"Expressing through my work, I found that my dreams gradually faded away," said Seok Chang-woo, a 71-year-old artist who lost both arms in an industrial accident. For over a decade, he dreamed of having hands and moving freely. However, once he began to paint dynamically with his own brush, those dreams disappeared.
At a press conference for the 2026 Spotlight on Disabled Artists exhibition titled 'Seok Chang-woo: Question Mark at the Fingertips,' held on October 27 at Modum Art Space in Seoul, he stated, "In my work, there is nothing static; only movement exists."
Seok has engaged in diverse creative activities that blend traditional ink wash painting with Western sketching techniques, traversing various mediums including painting, crafts, and performance art. This exhibition broadly showcases his artistic journey from early works to the present, featuring significant series on human figures, crowds, sports, abstract letters, and the use of color and dots.
After losing his arms in 1984, Seok began painting by chance. "At the time, my children were very young. I wanted to be a father who did something rather than nothing without my arms. My five-year-old son asked me to draw, which led me to draw a sparrow and start painting," he recalled.
After practicing all day, he finally created a bird painting. This moment of chance blossomed into artistry, but it was followed by numerous failures. "In the beginning, I approached it with the mindset that I could do it, which led to many trial and error experiences. The hooks were stiff, and the brushes were hard, causing them to bounce off repeatedly," he explained.
As time passed, he found the softness of the brush. With the rounded hook of his prosthetic arm, he sought answers to the question, "What can I do with my body?" He began to depict sports imagery and develop abstract letters. Between 2001 and 2002, he held solo exhibitions and performances across Europe, including France, Germany, and the UK. In 2023, he created a series titled 'Korean Gestures,' focusing on traditional Korean art movements, sketching live performances at Jeongdong Theater.
The exhibition features works such as 'Artist's Sketchbook' (1998-2010), which includes figure drawing exercises from the late 1990s to the late 2010s, as well as 'Kim Yuna Triple Lutz' (2014), 'Crowd' (2010), 'Abstract' (2026), and 'Anchor' (2026).
The figures in his works are depicted in dynamic actions, running, kicking a ball, soaring high, and moving their shoulders. The Korean movements he illustrates reflect similar energy. "Our traditional performances are filled with excitement, even if life itself may not have been joyful," he noted.
Dynamic energy continues in his abstract works. Seok's dot series undulates, expressing flow, movement, and energy through dots. Like the figures in his crowds, the dots intertwine to create energy. During a trip to Europe, he was inspired by a festival, merging the colors of flowers with human heads.
"During my trip to Europe, I had the opportunity to overlook a horse festival from a second-floor balcony. Until then, I had drawn all parts of the human body, but at that moment, I realized that even just the head could convey movement," he said.
The exhibition runs until December 5.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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