SOOYEON HONG | 홍수연
Sooyeon Hong is an abstract painter who has silently made her own path toward formative development over the past 10 years. In the canvas, the floating ambiguous forms overlaps and explodes. It is the world of non-figurative forms which is surreal and lyrical. Her works remind viewers of “artistic being.”
It is a painting but not pictorial at the same time, as she uses gravity to create agravic space which allows various interpretations from multiple angles. Instead of brushstrokes, the gravity draws the painting over the delicate layers of paint. The abstract forms reveal from the carefully calculated process: it’s a repetitive work of pouring, tilting, dripping, and drying that produces tension and vague, sentimental feelings.
She intends to catch a moment of tension and excitement through organic flows. Her artwork is created with an exquisite blend of small amounts of pigments, various kinds of transparent mediums, acrylic paints, and the flow of time. She constructs the condensed temporality on the surface of the painting. Through the posed, but the simultaneously active flow of the paint, she reconstructs the plane with multiple overlapping layers. By revealing the moving clotty-lumpy shapes, the layers of images arise excitement and emotional tension.
“The contour of the image is not fixed but slides into the mysterious moment between segments. However, the working method of Hong is the opposite. Rather, it progresses with thorough calculation and intention. The calculated slope of the canvass, the transparency created by having certain amount of paint float on top of another layer and the next, and the timelines acquired through this. Through these elements, a layer is a form yet something that exists as the afterimage of the next form. This sort of structure can be recognized as another form. However, as these layers become accumulated, the whole screen is recognized as the fluid image that slowly evolves. Even when trying to define it by segmenting it into a minimum unit, it evolves towards yet another point. Reiteration and overlap, exposure and concealment, that is, meaning is achieved by ‘layers’, not by ‘a layer.’”
– Excerpt from critic by Dae-Beom Lee, Art critic
Hong holds B.F.A. and M.F.A. from Hong-Ik University, in Seoul. She also studied at Pratt Institute, the Graduate School of Art, in New York. Her artwork can be found across the world from the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Korea to the Conrad Hotel and Four Seasons Hotel in Seoul, and the Korean Embassy in Hague and Delhi.
INQUIREbiography
EDUCATION
1995 MFA Pratt Institute, The Graduate School of Art, New York, USA
1992 MFA Hong-Ik University, The Graduate School of Art, Seoul, Korea
1990 BFA Hong-Ik University, College of Art, Seoul, Korea
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2020 Space Moon, Songdo, Korea
2020 Paralogue, Banyan Tree club, Seoul, Korea
2019 Equilibrium, NYB Gallery, Kirkland ,WA, USA
2019 Sooyeon Hong, Indipress gallery, Seoul, Korea
2018 Abstract: Intrinsic, Space So, Seoul, Korea
2018 Between forms, Song Art Gallery, Seoul, Korea
2016 Bundo Gallery, Daegu, Korea
2016 AG Gallery, Seoul, Korea
2015 Gallery Royal, Seoul, Korea
2011 Ryu Gllaery, Seoul, Korea
2010 Plant Gallery, Seoul, Korea
2009 the Room-Total Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, Korea
2007 Bundo Gallery, Daegu, Korea
2005 Gallery IHN, Seoul, Korea
2003 White Wall Gallery, Seoul, Korea
2002 Kumho Museum, Seoul, Korea
2001 Posco Art Museum, Seoul, Korea
1996 Sunnen Gallery, New York, USA.
1992 Sonamoo Gallery, Seoul, Korea
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2020 Time of Peace Works by Women Artists, HK Art & Antiques, New York, U.S.A
2019 dwell in DR, drawing room, Seoul, Korea
2019 Huue contemporary, Asia square, Singapore
2018 Salon, Nook Gallery, Seoul, Korea
2018 Hommage to Posco, Posco Museum, Seoul, Korea
2017 Dialogue, Nook gallery, Seoul,, Korea
2014 Small is Beautiful, Flowers Gallery, New York, USA
2014 Floweing Island, Nefs Art Gallery, Seoul, Korea
2014 Huue Opening Exhibition, Gallery Huue, Singapore
2013 Corporeity, Sooyeon Hong & Hunchung Lee, BK Gallery, Seoul
2013 Aesthetic Categories, wumin art center, Cheongju, Korea
2013 Black Square, 101 Gallery, Seoul, Korea
2013 Vessels, LWL-industriemuseum, Dortmund, Germany
2012 Korean Eye, Saatchi gallery, London, U.K.
2012 Sporadic Positioning, Arario Gallery, Cheonan, Korea
2012 Gefabe, Stiftung Zollverein, Essen, Germany
2011 A Pleasure with Dear Friends!, Posco Art Museum, Seoul, Korea
2011 Phyomai, Bridge Gallery, Seoul, Korea 2010 Cycle & Recycle, Interalia, Seoul, Korea
2011 21&Their Times, Kumho Museum, Seoul, Korea
2011 Art Docking Spot, Woomyung Museum, Hanam, Korea
2011 Image of Exchange Value, Artspace Hue, Seoul, Korea
2009 Artist Gallery-Fleeting, Museum of Art, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea
2009 Wonderful Pictures, Ilmin Museum, Seoul, Korea
2008 To Have or To Be, Korea Foundation, Ireland, Portugal, Hong Kong
2008 Dazed & Painted, Seomi & Tuus Gallery, Seoul, Korea
2008 Sooyeon Hong, Saeng-gon Han & Jae-hyo Lee, Gallery Indipress, Busan, Korea
2008 Multi-Colored Sentiments, gallery zandari, Seoul, Korea
2007 MoA-picks: reminiscing the medium-a ‘post-’syndrome, Seoul National Unversity, Seoul, Korea
2007 Post Feminity with Mine, Yoo Art Space, Seoul, Korea
2006 Sooyeon Hong & Hwan-Kwon Yi, Paik Hae Young Gallery, Seoul, Korea
2005 Blue, Gana Art Center, Seoul, Korea
2005 Korean Modernism, Kumho Museum, Seoul, Korea
2005 Korean-Japan Interchange Exhibition, Hangaram Museum, Museum of Tokyo National University, Seoul &Tokyo
2004 Flower Flows Flowery, Artinus Gallery, Seoul, Korea
2004 Cutting Edge, Seoul Acution House, Seoul, Korea
2003 Sense & Sensibility, Busan Museum of Art, Busan, Korea
2003 Pronto, C/O, Milan, Italy
2003 Dreamy Hive, Space Zip, Seoul, Korea
2003 Intro, Gallery IHN, Seoul, Korea
2002 Surface, Chun Gallery, Seoul, Korea
2002 Picnic, Public Project-The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Gwachun, Korea
2001 New York Academy of Art’s Annual Benefit Art Auction, New York, U.S.A.
2000 NY Independent Art Fair, New York, U.S.A.
2001 Im-Pregnancy, Fine Art Center, Seoul, Korea
2001 White, Nikolai Fine Art, New York, U.S.A.
2001 Terra Sacrare,Puffin Room, New York, U.S.A.
1999 Surface Structure, Nikolai Fine Art, New York, U.S.A.
1999 Summer Group Show, Painting Center, New York, U.S.A.
1998 Artist for Gardens, Puck Building, New York, U.S.A.
1998 Art Exchange Show, 2 Broadway, New York, U.S.A.
1997 Today’s Vision, H.Heather Edelman Gallery, New York, U.S.A.
1997 Vision 21, Half Concert Hall, New York, U.S.A.
1996 Dialogue of Consciousness, Eighth Floor Gallery, New York, U.S.A.
1996 smallabstractartworks, 450 B’way Gallery, New York, U.S.A.
1996 Human Invitational Show, Walker Wickiser Gallery, New York, U.S.A.
1996 Studio, 450 Gallery, New York, U.S.A.
1995 Rise & Shine, Cast Iron Gallery, New York, U.S.A.
1995 Non Logo, One Night Stand Gallery, New York, U.S.A.
1994 Inks, Manhattan Graphic Center, New York, U.S.A.
1992 Natural, Human, Art, Sonamoo Gallery, Seoul, Korea
1992 The Presage, Gaain Gallery, Seoul, Korea
1992 Balcony, Gallery 2000, Seoul, Korea
1992 Hong-Ik Print Making Group, Dukwon Gallery, Seoul, Korea
AWARDS
2013 Grant for International Exchange of Art & Culture- Art Council, Korea
2009 Artist Sponsorship of Visual Arts, Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture
COLLECTIONS
The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Gwacheon, Korea
Consulate General of The Republic of Korea in Shanghai, China
Embassy of the Republic of Kore in Netherlands, Hague, Netherlands
Embassy of the Republic of Kore in India, New Delhi, India
Kumho Museum, Seoul, Korea
Posco Center, Gwangyang, Korea
Samsung Main Building, Seoul, Korea
Four Seasons Hotel, Seoul, Korea
The Westin Chosun Hotel, Seoul, Korea
Haevichi Hotel, Jeju, Korea
IFC Conrad Hotel, Seoul, Korea
Samsung Hotel, Geoje, Korea
Novotel Daegu City Centre, Daegu, Korea
Bobath Memorial Hospital, Bundang, Korea
Handsome Co.Ltd., Seoul, Korea
Lotte Hotel, Ulsan, Korea
Shinsegae Co.Ltd., Seoul, Korea
Kogas Marine Co.Ltd., Incheon, Korea
Wumin art center, Cheongju, Korea
Yonsei Museum, Seoul, Korea
Ananti Cove, Busan,Korea
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