The Beautiful Future

North Korean Artwork Commissioned by Koryo Studio.

A collection of eight paintings by a group of North Korean artists working in collaboration with a pair of British creatives, Nicholas Bonner and Dominic Johnson-Hill. The show debuted in Caochangdi as part of Beijing Design Week 2013, before moving to Art Labor gallery in Shanghai, and then the Taipei Fine Arts Museum in Taiwan. The images also became a huge hit in China where they were the top trending item for three days straight on Weibo (China’s Twitter, with more than 300 million active users).

“The results give an intriguing insight into the North Korean artists’ vision of what Chinese modernity might be like in a land they will never know.”

The Guardian

Our Story

Nicholas Bonner of Koryo Studio and Dominic Johnson-Hill of Plastered 8, Beijing’s most famous streetwear brand, are both Brits with decades of experience in China to their name. During that time the country they call home has changed at breakneck speed, with endless debate and discussion from around the world, which inspired the duo to explore the topic through a prism left untouched by all others — North Korea. Thus, Bonner and Johnson-Hill sought to use their connections and creativity to provide a platform for North Korea’s oft-ignored artists to add their voice and unique outlook to the debate.

The Beautiful Future – An Imagined Beijing

Each of the eight pieces that make up The Beautiful Future were painted in Pyongyang, and based on sketches by Bonner and Johnson-Hill, who provided the North Korean artists with ideas drawn from their time in China. Together — over a period of two years — they created an imagined Beijing, where strong socialist traditions are sharply juxtaposed with present-day pleasures and symbols of China’s unprecedented development. And so a group of outsiders with very different backgrounds combined to take a fresh look at China’s past, present and future, with The Beautiful Future portraying a place lost in time — where socialism is both celebrated yet fits awkwardly with modern day living.