Seo Soo-Kyoung (; born 1977), known by the artist name SEO (), is a South Korean
contemporary art
Contemporary art is a term used to describe the art of today, generally referring to art produced from the 1970s onwards. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a ...
ist who lives and works in
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
,
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
. Her artist name comes from her family name
Seo written in capital letters.
Biography
Seo Soo-Kyoung was born in
Gwangju
Gwangju (; ), formerly romanized as Kwangju, is South Korea's list of cities in South Korea, sixth-largest metropolis. It is a designated Special cities of South Korea, metropolitan city under the direct control of the central government's Home ...
, South Korea in 1977. She attended
Gwangju Art High School (
광주예술고등학교) from 1992 to 1996. From 1996 to 2000 she studied at
Chosun University
Chosun University () is one of the oldest private universities in South Korea. Its campus is situated in Gwangju metropolitan city, in southwestern South Korea. Around 33,000 students are enrolled.
Academics
Undergraduate courses are offere ...
, also in Gwangju, receiving the award for the best student of the year upon her graduation. She left South Korea the same year to take up her studies at the
Universität der Künste (University of the Arts) in Berlin, in 2001, as a member of the class of famous painter
Georg Baselitz
Georg Baselitz (born 23 January 1938) is a German Painting, painter, Sculpture, sculptor and Graphic arts, graphic artist. In the 1960s he became well known for his Figurative art, figurative, expressive paintings. In 1969 he began painting his ...
. In 2002, while she was still attending her basic course, the South Korean embassy commissioned SEO to design the
United Buddy Bear on behalf of her native country. Together with the Governing Mayor of Berlin,
Klaus Wowereit
Klaus Wowereit (born 1 October 1953) is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and was the Governing Mayor of Berlin from 21 October 2001 to 11 December 2014. In 2001 state elections his party won a plurality of the votes, 29 ...
, she unveiled this Buddy Bear at the exhibition opening to launch this international art event. She finished the basic course in 2003 supplementing this by the Master Course (2003–2004) thus becoming a "Meisterschülerin“ (Master Disciple) of
Baselitz
Georg Baselitz (born 23 January 1938) is a German Painting, painter, Sculpture, sculptor and Graphic arts, graphic artist. In the 1960s he became well known for his Figurative art, figurative, expressive paintings. In 1969 he began painting his ...
. The Master Disciple is the highest degree conferred on artist by art academies in Germany. In 1999 she started exhibiting her works in Galleries and museums both in South Korea, Germany and internationally, and continues to do so.
Works
Although SEO counts as an artist, her works can also be seen as
mixed media
In visual art, mixed media describes work of art, artwork in which more than one Art medium, medium or material has been employed.
Assemblages, collages, and sculpture are three common examples of art using different List of art media, media. M ...
images. Usually a blank canvas is used to draw a preliminary design, which is then filled out by a large number of pieces of torn rice (
mulberry
''Morus'', a genus of flowering plants in the family Moraceae, consists of 19 species of deciduous trees commonly known as mulberries, growing wild and under cultivation in many temperate world regions. Generally, the genus has 64 subordinat ...
or
tetrapanax
''Tetrapanax papyrifer'', the rice paper plant (通草—''tong cao''), is an evergreen shrub or small tree in the family Araliaceae, the sole species in the genus ''Tetrapanax''. The specific epithet is frequently misspelled as "papyriferum", "p ...
) paper pasted onto the canvas. Some of the paper used is printed especially for her in South Korea, especially the paper with patterns designed by herself. In the next step she applies thin and (semi-) transparent layers of paint to form the final image.
First, she developed a linear style of painting, with whitish lines aiding the definition of the figures, circumscribing the virtual contour. The white lines, however, should be seen as narrow bands of pure painting, with changing hues and densities, creating a match between micro- and macro-structural elements. She embraced European culture, without giving up her Asian background, also engaging in “cultural reconstruction”, like when she reconstructs the spirit of
German Romanticism
German Romanticism () was the dominant intellectual movement of German-speaking countries in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, influencing philosophy, aesthetics, literature, and criticism. Compared to English Romanticism, the German vari ...
in her paintings. There is also a blending of the conceptual and the ideal which leads to something entirely new, a process of “
Creolization
Creolization is the process through which creole languages and cultures emerge. Creolization was first used by linguists to explain how contact languages become creole languages, but now scholars in other social sciences use the term to describe ...
”.
In the course of her development, the linear element slowly became less prominent, while her color scheme grew all the more poignant. The reaction to everyday issues in life and politics, as well as in art and culture, led to statements about these subjects based on an aesthetic concept, which also embodies a definition of the picture as a moment taken out of the unlimited context of the eternal stream of images in the mind, pinpointing not objects, but the essence of things.
The larger part of her work is created in groups of images around a certain idea, motif or concept, like, among others, the series "My German Dreams", "Rice Fields", the "War" and the "Water lilies" series. In all groups there are very large formats, but the "Water lilies" tend to be especially monumental. In the exhibition in the Kunsthalle Rostock, "close encounter – robert rauschenberg – seo" in 2008 she showed a very large size painting with a lake and waterlilies and mountains in the background. The landscape was composed of images of really existing landscapes from different countries, making it a symbol of the world, The water lilies referred to all 47 species of water lilies, also making the rendering a symbol, besides its alluding to Monet, who was at the height of
his water lily-images exactly 100 years earlier. The image consisted of more than 1 million paper scraps.
SEO's "Meine deutschen Träume" ("My German Dreams") deals with her experiences and relation with Germany. She treats and quotes
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (6 May 1880 – 15 June 1938) was a German Expressionism, expressionist Painting, painter and printmaker and one of the founders of the artists group Die Brücke or "The Bridge", a key group leading to the foundation of Expr ...
,
Caspar David Friedrich
Caspar David Friedrich (; 5 September 1774 – 7 May 1840) was a German Romanticism, German Romantic Landscape painting, landscape painter, generally considered the most important German artist of his generation, whose often symbolic, and anti ...
und
Carl Spitzweg
Carl Spitzweg (February 5, 1808 – September 23, 1885) was a German romantic painter, especially of genre subjects. He is considered to be one of the most important artists of the Biedermeier era.
Life and career
Spitzweg was born in Mun ...
, and the sculptural works accompanying the paintings are cast in
"German silver" (i. e. nickel silver, Argantan, alpacca) and show what for her is essentially German: beer barrels (
Gemütlichkeit
''Gemütlichkeit'' () is a German-language word used to convey the idea of a state or feeling of warmth, friendliness, and good cheer. Other qualities encompassed by the term include cosiness, peace of mind, and a sense of belonging and well ...
),
garden gnome
Garden gnomes () are lawn ornament figurines of small humanoid creatures based on the mythological creature and diminutive spirit which occur in Renaissance magic and alchemy, known as gnomes. They also draw on the German folklore of the Dwarf ...
s (contemplativeness), stags’ antlers (power) and – cows. The latter stand for milk and cheese, as Europeans smell, for Asians, like milk. This is a form of cultural reconstruction, as both cultures are treated on the level of subject matter and style. Also the reconstruction of the emotional structure of a certain era embeds possibilities of new, contemporary insights.
More recently SEO has widened her range. In an exhibition, "Personal Structures" at
Palazzo Bembo
Palazzo Bembo is a XIV century Venetian Gothic-Byzantine style palace in Venice, Italy, on the Grand Canal, close by the Rialto Bridge and next to the Palazzo Dolfin Manin.
History
It was built by the noble family of Bembo at the end of 1300s ...
, within the framework of the 2011
Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...
, SEO showed an installation of four of her concentric abstract "Energy" paintings in a dialogue with a box lit from the bottom with assorted rock crystals (German diamonds). She has also started to work with photography as one of her artistic media. A series of her photographs of a light bulb was published in the "art.es" magazine #47. Her main gallery contact is
Michael Schultz Gallery, Berlin (D), Beijing (PRC), Seoul (RK).
Studio visit and interview with SEO
on Vernissage TV, May 18, 2010.
Solo exhibitions
* 1999 Galerie Mudeung, Gwangju / Korea
* 2003 silence and exchange by the mountain, Galeria Simbolo, Oporto / Portugal
* 2003 Meine deutschen Träume, Galerie Michael Schultz, Berlin
* 2004 The Return of the Fishermen to Paradise, Thomas von Lintel Gallery, New York / U.S.A.
* 2005 Bergphilosophen, Galería Carmen de la Calle, Madrid / Spain
* 2005 Falkenrot Preis 2005, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin
* 2006 Ricefields, Thomas von Lintel Gallery, New York / U.S.A.
* 2007 Am Ende kam der Tag, Kunsthalle Mannheim, Mannheim
* 2007 Between dreams, Hyundai Gallery, Seoul / Korea
* 2008 close encounter. Robert Rauschenberg und SEO, Kunsthalle Rostock, Rostock
* 2009 Der Fluß findet das Meer, Kunsthalle Dresden, Dresden
* 2010 Without Words, Today Art Museum, Beijing / China
* 2011 Mondlandung, Leo Koenig Projects, New York / U.S.A.
* 2011 Parallel World, Galerie Andreas Binder, München< Germany
* 2012 In Dog We Trust, Galerie Michael Janssen, Berlin
* 2013 Fremd in der eigenen Haut, BAP-Gallerie, Istanbul / Türkei
* 2014 Global Things – The long way back, Wetterling Gallery, Stockholm / Sweden
* 2015 Die Teilung der Unendlichkeit, Galerie Michael Schultz, Berlin, Germany
* 2015 Lost and Found, Spazio Punch Venedig, Italy
* 2016 Die Verdoppelung der Wirklichkeit, Wetterling Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden
* 2017 Das Gefühl in meinem Innern, Rosenhang Museum, Weilburg/Lahn
* 2018 Verwunschene Realität, Galeria 111, Lissabon/Portugal
* 2019 Multiverse, Galerie Michael Schultz, Berlin/Germany
* 2020 Seeing the World through, Gallery Wetterling, Stockholm/Sweden
Awards & Stipends
* 2000 Stipendium der Cho-sun Universität als beste Studentin
* 2004 Walter-Hellenthal-Preis für Malerei, Berlin
* 2004 Meisterschülerpreis des Präsidenten der Universität der Künste, Berlin
* 2005 Blickachsen Förderpreis, Bad Homburg Falkenrot Preis, Berlin
* 2005 Award of Excellent Painting, National Art Museum of China, Beijing / China
* 2008 Meilenstein, Düren
* 2010 Beijing Art Award
Publications
* SEO: ''Personal Cosmos'', Munich, Hirmer Verlag 2011.
* SEO: ''Without Words'', Beijing, Today Art Museum 2010.
* SEO: ''War and Peace in the 21st Century'', Gwangju, Gwangju Museum of Art 2010.
* Christoph Tannert: ''SEO'', Munich, Prestel Verlag 2009.
* SEO: ''Der Fluss findet das Meer'', Dresden, Kunsthalle Dresden 2009.
* SEO, a. o.: ''Constellations'', Beijing 798, Biennale 2009.
* SEO, a. o.: ''The Judith Rothschild Foundation Contemporary Drawings Collection'', Museum of Modern Art, New York 2009.
* SEO: ''the cologne paintings'', Berlin, Leopold-Hoesch-Museum 2008.
* SEO: ''Close encounter. Robert Rauschenberg
Milton Ernest "Robert" or "Bob" Rauschenberg (October 22, 1925 – May 12, 2008) was an American painter and graphic artist whose early works anticipated the Pop art movement. Rauschenberg is well known for his Combine painting, Combines (1954� ...
und SEO'', Berlin, Kunsthalle Rostock 2008.
* SEO: ''Am Ende kam der Tag'', Mannheim, Kunsthalle Mannheim 2007.
* SEO, a. o.: ''German Painting'', London, Marlborough Fine Art 2007.
* SEO: ''Falkenrot Preis 2005'', Berlin, Künstlerhaus Bethanien 2005.
References
External links
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:SEO
1977 births
People from Gwangju
Artists from Berlin
South Korean contemporary painters
Living people
South Korean expatriates in Germany
20th-century South Korean women artists