Gwondo Back

Back gwondo is a South Korean painter based in Seoul. He earned his M.F.A. in Painting from Hongik University, Korea’s leading institution for contemporary art education.

His work investigates the tension between surface and substance. Often depicting garments and spaces void of bodies, Back gwondo challenges the tendency to equate appearance with truth. His work draws attention to what is absent yet implied, urging viewers to reconsider how we perceive value, meaning, and essence beyond what is visible.

Back has held several solo exhibitions, including A Minor Study on Blue and Void (Gallery DOS, Seoul, 2025), 無主空畵, Mujugonghwa: Portraits of subjectless voids (Artlogic Space, Seoul, 2024), and Sincerity Within (Bangcheon Yega, Daegu, 2019). His paintings have also been featured in international group shows such as Li.Ber.Tas (Gallery MC, New York, 2024) and Rythmos (Gallery MC, New York, 2016), as well as numerous exhibitions throughout Korea.

Through oil and ink on canvas, Back gwondo develops a restrained yet striking visual language—one that fuses historical sensitivity with a quiet interrogation of perception and being.

2024 M.F.A. in Painting, Hongik University Graduate School of Fine Arts, Seoul
2017 B.F.A. in Western Painting, Department of Fine Arts, Chungbuk National University

Solo Exhibitions
2025: A Study on Blue and Emptiness, Gallery DOS, Seoul
2024: Ownerless Empty Painting, Artrogic Space, Seoul
2019: Sincerity, Bangcheon YeGa, Daegu

Group Exhibitions
2025: Cracking Forms: Revive, Gallery The ARTE, Cheongdam, Seoul (Planned)
2025: Cracking Forms, Gallery The ARTE, Seoul
2024: Li.Ber.Tas, Gallery MC, New York
2023: Spaces of Possibility, Goyang Eoulim Museum of Art, Goyang
2020: Entropy, Community Archive Exhibition, Gallery HECT, Seoul
2020: Project Mingle, Gallery Gyeol, Seoul
2018: Listen to Your Color, Ilho Gallery, Seoul
2017: Oath of Peach Garden, Patium Gallery, Incheon
2016: Rythmos, Gallery MC, New York