Sangmin Oh

Gallery of Kpop

Every K-pop fandom is a religion. These are its altarpieces.

NewJeans — The Long Night Under the Hare's Moon

NewJeans

The Long Night Under the Hare's Moon

Fandom Altarpiece

This wall reads the five guardians of the Bunnies as one continuous lunar night, laid out along a low, restful horizon rather than a turning vault. High above hangs the moon and its hare, the oldest East Asian companion of the night and the most literal sign of a fandom named for the rabbit. Below it, across the open field, a swallow darts low, a sunflower turns toward the first dawn-glow, a fox waits half in shadow, and a young deer stands quietly in the grass. The palette stays cool and tender to match their unguarded, naturalistic spirit, with cinnabar and gold held in reserve. A single thread of white light runs from the moon down to each spirit, so the five never read apart.

CORTIS — The Scaffold That Raises the Sky

CORTIS

The Scaffold That Raises the Sky

Fandom Altarpiece

This wall venerates the five of CORTIS not as performers but as young builder-spirits who draw their own heaven into being. Where the canonical tomb walls fixed four guardians to four directions, this mural climbs as a rising scaffold of blueprint-lines, five emblems built into one shared lattice around a central tower, an image of a crew with no fixed positions raising a single structure together. A single unbroken line of crayon-cinnabar light runs through the whole composition and crosses the painted border at the edges, the wall's quiet vow to color outside the lines. The mood is warm and grounded, youthful rather than solemn, a sacred workshop caught at the moment of making.

EXO — The Tree Split Between Light and Shadow

EXO

The Tree Split Between Light and Shadow

Fandom Altarpiece

Nine guardian spirits array down the two sides of a cosmic Tree of Life, each carrying the single element the tree once gave them. The wall divides straight down the middle, the whole left half a realm of light and the whole right half a realm of shadow, with the Tree rising as the axis between them. The split recalls the legend of a tree halved to hide its heart from the Eye of the Red Force. A wash of pale Cosmic Latte starlight gathers in the light side and falls into dusk on the shadow side, so one source of brightness crosses the seam. Each emblem keeps its own mineral coloring, frost-blue beside cinnabar flame beside malachite mountain.

AESPA — Guardians of the Aurora Wilderness

AESPA

Guardians of the Aurora Wilderness

Fandom Altarpiece

The four members of AESPA are venerated here as guardian spirits of KWANGYA, the digital wilderness their avatars call home. The wall is built in the manner of an ancient royal tomb, where the exalted dead were watched over by celestial beasts, but the four guardians are recast as the group itself. Aurora light, the fandom's color, runs through the whole surface as a single cold flame, binding the four into one cosmology. Butterflies, the group's own sign, drift across the plaster as motes of that light, while the serpent kept at the lower margin marks the adversary the guardians hold at bay.

BTS — The Sacred Mountain at Twilight

BTS

The Sacred Mountain at Twilight

Fandom Altarpiece

This wall venerates the seven of BTS as guardian spirits of youth, painted in the manner Korea once used to honor its exalted dead. Following the Demian myth that shaped the group's Wings era, the realms of day and night meet across a twilight sky, while a single thread of purple light, the ARMY's vow of Borahae, binds every figure into one ocean. The composition climbs in a slow spiral from a central Sacred Mountain of the Immortals at the root to a golden phoenix reborn at the crown. The mood is reverent and luminous, the patient resilience of the "bulletproof" carried into the sky.

BLACKPINK — The Cross of Four Pink Fires

BLACKPINK

The Cross of Four Pink Fires

Fandom Altarpiece

This wall venerates BLACKPINK as four guardian spirits anchored to the four cardinal directions, the way ancient Korea arranged its Four Guardians around the chamber of an exalted dead. Each woman is recast as one bespoke emblem rather than a borrowed deity, and the four sit at the arms of a cross. Where the two axes meet, Jennie's black eclipse-disc holds the center. The mood is the group's own duality, soft pink against fierce black, elegance against the hunt. Read together, the emblems form a sovereign court where night-fire and jewel-light flow as one current.

SEVENTEEN — Thirteen Lights, One Diamond at Dawn

SEVENTEEN

Thirteen Lights, One Diamond at Dawn

Fandom Altarpiece

This wall venerates SEVENTEEN as thirteen guardian spirits arranged the way they arrange themselves, as three units gathered into one at first light. The eastern dawn quarter holds the Hip-Hop guardians, the luminous center holds the Vocal guardians, and the western motion quarter holds the Performance guardians in mid-leap. A single faceted cosmic diamond burns at the heart of the wall, the jewel the fandom calls CARAT, and every emblem leans toward its light. Dawn glow warms the eastern quarter and spreads inward; warm rose pools at the diamond's core while cool sky-blue washes the edges, so the whole field reads as one breathing atmosphere.

TWICE — The Spring Parade of Nine Lights

TWICE

The Spring Parade of Nine Lights

Fandom Altarpiece

This wall reads as a festive spring parade crossing from left to right. Jihyo's rising vermilion sun leads at the head of the line, its warm light pouring over the procession that follows: mandarin ducks, a darting kingfisher, streaming ribbons, blossoming branches, a white hawk, a painter's brush trailing flowers, and a comet streaking ahead. Cloud scrolls and showers of blossoms carry the eye along the march, the way TWICE's nine voices fall into a single bright chorus. The apricot and neon magenta glow of ONCE runs through every halo as the light over the morning. It is a daylight procession, joyful and sisterly, built to be venerated.

IVE — The Self That Faces the Water

IVE

The Self That Faces the Water

Fandom Altarpiece

Six guardian spirits sit above and below a still waterline, the upper half mirrored in the calm pool beneath, so the whole wall reads top to bottom as one reflection. At the center, Wonyoung's crowned reflection gazes into its own double, the Narcissus self-love that gives the group its "I HAVE," built across "Eleven," "Love Dive," and "Kitsch." A pearl glow tinged with blue and lavender, borrowed from IVE's lightstick since the fandom keeps no official color, runs through the water and the air as one light. Each emblem holds its own pigment while the reflection binds them. The mood is regal and quiet.

2PM — Storm-Forged: The Six Guardians of the Beast Hour

2PM

Storm-Forged: The Six Guardians of the Beast Hour

Fandom Altarpiece

This wall venerates 2PM, the group that taught Korean pop to be a beast. Six guardian forces circle a single storm: a dragon thrashes at the center, a winged steed leaps clear of the clouds, and a faceless smith-god hammers the group's sound into being at the forge below. The motion is athletic and charged, the way their stage was, with torn banners and struck sparks carried on the wind. Metallic Grey, the color of HOTTEST, runs through the whole field as a cold silver light that binds the guardians into one body.