Minjae (Born 1989) has loved color since he was 7 year old. Not many people accepted him using colors this way, including some of his teachers, so he’s always drawn by himself. Minjae finds inspiration in human face, color and abstract movement. When he draws people, it’s very spontaneous; on the spur of the moment. He’s always experimenting with new materials, and ways to do things. Minjae is a self-taught artist, living in South Korea. His colorful, bold and collage-like drawings of faces are unbelievably detailed. He uses nothing but color markers and pen ink to create his stunning works. His work expresses a semi-disturbing inner tension that’s not easy to ignore, even if the viewers feel that they’d like to. It draws them in with its halting imagery, powerful colors, and clever juxtaposition of fragility, innocence and beauty with brash, aggressive and loud.
He uses old-fashioned tools — such as acrylics, crayons, pens, markers — to create his illustrations. His style is improving and developing each time new images appear though he has yet to break into commercial success. Overall what characterizes his work is drama. The delicate figures of females that populate most of his work exude an organic, dark tension, and it seems that even the brightest marker colors he uses do not quite manage to save them from some sort of peril that’s looming. His spectacular works are all about texture and pattern that just add more authenticity to his illustrations. He currently, works and lives in Seoul, South Korea.
