Bihop was born in Seoul, South Korea, in 1977. When she was a child, she wanted to become a painter. But her parents strongly disapproved and forced her to forgo her dream. This caused her paranoid disorder, from 2000 to 2001, and she had to quit the job as an English grammar teacher. For years, she went through estranged relationship with her parents, after which she turned her career around and, in 2006, started to teach herself painting to lead her own life as a painter. In 2007, she not just held a solo exhibition but published her first poetry works. Since then, she has actively sought career as an artist by taking part in art exhibitions held in Seoul, New York and Hong Kong. Recently, she was invited to put her works of art on display in Saatchi Gallery, London.
Bihop is deeply absorbed in the philosophies of Marleau Ponty and Deleuze, which has had great influence on her artworks. Her work of art focuses on visualizing sound and movement in the form of painting. The object seen in the canvas, apparently looking like two distinct ones, is actually one, which typifies her way of visualizing movement. In addition, the two animals, looking like Siamese twins, symbolize situation facing her country which used to be one but remains divided into the South and the North.
Since the late 2018, she has given a new try to her artworks. She parodies paintings of renowned artists such as Bacon, Manet, Gogh, Picasso and Cezanne. Specifically, she removes the Sunflowers from Gogh’s painting and takes away the Apples from Cezanne’s. The artists undeniably created newness at the time they were active. However, as time passes by, new ones change into old ones, which are petrified into stereotypes and ideologies. Their works of art, though they had looked radical of the day, now have become myths and ideologies. Just as art is progressive and progression is the history of patricide, she removes main objects(become myths and ideologies) from the establishment. This eventually causes background obscured by main objects to come to rise across the canvas.
