Applications for smartphones and tablets have become a creative tool for users. It is easy to make art on the devices, without paper or paints.

Smartphone paintings will go on exhibit at the Seoul Metropolitan Library from next week. The exhibition, “DigiFun Art Festival,” will showcase some 400 sketches, drawings and paintings done on mobile devices by 300 artists and members of the public. They will be on view on the first to fifth floors of the library inside the new Seoul City Hall building. 

“This is an exhibition with a new, fresh concept. Making art has been regarded by many people as a difficult thing to experience. But in this digital era, art becomes fun when combined with digital devices,” said Amy Chung, director of the exhibition.

The exhibition is being run in partnership with Mobile Digital Arts and Creativity, an event based in the U.S. sponsored by the Mobile Art Academy.

Paintings feature various images including portraits, landscapes, objects and animals. Some of the highlights are portraits of students and crew members who died in the Sewol ferry sinking in April.

“The DigiFun Art Festival will be an exchange of new ideas about art and help make the field of art more accessible to the general public,” said Ahn Seung-joon, honorary director of the Seoul Metropolitan Library.

The exhibition is open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekends from Aug. 19-30. For more information, visit http://www.digifunart.com.

By Lee Woo-young (wylee@heraldcorp.com)