Dear ACBA Followers,
I’m Renaud Hyeonwoo PARK, the founder of ACBA @artncba here. I have been running ACBA in Lyon, Paris France since 2017, now in Seoul from 2021.
Perhaps many people did not know that the person running this channel is Korean. I think it’s time to introduce myself as a founder of a small art channel, what I felt while running ACBA for the past 5 years, and the direction of ACBA’s operation in the future.
I. Startup of ACBA
First posting was uploaded on January 7, 2018 on the ACBA @artncba Instagram channel. I was impressed by @taxcollection, @alexanderschwarzart and started @artncba featuring artists and their artworks I liked and researched.
While running this art business, I communicated with many talented artists, participated in art events, and made good memories with various art influencers.
As an aside, my role model, The TAX Collection, was a large channel with 987k followers until recently, but the account was blown up due to Instagram’s unknown policy. They’re currently running a channel with the @tax.collection I recommend you to follow.
At some point, there was little news about ALEX, so I looked up and heard that his life had passed away a few years ago. I had no personal acquaintance with him at all, but I feel sorry for him.
It was originally planned to expand as an art platform with a large audience here. There were several service failures along the way and some business pivots.
On the way, there were many twists and turns, such as my account being temporarily deactivated due to Instagram’s unknown algorithm policy same as TAX Collection, but that’s how I’ve been running ACBA for 5 years.
II. As a Korean, the reason I lived in France
I was an aspiring artist. As a college student on the road to becoming a sociology teacher in 2013, I saw Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks on the Internet and suddenly decided to become an artist late in the dark of dawn.
Then, after 2013 teaching internship program, I took a leave of absence from college in 2014 and lived in Chicago, studying English and Art for one year in the United States. There was a female artist and teacher at a small art school in the Chicago community whose name is Nancy Jensen, and I lived in her home as a host’s family. By the way, the work of Edward Hopper that impressed me is in the Art Institute of Chicago. Thank you, it was such a good memory.
After returning to Korea, graduating from university with a lot of worries, and having a series of teacher experiences(Sociology), I went to France to study art. I majored in Art education and Social studies education at a national university of education in South Korea, and I have a national teacher’s license for two subjects Sociology and Art.
And while studying art in France, a lot of things happened and I gave up on the path of an artist, judging that I did not have the talent as an artist. So I started preparing for an art business in the summer of 2017, and established ACBA in January 2018.
As ACBA’s IG channel grew, I was admitted to two departments at the Sorbonne University in Paris (Paris IV), Department of History and Department of Art History. While studying there, I made good memories with eminent professors in academia and friends who were brilliant in their fields.
But tragically, as our lives often do, the corona era has arrived. While balancing my studies at Sorbonne and art business ACBA, I got the Pfizer vaccine and eventually suffered from serious side effects of the vaccine.
In the end, due to all unpredictable circumstances such as the rigid French society and economy due to Corona, I decided to temporarily stop studying and return to my country South Korea in September 2021 to have time to reorganize myself and my art business.
This is my short story about ACBA and me.
III. The reason why @artncba has been stopped operating in the meantime
I was exhausted mentally and physically from the circumstances I had been through in recent years.
Externally, it was because of the unpredictable Corona situation in France, the rigid art market that we didn’t know when to resurrect.
Internally, it was because of nostalgia caused by living abroad for a long time from the US to France, side effects after getting vaccinated from the Pfizer vaccine in France, and I have sadly got Corona virus after returning to Korea despite getting vaccinated.
So I decided to take a break for the time to think about my life and to evolve ACBA. As a result of taking a break and thinking about the future direction, it is decided to transform to be an art agency ACBA and to launch a new service related to art database and archive in order not to be swayed by specific platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, etc.
IV. Future plans
I have been avoiding personal branding and hiding myself while running my art business. Oftentimes, we find that the channel operator stands out more than artists or their artworks, I guess I didn’t like that type of art snob. Rather than show off my artistic flair like a snob, I just wanted the audience to focus more on the artists and their artworks I introduce.
However, after this break, I have changed my mind a bit and decided to take an approach that’s closer to our audiences, more friendly, and more effective in promoting art. Of course, as mentioned above, I won’t intend to brag about myself. So now, with these stories of mine, I would like to meet you more personally and as friends. The post will be written in English, French, and Korean versions on a post, and will be operated as an art blog.
And I will continue to sign artist-agent contracts with talented artists who love ACBA. Currently, an exclusive contract for activities in South Korea is in progress. Going beyond simple artist introductions and artwork promotions, we ACBA, will focus more on connecting artists to offline experiences such as exhibitions and art fairs, art events, art promotions and merchandise sales of artworks.
Finally, I plan to launch a huge art database and archives covering exhibitions, artists, artworks, and art people. We ACBA, plan to enter the Korean art market beyond the online and French art markets, and also expand into global art markets such as the United States and the United Kingdom.
If you would like to collaborate with us, please feel free to contact us at any time!
V. Introduction of new service ‘Artianne’
The service planned above was executed and developed for the launch of the service, and it was finally completed. I introduce to you.
The new service name is Artianne. It’s a location-based art database archive of exhibitions, art organizations, artworks, artists, and art people.
There’s a link in bio, so please access the website.
You can find the art information you want based on the map and GPS, and you can also submit your art information.
The website language consists of English, French, and Korean. If you submit in your language, it will be automatically translated into those three languages.
You can also buy and sell exhibition tickets and artworks. (As this is a global website, payment is made in US dollars.)
VI. Pricing Plans
You can submit a database of exhibitions, galleries, artists and artworks on the Artianne website, and the first listing submission is FREE to understand the website system. Paid model is applied after first listing submission.
And during a beta period of several months, pricing plans start at US$3. After the beta period ends, the price will go up, so please participate actively!
Conclusion
Generally, we usually don’t read long posts on social media like Instagram. If you’ve read this far, I’d like to say thank you so much for your interest and love for ACBA.
We will soon launch and promote the new service Artianne on our website and Instagram. Instagram account username will be changed from @artncba to Artianne related account.
I’ll see you as Artianne. Thanks again for reading this long post.
Bien cordialement,
Renaud Hyeonwoo PARK
Wednesday 9 November, 2022
Closing credits
Founded, planning, execution, develop, operation by Renaud Park.
