Artist Kang Hyung-koo is best known for hyper realistic portraits of iconic figures such as Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, Van Gogh and Andy Warhol.

The celebrity images have grown so popular overseas that Kang has set several auction records: his “Vincent Van Gogh in Blue” sold for $587,240, eight times the lowest estimated sales price, at Christie’s Hong Kong sale in 2007. His “Monroe in Green” was auctioned for three times the lowest estimate in May this year.

In the upcoming Christie’s Hong Kong Asian 20th Century and Contemporary Art Sale from Nov. 23-24, Kang’s “Warhol Test II” is listed as a major piece along with celebrated Chinese painters Zhang Xiaogang and Yue Minjun.

Last week, the artist opened a new solo exhibition, “Engrave,” in Seoul with 13 new works and 30 drawings that present changes in style and subjects.

“I tried many new things in technique and style for my new exhibition,” said Kang at the press preview at Arario Gallery in Seoul last Thursday. “I should work hard to deserve the price of my portraits. I will continue to try new things for people who like my paintings because I think the viewers complete the art.”

The highlight of the exhibition is not a Western cultural icon, as it has been thus far, but the portrait of Korean artist Yun Du-suh from the Joseon period. Kang’s work is a rendering of the old painting master self-portrait with distinct facial features. Yun is also known for detailed portraits and paintings of horses in the late Joseon period.

“I have drawn many portraits, but not those of Korean people,” Kang said. “There were not many artists in Asia who drew self-portraits. Yun’s self-portrait, which is very rare in this respect, is very precisely depicted.”

Kang recreates the image of the old painter on a huge aluminum panel canvas measuring 2.4 meters in length and 1.2 meters in width, and gives life to his eyes that shine with lights reflected off minute scratches on the aluminum panel surface.

Kang depicts the subtlest details such as strands of hair, wrinkled skin and the pupils of the eyes using his own inventive tools such as cotton swabs, drills and nails.

“It gives dramatic effects to paintings. The focus for such effects is different in each painting. For Marilyn Monroe, it’s hair and for Yun Du-suh, it’s the eyes,” Kang explained.

His new Marilyn Monroe painting is narrower and a more close-up depiction than his previous image of Monroe in “Monroe in Green.” The new version wears colored glasses with her eyes visible through the lens, platinum hair covering the forehead and strands straying across the face.

The portraits, however, are not recreations of the external qualities of the figures, according to Kang. They are reinvented images based on his imagination of an older version of the subject or incorporate Kang’s own character on top of the subject’s persona.

“A person’s image symbolizes a certain society and generation. The wrinkles on the skin not only reflect the person’s character, but also enter deep down into the human side of the person,” Kang said.

The exhibition features clay sculptures of Auguste Rodin, Vincent Van Gogh and Marilyn Monroe and dozens of caricature-style pencil drawings of famous figures, including Abraham Lincoln, Marilyn Monroe, Auguste Rodin and Mahatma Gandhi, which give a hint of his working process that leads to the completed portrait.

Kang Hyung-koo’s solo exhibition runs through Dec. 20 at Arario Gallery Seoul. For more information, call (02) 571-5701.

By Lee Woo-young (wylee@heraldcorp.com)