The Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art (director Choi Eun-ju) holds the First Member Exhibition of GMMA Folk Painting School. This exhibition was selected for government sponsorship through the ‘2017 Library & Museum Project’. The project is co-supervised by the Library Policy Planning Division of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and Korea Library Promotion Agency, which provides local inhabitants who rarely experience art and culture with the chance to gather and form an art and culture community themselves to demonstrate their talents at the available venues such as a library or a museum.

The GMMA opened several sessions of folk painting for adults in 2015 and 2016, and the Folk Painting School was organized in June 2016, when the community was fortunately selected for sponsorship by the 2017 Library & Museum Project and could open the first member exhibition one year after its establishment.

Folk painting is a familiar traditional visual culture for us, and it is a painting method for pursuing happiness in life. This seems to be why there is more demand for learning folk painting these days. This trend is reflected in the activities of the newly founded GMMA Folk Painting School. The works they display in the exhibition are on various themes and include decorative court paintings such as the paintings of the sun, moon, and five peaks, of the ten symbols of longevity, and of a peony; flower paintings that describe the lotus flower, flowers and birds, and flowers and butterflies; pictorial ideographs; and the painting of a scholar’s accoutrements. They are painted with bunchae (powdery pigment) and bongchae (solid paint) on sunji (Korean paper), and boast sumptuous colors.

Waiting for their first exhibition, the members of the School put the finishing touches on their works and said, “If we are given the chance to participate in the exhibition again next year, we will be able to present better paintings.” The GMMA and Gyeonggi Cultural Foundation will continue to support the art and culture community for the joy and participation of local residents.