Who is Sungsic Moon? Here’s The Artist Behind BTS RM’s “Bicycle” Cover Art
BTS‘s RM released a new solo song for the group’s 8th anniversary, FESTA 2021. Inspired by one of his favorite activities, “Bicycle,” the project was a collaborative masterpiece by RM, his close guitarist hyung John Eun, and his favorite artist Sungsic Moon (also known as Moon Sung Sik).
Sungsic Moon, born in 1980 in Gimcheon, Gyeongsang Province, studied at Korea National University of Arts, ultimately receiving both a BFA and MFA. In 2005, he became the youngest artist to exhibit at the Korean Pavilion in the Venice Biennale.
He has held solo exhibits in several art galleries, displaying his work and participating in many group shows both in Korea and internationally. His work can be found in Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art, DOOSAN ART CENTER, HITE Collection, and Seoul Olympic Museum of Art. Lately, he has been a third-term artist-in-residence at Mongin Art Space Artists Studio.
In an interview for ArtDrunk, Moon described his recent inspirations and art style. The past couple of years, he has mainly drawn pieces that are focused on the outside world of nature, especially flowers.
Since the outside world, the human realm, and the reality within it are among my greatest interests, I wanted to practice a more technique of drawing subjects that were near and dear to me or attracted me rather than create work that followed a system of steps and sequences [as with my older work].
— Sungsic Moon
Moon explained how in his work, particularly nature illustrations and paintings, he hopes to represent both the beautiful and layers of the world. While on the outside, we tend to view flowers as something beautiful, he explained there is also a grotesque aspect.
There is another world inside these beautiful flowers, this other world is intense, the bugs inhabit the flower, where they each other and the flowers and then there are birds that swoop in to prey on the bugs.
— Sungsic Moon
From looking at his art, it’s no surprise that Sungsic Moon is one of RM’s favorite artists. Their styles perfectly suit one another. Some of his pieces, like Uncanny World would even put some in mind of RM.
Like Moon, RM’s songwriting can capture the strange and beautiful coexistence of light and darkness in the world. RM also shared how happy he was to have collaborated with Moon for “Bicycle.”
The cover illustration is by one of my favorite artists, Moon Sung Sik. I’m in love with the artwork which really captures his usual style of sketch. I would like to thank both John Eun and Moon Sung Sik for agreeing to work on this passionate piece of work with me!
— RM
We wouldn’t be surprised to see these two artists work together again in the future!
Want to learn more about Sungsic Moon? Check out the interview below:
For more about RM’s “Bicycle,” check out the article below:
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