Ung-Ung, 2020

Seung Ho YOO
Painting
$3,200
Size
29.7 x 41 cm
11.7 x 16.1 inch
Details
Ink on Paper / Original Painting *Framing is recommended for works on paper before shipping. Please contact us for Framing information.
Shipping Info
Shipping time generally takes between 10 to 15 business days. Additional shipping costs may be applied for some regions. Please refer to our Return Policy for refund or exchange.
Seung Ho YOO

BORN 1974

ARTIST STATEMENT

My work focuses on the relationship between ‘Writing and Drawing’. From a distance, it appears to be a drawn image but a closer look reveals innumerable minute handwriting strewn over. Therefore, my work is comprised of tiny texts but seen as an image as well.

I began to create ‘Text painting’ due to the fascination with blurry brush strokes of Ink wash painting, i.e. smudged contours of Chinese ink on mulberry paper. Such interest towards blurredness has expanded to dismantling the borders between traditional oriental painting and scribble, brush and pencil, and uniqueness and reduplication.

‘Text painting’ is often composed of onomatopoeic or mimetic words. Piles of tiny texts such as ‘Shoo Shoo Shoo-(슈슈슈-)1’, ‘Eng Eng Eng Eng~(앵앵앵앵~)2’, ‘Ung~Ung(엉~엉)3’, ‘Ya~ho(야~호)4’, ‘Woo Soo Soo Soo(우수수수)5’, ‘Joo roo roo rook(주루루룩)6’, and ‘Ung-geum Ung-geum(엉금엉금)7’ together form into an image. ‘Echowords’, a term that refers to ‘imitating language’, represents my work.

  1. Sound of wind, wave, or flying
  2. Buzzing
  3. Crying loudly
  4. Yahoo
  5. Rustling down
  6. Sound of falling rain
  7. Crawling
     

BIOGRAPHY

Education

Lives and works in Seoul, South Korea
  • 1999   B.F.A. Han-Sung Univ., Seoul

Solo Exhibitions

  • 2019 Miss Lamella, CR Collective, Seoul
  • 2018 Spring breeze, how should I love now?, Incheon Culture Brewery, Incheon
  • 2017 From head to toe, P21, Seoul
    From head to toe, Park Ryu Sook Gallery, Seoul
  • 2015 Shaking your hair loose, Perigee Gallery, Seoul
    The Lord`s Prayer, The Lost Player, Olivia Park Gallery, Seoul, New York
  • 2014 Yodeleheeyoo~, Gahoedong60, Seoul
  • 2013 Echowords, Doosan Gallery, New York
    She, Artspace Hue, Paju
  • 2010 YOOCHIHAN, Gallery Plant, Seoul
  • 2007 Echowords, Mizuma Art Gallery, Tokyo
  • 2006 Echowords, Seomi & Tuus Gallery, Seoul
  • 2005 Echowords, One and J. Gallery, Seoul
  • 2003 Echowords, Moran Gallery, Seoul
  • 2000 Echowords, Seo-Nam Art Center, Seoul
  • 1999 Hee Hee Hee, Gallery Jo, Seoul

Selected Group Exhibitions

  • 2023 New Painting, New Painting Theory, Arting Gallery, Seoul
  • 2022 The 9th CKD Arts Award Exhibition, Sejong Museum of Art, Seoul
    Welcome to the Fairy Land, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
  • 2020 The moment of Gieok(Korean Alphabet ㄱ), Seoul Calligraphy Art Museum, Seoul
  • 2019 Mongyuinwang, Ansan Art Center, Ansan
    Art369, Yongsan Crafts Museum, Seoul
    More than Words, Seongnam Cube Art Museum, Seongnam
    Prince Anpyong and Hangeul, Zaha Museum, Seoul
    Hanguk-hwa, Mindful Landscape, Daejeon Museum of Art, Daejeon
    Sea and Beans, Partyum Art Gallery, Incheon
    Playing Texting, Dohing Art, Seoul
    The 20th Anniversary Archive Project of Alternative Space Loop, Alternative Space LOOP, Seoul
  • 2018 Mongyuinwang, Zaha Museum, Seoul
    Hyper Narrative, Meta Monaco, Monaco
    Bricolage: World with coincidence, Suwon Art Center, Suwon
    2017 Meta-scape, Wooyang Museum of Contemporary Art, Kyeongju
    A Joy of SPRING: Scenery, Blossom and Delicacy, National Folk Museum of Korea, Seoul
    Nangmanchangjeon, Art Museum KRU, Daegu
  • 2016 Tenacious Hands, Seongbuk Museum of Art, Seoul
    Hangeul Calligraphy x Latin Typography, Seoul Calligraphy Art Museum, Seoul
    Old & New, DDP Design Museum, Seoul
    The Tradition is the Future, Ilju & Seonhwa Gallery, Seoul
  • 2015 Muhyenguem, Jincheon Bell Museum, Jincheon
    Stop and See, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Gwacheon
    Giving My Heart to Snoopy, Lotte Department Store, Seoul
    Paintings - all the windows to the world, BMOCA, Paju
    Writing an Image, Space Cottonseed, Singapore
    Dreaming Reality, SETEC (Convention Hall 1), Seoul
    Play with Drawing, Ilwoo Space, Seoul
  • 2014 Choe Chiwon: Pungyu, Seoul Calligraphy Art Museum, Seoul
    Bag is Literature, Gallery 0914, Seoul
    Tomorrow 2014, DDP Design Museum, Seoul
    Nostalgia of a Great Painting, AK Gallery, Suwon
    Draw, LIG Art Center, Seoul
    Visual Literacy, Space K, Daegu
    Close Up, Doosan Gallery, Seoul
  • 2013 Buk Seoul Museum of Art Inaugural Exhibition Part Ⅱ from SeMA Collection #2 _ NEW SCENES, Buk Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul
    Modern Art and the Idea of the Original, Ewha Womans University Museum, Seoul
    1st Annual Collectors’ Contemporary Collaboration – May Dialogues, Hong Kong Arts Centre, Hong Kong
    Spring, Looking Back on a Familiar Thing, Topgoal Art Center, Seoul
    Stories around Relationship, Hongik Museum of Art, Seoul
    Slow Art, In Square, Paju
    Korean Alphabet: The Art of Inspiration and Interaction, SeMA Nam Seoul, Seoul
    No Comment, Museum of Art, Seoul National University, Seoul
    A Scene from a Memory, ART SPACE BEN, Seoul / ODE TO ART GALLERY, Singapore
  • 2012 Hongseong i.mage Goam hom.mage, Maison d`Ungno Lee, Hongseong
    Hyper text, Nanji Gallery, Seoul
    Historical Parade; Images from Elsewhere, SeMA Nam Seoul, Seoul / CASO, Osaka
    Jin (to Advance). Tong (to Communicate). Contemporary Korean Art Since the 1990’s, Gwangju Museum of Art, Gwangju
    Delving In: Beyond the Boundaries of Physical Properties, interalia Art Company, Seoul
    Landscape meets Digital, Gyeongnam Art Museum, Changwon
    Beyond Landscape Paintings, Gyeonggi MoMA, Ansan
  • 2011 Wonderpia (Wonder+Heteropias), Nanji Gallery, Seoul
    Henkel InnoART, alternative Space Loop, Seoul
  • 2010 2010 Korea Tomorrow, SETEC (Convention Hall 3), Seoul
    Byul Collection Now, Sinsa Art Tower, Seoul
    Hongbelt project-The Grand Date with Artists_Drawing Palm, Art etc, Seoul
    In the Name of the Korean Painting, Pohang Museum of Steel Art, Pohang
    Present from the Past, Korean Cultural Center UK, London
    Between, One and J. Gallery, Seoul
    One and J. Gallery at Pierre Koenig, Pierre Koenig Case Study House #21, L.A.
    Iconotext, Jeju Museum of Art, Jeju
    Collection Highlights, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Gwacheon
    Grand Weaver, Gana Contemporary, Seoul
  • 2009 An Intricate Touch, Miki Wick Kim Contemporary Art, Zurich
    Beginning of New Era, The Seoul site for the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul
  • 2008 Modest monuments: Contemporary Art from Korea, King’s Lynn Arts Centre, King’s Lynn, U.K.
    Another Landscape, Mori Museum, Tokyo
    Korean Young Artists 1-After the Pictorial Turn, Doosan Gallery, Seoul
  • 2007 Writing Paintings, Painting Words, Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul
    Stick and Move, Frey Norris Gallery, San Francisco
  • 2006 The 5th Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
    Oriental Metaphor, alternative Space Loop, Seoul
  • 2005 The Elegance of Silence, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo
    Looking Both Ways: Three Artists from Korea, Bard College, New York
    Korea-Israel contemporary art exchange exhibition-Between human and site, SSamzie Space, Seoul
    Happiness, KEPCO Plaza Gallery, Seoul
    Against Translation, Total Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul
    Nano in Young Artist, alternative Space Loop, Ssamzie Gallery, Seoul
  • 2004 Officina Asia, Galleria D’Arte Moderna, Bologna
    The Idiots, Project Space Sarubia-Dabang, Seoul
    You are my Sunshine: Korea Contemporary Art 1960-2004, Total Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul
    Pick and Pick 4_Sangsu AN Picks-Hangul Dada, SSamzie Space, Seoul
  • 2003 Comics in Art, Art in Comics, Ewha Womans University Museum, Seoul
    Trick, Dongduk Art Gallery, Seoul
    Charity, SSamzie Space, Seoul
  • 2002 Project 1, Pause, Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju
    Image, Text, Typo, Busan Municipal Museum of Art, Busan
    Babel 2002, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Gwacheon
    Living Furniture, Supplement Space Stone & Water, Anyang
  • 2001 SSamzie Site-specific: Crossing Parallels Between, SSamzie Space, Seoul / Lance Fung Gallery, New York
    A world “without” others, Insa Art Space, Seoul
    Disperse, Art Space in Art Council Korea, Seoul
  • 2000 Currents in Korean Contemporary Art, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei / Hong Kong Arts Center, Hong Kong
    Young Korean Artists Exhibition 2000: Towards the New millennium, National Museum of Contemporary Art, Gwacheon
  • 1999 The State OF 1990s Korean Contemporary Art, Allen Kim Murphy Gallery, Seoul
    Beyond Landscape, Artsonje Center, Kyungju, Seoul
  • 1998 Kongsan Art Festival, Dong-Ah Galley, Seoul

Projects

  • 2018 2018 West Sea Peace Art Project, Incheon Metropolitan City, Incheon Foundation of Art and Culture, and Arts Council Korea
  • 2018-2020 The Future Image of Cheongpa, Seoul Metropolitan City
  • 2016 Art City Bus, Gwangju Metropolitan City

Residencies

  • 2013-2013 DOOSAN Residency NY, New York
  • 2011-2012 Nanji Art Studio, Seoul
  • 2010-2011 Jangheung Atelier: Gana Art Center, Yangju
  • 2001-2002 SSamzie Space, Seoul

Awards

  • 2020 The 9th CKD Arts Award, Chong Kun Dang Holdings, Seoul
  • 2003 The 22th Suk Nam Arts Prize, Seoul
  • 1998 Won Excellency Reward at the 5th Kongsan Art Festival, Seoul

Public Collections

Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Mori Art Museum, Tokyo
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
CJ Group, Seoul
MONTBLANC, Seoul
Abu Dhabi Executive Affairs Authority, Abu Dhabi
Burger Collection, Hong Kong
Ewha Woman’s University Museum, Seoul
National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul
Daegu Art Museum, Daegu
Ssamzie Collection, Seoul
Seo-Nam Foundation, Seoul 
Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul
Suwon Museum of Art, Suwon
Doosan Yonkang Foundation, Seoul
Seoul Metropolitan Government, Seoul
Artbank, Gwacheon

About ‘Ung-Ung’

Ung-Ung is an onomatopoeic word for weeping loudly in Korean(엉엉). By repeating the letter under the boldly written 엉엉, the painting looks as if the word itself is shedding tears. 

About Seungho YOO’s Work

His works can be reviewed and classified in a few typical styles.   
The first style comes from the series using characters that helped make his work widely known. His character work represents images and situations by using words and sentences. This series can be divided into two styles: one exploits a play on words like a childish pun by children or comedians and the other appropriates both Eastern and Western masterpieces, especially Oriental landscape painting that is quite familiar to us. His work employing a play on words usually makes use of onomatopoeic and mimetic words and appropriations of foreign words’ pronunciations. This work is visually and semantically lighthearted and nimble due to the mixture of meanings characters retains and the twisted use of their associations with images.

Excerpt from ‘Childishly and Splendidly Frolicking’ by Seung oh SHIN, Director at Perigee Gallery (Foreword from the exhibition ‘Shaking your hair loose’ catalogue, 2015, Perigee Gallery)

Seung Ho YOO's Gallery

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Tags: UngUng, letter, onomatopoeia, minute, handwriting, ecowords, calligraphy