Jinu NAM

Nam Jinu has been using giant squids to express his identity for a long time. He creates a one-of-a-kind art world that illustrates narratives of imaginary beings and the kingdom they live in. Nam’s works span a range of media, including painting, three-dimensional constructions, collages, and drawing, and he uses various materials such as acrylic paint and oil paint, all through which he seeks different possibilities of pictorial expression.

Nam Jinu studied painting at Hongik University and completed artist residencies in Seoul and Germany, of which the first was the residency program at HALLE 14 in Leipzig, Germany. In 2021, he was named among the artists to participate in a group exhibition titled Young Korean Artists 2021 at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea. Since 2020, Nam has been actively presenting his works, with museums from around the country lining up to exhibit his art.

The works Nam brings to Kiaf SEOUL 2023 HIGHLIGHT tell the stories of two monsters. Nam’s view of the world goes as follows. First, there is a protagonist robot and a villain robot. The artist spent his childhood abroad, so his experience as an outsider in a foreign country and the defensive character he developed made him equate the monsters’ strange figures with himself. The giant squid, too, is a character created from this same background. What stands out the most from his practice is that squids have appeared repeatedly in his works for over 15 years.

The ‘hero’ in Nam’s paintings is a character that defeats the giant squid and brings justice, but this hero also possesses a different identity as another monster with a completely different nature. It is a weak being at the same time. It is shown as a weak character that is unable to control the emotions of despair and sorrow rather than one that demonstrates a sense of superiority rooted in the joy of victory, or one that reveals its violent nature as an assailant in the group.

At times, he fills the image plane with painted pieces made by applying oil paint on the same linen canvas used for the painting itself, cutting the pieces with scissors, and then fixing them on the stretched canvas. Nam is often inspired by references from cartoons, animations, the Bible, and films in creating stories and other artistic elements of his works.

The artist said, “desire to freely paint what I wish to paint was the greatest drive for my creative activity,” and “My ultimate goal as an artist is to wrap up the currently ongoing narrative about the kingdom one day with a pleasant conclusion.” As for what he is interested in these days, he replied, “I am deeply interested in the special abilities of cuttlefishes and the sceneries they create, as well as new characters that will be introduced in the narratives going forward.”

Nam’s works concern topics, characters, and narratives unfamiliar to us, which make his works truly unique and indescribable in words alone. The artist’s message for the visitors is original as well: “I hope visitors will find these beings in my narrative ‘somewhat dreadful yet also beautiful.’”

(Exhibition View) 두 괴물에 대한 서사시, Oil, cotton collage on cotton, 320x1208cm, 2021