
“Graphic and bold, illustrator Rudcef’s comic book-like works range from celebrity portraits to dark ruminations on identity and mortality. Picking up illustration after the death of a family member. Rudcef views his art practice as a means of leaving his mark on and connecting with the world. He is based in South Korea.”
⸻ Juxtapoz Magazine
Rudcef loves beautiful things. He likes spending time looking at all kinds of beautiful things—people, society, objects, buildings, structures, music—and feels that he could spend an entire day just looking at them. However, when that beauty has an inner side that is at odds with its outer appearance, he receives the greatest inspiration from the tension of that moment. After graduating from the Department of Statistics, and during a period when he had suddenly lost a family member and was wandering in the emptiness of life, he saw the news of Michael Jackson’s death. At that moment, he happened to be listening to the Jackson 5 song “I Want You Back,” and he pictured a young Michael Jackson singing a song that had been made before he was even born. He thought that if he jumped into the field of art, put his thoughts into it, and someone later saw that work and then shared their own thoughts, it would be the same as having a conversation with him. He felt that, in that way, his life could have some meaning even after his death, and afterwards he spent a year drawing and applied to the PUMA T-shirt graphic competition. Winning the Grand Prize there became the opportunity for him to start painting in earnest. His paintings are intended as a form of dialogue. The world is changing very quickly, and as a result people are becoming more and more enthusiastic about things that are stimulating and fleeting. If someone stops in front of one of his paintings even for a short moment, feels something, and responds to it, he thinks that is no different from having a conversation with him. His goal is to paint works that make people stop, even briefly, and focus. Within that flow, he wants to create paintings that make someone pause, even for just 30 seconds or a minute, feel something, recall a scene from their own life, and breathe in the air of that moment again.
SELECTED CLIENTS
- Music & Entertainment : A$AP Rocky, $NOT, CL, Zion.T, Sony Pictures, Paramount Pictures, YG Entertainment, SM C&C, CJ E&M
- Fashion & Life Style : ADIDAS Originals, Nike Global, PUMA, SPC, ORION
- Corporate & Tech : SAMSUNG, HYUNDAI, SK Innovation, KT&G, MERCK
- Editorial : GQ, VARIETY
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
- 「MISFIT」(2015) Seoul, Korea. Personal Studio
- 「DRIVE」(2019) Seoul, Korea. Everydaymooonday Gallery
