Jeong Min Suh “Beyond The Line”

The Sylvia Wald and Po Kim Gallery

This event has ended.

SWPK presents Jeong Min Suh: Beyond the Line on view in our 2nd floor gallery space.

Korean artist Jeong Min Suh (Jeonnam, Korea, 1962) is known for his singular ability to infuse new life into discarded scraps of traditional Korean calligraphy and literati ink paintings, creating elaborate paper works that blur distinctions between painting and sculpture. Taking its impetus from recent developments in Suh’s practice, Beyond the Line presents a group of three-dimensional compositions in which the artist draws on the simplicity of the line — as both a design element and visual metaphor — to reflect profound principles underlying the natural order of the world around us.

Suh’s works incorporate thousands of tightly rolled paper units formed from compressed layers of discarded calligraphic texts that the artist salvages from studios and temples. Suh assembles these reconstructed paper units into visually stunning sculptural compositions of three-dimensional forms emerging from the surface as tangible reinterpretations of ancient wisdom. Faintly discernible traces of concealed calligraphic lines create an animated topography that teems with an internal dialogue between the past and the present.

For Suh, the line is a powerful metaphor, denoting more than just an edge or contour; it serves as an agent for the essence of life itself. Drawing on his studies of Eastern philosophy, the artist interweaves conceptual threads of creation, destruction and renewal to reconfigure the past with his own unique aesthetic language, generating liminal spaces seemingly balanced on a line between two worlds.

Born in Jeonnam, Korea in 1962, Jeong Min Suh received his BFA in Painting from Chosun University and an MFA in Fine Arts from Kyeonggi University. His work has been featured at international venues including the 2013 Venice Biennial, Personal Structures Collateral Event (Palazzo Bembo); the Seoul Art Centre; the Gwangju Biennial the KEPCO Plaza Art Museum and the Gwangju Museum of Art, as well as in numerous solo and group exhibitions both locally and abroad. He is the recipient of the Haengju Art Award in 2011 and 2005, and the Golden Award for Paper Art from the World Gallery of Drawing in 2013. His work is held in public and private collections including the Hauser & Wirth Gallery (Switzerland), the Seoul Paper Museum, the Electric Power Corporation (Seoul), and the Seoul Museum of Art.