Hosted in Gurye-gun, home to the country's only pressed flower museum and a must-visit tourism destination
"My Love Ogugu" by Heo Hae-suk has been named the overall grand prize winner — the presidential award — at the 25th Korea Pressed Flower Competition.
According to Gurye-gun, the host organization, the overall grand prize was determined by incorporating the results of a public online vote among four works that had advanced through two rounds of judging.
Heo, who is based in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, created "My Love Ogugu" to capture the beauty of a season when flowers bloom and new life stirs, rendered with delicate precision.
The work drew high marks from the judging panel for its vivid, intricately detailed depiction of flowers and a bird's nest.
This year's competition drew pressed flower and preserved flower entries from four countries — South Korea, Japan, China and Taiwan. The grand prize winner and other major award-winning works are set to be displayed in a special exhibition hall at the Gurye-gun Agricultural Technology Center.
Pressed flower art, known in Korean as "nurum-kkot," is a sculptural art form in which flowers, leaves and stems are dried and flattened, then affixed with adhesive to create a painterly effect.
Gurye-gun is a center of pressed flower craft, home to the Korea Pressed Flower Museum — the only institution of its kind in the country — and draws visitors alongside other attractions such as Hwaeomsa Temple on Jirisan, Saseongam Hermitage and the Sansuyu Festival.
"We will continue to operate the competition with fairness and authority, developing it into an international contest that pressed flower artists from around the world most want to enter," county chief Jang Gil-seon said.
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