Bridging the gap between the virtual realm and physical reality, South Korean artist Ok Seungcheol (aka Aokizy) translates digital pixels into striking, tangible art. His process begins behind a monitor, pulling screenshots from 1980s and 1990s anime, video games, and pop culture media that shaped his childhood. He recombines and manipulates these assets in Photoshop, treating them like a video game character generator by altering subtle features like hair color or skin tone. This digital manipulation generates precise vector coordinates—a “digital original”—that he uses as a blueprint to cross the boundary into physical craftsmanship.
Using traditional acrylic paint on canvas and sculpture, Seungcheol meticulously recreates these virtual coordinates in the real world. He repeatedly layers his paint to mirror the ultra-smooth, vivid, and flat qualities of a digital display, completely erasing any visible brushstrokes to maintain a screen-like finish. The resulting works, highlighted in his debut 2018 exhibition Un Original at KICHE, feature intense, cropped facial expressions stripped of narrative backgrounds.
