MEET SEUNG WON HONG, A DIGITAL ARTIST WITH SOUL FROM SOUTH KOREA

Hailing from South Korea’s third largest city, Incheon, Seung Won Hong is fast becoming one of the country’s leading artists with his creative work being highly sought after for both advertising campaigns (Prada, JW Marriot and Kenzo to name just a few) and also for private collections.

Born in 1988, just before the summer Olympics in the bordering capital city of Seoul, Seung Won Hong grew up with a passion for art. His use of the traditional artist’s materials of charcoal, acrylic and oil painting were a salute to the artists he admires; Egon Schiele, Amedeo Modigliani, Rene Magritte and Van Gogh, but it was his transformation into a digital artist that has really brought him to the forefront of modern Korean art.

His use of the tablet, laptop and digital manipulation software such as Photoshop are now the tools of his trade and the results are stunning. His style and technique even made BMW Korea sit up and take note, with them using Seung Won Hong as their artist of choice for their 2016 advertising campaign with his ‘What Makes A Gentleman?’ series of pieces that were inspired by the Mini X Clubman.

When you consider his interest in the details and classical masculine poses of the Roman and Baroque statues you can see how this has provided inspiration in his work. As he says himself,

‘I dreamed of fashion illustration with a renaissance painting style or impressionism style illustrations. The fashion illustration that we can normally see is usually very soft so I want to create more wild and masculine way of style…’

It is the wild side of Seung Won Hong’s art that first grabbed me, you see, this is an artist who also has a fun side. Take a look at his piece ‘Astronaut Boy’ or the modern take on ‘Santa Claus’ where our favourite jolly old chap has had an updated wardrobe to go with the times to see just what I mean. But these aside and with his inspiration stemming from men’s fashion and people with style, Seung Won Hong is not only being motivated by fashion, his work is influencing it. Whether it is his work on advertising projects or his amazing sartorial pieces of the greatest icons of men’s fashion, Seung Won Hong has a style that will catch your eye and keep you coming back to his website and Instagram pages for more.

Now living in Seoul, Seung Won Hong is as busy as ever with upcoming projects to include an artwork collaboration with Shinsegae International, Korea’s first gateway to international fashion brands, and also the artwork for their newest mega-department store of Starfield Hanam in South Korea. This will keep the work of Seung Won Hong in the public eye, but it hasn’t always been so easy and he has this advice for any young artists trying to get themselves noticed;

‘I think most important thing is how hard the situation, never give up. There will be times when you have no work, no clients and you feel like stopping. But keep in mind that you do the things you want to do and everything will be alright.’

To find out more about Seung Won Hong and to see more of his collections and work go to www.seungwonhong.com, follow him on Facebook (www.facebook.com/hsw1988) and see more on Behance (https://www.behance.net/seungwonhong) to ensure you don’t miss a thing.