjung artist since the early 1980s, as he painted realistically the lives of people in the mining village, who were excluded from the center of power. The artist did not simply paint their lives as an observer, but actually experienced life inside the mine pit, representing the miners and mining town covered in coal dust by mixing ink, soil and paint in his painting material. As the mining towns gradually disappeared in the 1990s, Hwang’s viewpoint, which had been assimilated with the life of a miner, changed into that of a contemplator. Hence, unlike his works of the 1980s, which consisted mainly of human figures, works of the 90s were mainly landscapes. Since the 2000s, Hwang used the peculiar medium of human hair to reinterpret his former works of the 80-90s, focusing on the sentiments of Koreans evoked by hair. Recently he has left the subject matter of mines and mining to begin a new theme concerning nature. In order the express the sublime beauty of nature, the artist uses graphite. Like layers and layers of paint, the artist represented the calm silence of nature, particularly the abyss of lakes, by applying countless layers of graphite repeatedly. Thus, Hwang Jai-Hyoung becomes totally immersed in his moment of painting. His critical voice towards the contradictory power structure of society, and his voice of veneration toward nature are visually documented through his pictures.
