YOO SEUNG-HO

YOO SEUNG-HO
Eoheung - Once upon a time 2006
Purchased 2007. The Queensland Government's Gallery of Modern Art Acquisitions Fund
Collection: Queensland Art Gallery
Image courtesy: One and J Gallery, Seoul

Yoo Seung-ho, “Bzzz……”, ink on paper, 200×157cm，2007

On first glance you might think you are looking at a traditional Korean landscape painting, but on closer inspection the presumed brushstrokes appear as thousands of tiny, grain-size Hangul (traditional script of Korea). This painstaking process is Yoo Seung-ho’s signature mark, a form of poetry inspired by the surreal ‘calligrammes’ of Guillaume Apollinaire (where words make up a shape). With a sense of tongue-in-cheek humour, many of Yoo’s delicate works are linguistic puns that highlight the absurd difference between how a word sounds and its associated meaning. History is humorously referenced in Yoo’s works, which draw format, scale, technical virtuosity and spiritual rigour from traditional Chinese and Korean aesthetics.

Yoo Seung-ho has been praised as one of a select few of his generation who have rejuvenated the artistic and spiritual practice of the traditional arts in Korea.