Kim Jun-geun is a painter who was active between the late-nineteenth century and early-twentieth century mainly in port areas of the Choryang district in Busan and moreover the cities of Wonsan and Incheon. Though not widely known by the general public, Kim produced genre paintings depicting diverse aspects of everyday life by portraying people engaged in labor, rituals, seasonal customs, and recreation. Many of his works, then also known as “Gisan’s genre paintings,” were acquired by foreign visitors, diplomats, and missionaries to Korea, usually unfamiliar with Korean culture. This explains why they are housed mostly in overseas museums in Europe and North America, including Germany, Netherlands, United Kingdom, France, United States, and Canada. 

In 2020, National Folk Museum of Korea held the special exhibition Finding Folklore in Gisan’s Genre Paintings to explore the depictions of Korean folk customs and their evolution over time through the genre paintings by Kim Jun-geun (dates unknown; pen name: Gisan). 

We produced visual identities of the exhibition, graphics of the exhibition hall, posters, books, and etc. The lines of the picture drawn by Kisan were used as visual motifs of the design.

exhibition hall façade

exhibition catalog

exhibition invitation letter 

(wall calendar)