2Myoung

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투명 (b1970, Republic of Korea)

2Myoung is a contemporary artist whose practice moves across sculpture, art toys, character design, and object-based work. Before focusing fully on his artistic practice, he worked extensively in advertising, visual production, and copywriting—experiences that shaped his ability to construct images with immediate visual clarity while embedding them with layered emotional narratives.

The name “2Myoung,” derived from the Korean word for “transparency,” reflects the central attitude of his practice: to confront emotion without concealment. Rather than treating childhood imagery as nostalgia alone, 2Myoung examines the emotional structures that remain beneath playfulness, innocence, and memory. His character-based sculptures therefore operate not simply as figures, but as vessels carrying states of vulnerability, tension, intimacy, and psychological weight.

This approach is most clearly developed in his ongoing BeBeams series. The name combines “Be,” referring to existence, and “Beam,” suggesting projection. Drawing from the visual culture experienced by the generation that grew up alongside television, animation, games, and expanding mass media, BeBeams transforms familiar cultural memories into sculptural forms. The figures retain the immediacy and accessibility of toys, while their surfaces and expressions introduce a quieter tension between childhood play and the emotional complexity of adulthood.

SLA resin plays an essential role in this visual language. Its translucent, smooth surface allows light to penetrate and diffuse through the sculpture, recalling the glow, afterimages, and projected light of a screen. At the same time, the material creates a sense of fragility while retaining physical solidity. Through this contradiction, 2Myoung gives material form to emotional states in which softness and resilience, innocence and reality, and intimacy and distance coexist.

Rather than separating popular culture from fine art, 2Myoung treats the visual codes of his generation as material for contemporary sculpture. His works translate shared memories of media, toys, and characters into objects that are immediately recognizable yet psychologically ambiguous. Through BeBeams and his broader practice, he explores how familiar images can carry personal memory, generational experience, and emotional complexity beyond their original cultural context.

Education

B.F.A. in Visual Communication Design

Chung-Ang University, College of Art, Seoul, Korea

Solo Exhibitions

2025 Playtime’s Not Over!, Zitten Gallery, Seoul, Korea

2025 good.good., Gallery GDstory, Seoul, Korea

Group Exhibitions & Art Fairs

2025 COLOR PULSE, Bangkok, Masion Je Bkk, Thailand

2024 FFALO in BUKCHON, Bukchon, Seoul, Korea

2023 Unidentified Cause, Two-Person Exhibition, The Unison Gallery, Seoul, Korea

2022 URBAN BREAK, Gallery ARTIARKI, Seoul, Korea

2022 POPCON, Seoul, Korea