CONCORD, MASS.- Lucy Lacoste Gallery is showing an experimental exhibition, SunKoo Yuh: Old and New, in which the renown Korean artist breaks away from his past of monumental figurative sculpture to explore four new ways of working. Capturing the artist at his moment of change, this exhibition also reflects the accelerating changes of the society in which we live while demonstrating the creativity that can come out of it.
For many years, Yuh has wanted to evolve naturally from the large scale colorful, figurative ceramic sculpture for which he is known. In this exhibition, Old and New, the artist proceeds to try out four ideas. The first is to show the changes from his old work to his new work by using his existing works to reconstruct new pieces. The second is to change from representational to abstract, avoiding the figurative and narrative aspects of his work, to create abstract forms. Thirdly, in making sculpture in black or white, he lets go of his polychromatic glazes for which he has been known and uses the clay’s original colors of black and white unglazed. The fourth area he explores is the presentation of hand built, painted hollow forms in sculptures he calls Piles which continue his psychologically revealing drawings. These four changes allowed him to compose a new body of work for this exhibition.
This exhibition confirms how Yuh is steeped in art history and social commentary. German expressionist artists, such as Max Beckmann, are a source of inspiration seen in the artist’s bold and revealing drawings in this exhibition and carry over to his Story Stones, hand-formed, then covered with drawings mostly black.
Yuh combines many references in his new monochromatic sculpture through the maximalist use of press-molded found objects. He alludes to the energy of Korea, found in the culture’s co-mingling of Zen Buddhism, Confucianism and Christianity iconography of Jesus and Buddha figures, and juxtaposes it with pop culture references of today such as Chewbacca and Batman. Also found are examples of humor in his use of casts of an Elmer’s glue bottle and corncobs. The white press mold sculptures are reminiscent of classical Greek and Roman sculptures.
“The small, new black and white porcelains seem to quote Walter Benjamin’s writing on the consequences of diffusion and popularization of art reproductions” – Diana Korzenik
Yuh was born in 1960 in South Korea, immigrated to the U.S. in 1988 and now resides in Athens, GA, where he is a professor of art at the University of Georgia. He received his BFA degree from Hong Ik University, Seoul, Korea and his MFA degree from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred, NY.
He has exhibited widely and has received many awards and honors. He was the recipient of the Joan Mitchell Foundation grant, the Grand Prize at the 2nd World Ceramic Biennale International Competition, Icheon, Korea, The Elizabeth R. Raphael Founder’s Prize and the Virginia A. Groot Foundation. His work is in the collections of The Renwick Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., The Museum of Fine Arts, The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia, Houston, Houston, TX, Icheon World Ceramic Center, Icheon, Korea, the International Museum of Ceramic Art, Alfred, NY, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA, the Oakland Museum of Art, California and more.
“We are living in a time of change, accelerating chaos. This work captures the spirit of the day. It shows beauty coming out of chaos and conflict. These pieces reflect moments of change when we don’t know where we are going to land. They show us that Chaos is the spirit of pieces jarring yet beautiful, the spirit of creation.” - Rima Bonario
