"Life is not always a matter of holding good cards, but sometimes, playing a poor hand well." － Jack London

Kukwon Woo is a South Korean artist living and working in Seoul. Woo's work combines cruel fairy tale scenes and roughly scribbled famous words with his natural gift of color, creating a unique genre that mixes Pop Art and Figurative Art. Woo was selected for the 32nd JoongAng Fine Arts Prize which is one of the important awards in Korea. He held numerous solo exhibitions since 2009 and recently his art piece has been collected at "Culture Convenience Club company" a Japanese company that operates Tsutaya, a nationwide bookstore in Japan. Furthermore, his paintings have been collected at various museums in Korea such as the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art and Seoul National University Museum of Art. The quote by famous American realist writer of the 20th century, Jack London was referenced by Kukwon Woo in the artwork "Poker Face". The vibrant blue background echoes the rough texture created by Woo's habit of rubbing or scraping thick paint with his hands. The characters and animals in the painting exist in the same space, conveying the artist's usual simple emotional expression. With the addition of the impactful text, it guides the audience's subjective consciousness, rather than just the artist's intention.