Background
Hong Song-dam was born in 1955, on the island of Hauido and raised in Gwangju.
He studied fine arts at the Chosun University in Gwangju.
He studied fine arts at the Chosun University in Gwangju.
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Hong Song-dam was born in 1955, on the island of Hauido and raised in Gwangju.
Hong studied fine arts at the Chosun University in Gwangju. His university years were overshadowed by the poverty that forced him to earn money to sustain his living, and by severe tuberculosis.
Hong took part in the 1980 uprising against Chun Doo-hwan's military dictatorship in Gwangju. He became well known for making prints and helping to try and spread the news of what had happened inside the city at the time and made many controversial pieces of art. After the uprising he became politically active, and in July 1989 was arrested for allegedly breaking the National Security Act (he had sent slides of a mural he had created, along with around 200 other South Korean artists, to North Korea). Amnesty International adopted him as a prisoner of conscience and he was released from prison in the early 1990s. In 1996 was commissioned by the Government of South Korea to create a 42-metre mural for Chonnam National University.
He is an acclaimed member of the Minjung art movement.
Hong married in 2005 and settled in Ansan.
