Light as art: A construction firm employee's solo exhibition

Kim Yun-hwan, a lighting design specialist at Hyundai Engineering & Construction, opens solo show in Insa-dong

He has worked on high-end Seoul apartment projects including DH Banpo and Olympic Park Foreon

'I wanted to give people an experience of light that brings comfort'

Photos from the solo exhibition by Kim Yun-hwan, a lighting design specialist at Hyundai Engineering & Construction [Hyundai Engineering & Construction]

"I opened this exhibition to keep a promise I made to my middle school-aged son — but it ended up reminding me why I love my work."

A lighting design specialist who has shaped the ambiance of some of Seoul's most upscale apartment developments has turned his eye to canvas, capturing nature and construction sites in paint and photography.

Kim Yun-hwan, a senior manager at Hyundai Engineering & Construction's architecture and housing business division, is holding the exhibition "Ayul: Light, Color and Uncharted Waves" at Gallery Insight in Insa-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul, through Monday. The six-day show, which opened Wednesday, features 13 paintings and 10 photographs.

A nighttime view of DH Banpo, with landscape lighting realized through perforated panel fixtures [Hyundai Engineering & Construction]

Kim studied printmaking at Hongik University's College of Fine Arts and went on to earn a graduate degree in spatial design from the same institution before joining Hyundai Engineering & Construction in 2021. He is the only specialist within the company's housing product development team dedicated to planning and designing residential lighting. His primary work involves designing and overseeing interior and exterior landscape lighting across multiple housing project sites. He has also handled lighting design for DH Banpo 124 and Olympic Park Foreon.

"After 23 years in lighting design, I instinctively look at a space and notice the light first," Kim said. "The subjects in this exhibition are nature and construction sites, but the real protagonist is the wavelength of light woven into them." The black-and-white photographs in particular capture moments Kim encountered on work trips — light intersecting with architectural structures in ways that caught his attention.

"The paintings also begin with imagining an unknown space, then expressing it through light and color," Kim said. "I wanted to show how light behaves in the spaces we actually inhabit, and then render an imagined, uncharted space through light."

Photos from the exhibition by Hyundai Engineering & Construction senior manager Kim Yun-hwan [Hyundai Engineering & Construction]

Kim said his works — which organize space through flows of light and color — connect directly to "uniformity ratio," a core concept in lighting design that measures how evenly illuminance is distributed across a space. "When the contrast between brightness and darkness is too strong, a space can cause visual fatigue," he said. "I wanted my paintings to achieve a natural, comfortable picture plane, the way good lighting does."

For Kim, lighting is a key element that elevates the value of a residential space. The better lighting is planned and realized, he explained, the more residents can enjoy a comfortable environment through the experience of light. Among his proudest achievements are specialty items he developed, including perforated panel lighting fixtures and an iconic exterior accent wall that incorporates lighting.

"Hyundai Engineering & Construction also puts great care into nighttime landscape design as it raises the standard of apartment landscaping," Kim said. "Rather than creating light pollution for residents, we aim to build a nighttime lighting environment that illuminates spaces fully even without harsh brightness."

lucky@heraldcorp.com