Seung Yul Oh was born in 1981, in Seul, Korea. He moved to New Zeland in 1997, where he concluded his Master’s at the University of Auckland’s Elam School of Fine Arts, in 2005. He lives and works between Auckland and Seul.

Oh’s practice combines references from Eastern Asia culture and Western art history. Situated between show and participation, his hyper realistic sculptural installations as well as the performances and videos tend to reconfigure daily objects, together with their spaces, offering both playful and perplex moments. The optical tensions of his paintings result from a language which reminds us of minimalist abstraction, although informed by Tansaekhwa, a Korean monochromatic tradition of the 70’s which calls for meditation experiences.

After his first solo exhibition Chew Chew Tongue, Starwhite, Auckland, 2006, various solo and group exhibitions followed, including Break: Construct, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, Aotearoa, 2007; Telecom Prospect 2007: New Art New Zealand, City Gallery Wellington; Oddooki, Sculpture Court, The Museum of New Zealand – Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington, 2008; Bogle Bogle, TheNewDowse, Lower Hutt, 2010; Constellation, 4A Centre for Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2011; Social Animals, Space 15^th Seoul, 2011; MOAMOA, Dunedin Public Art Gallery and City Gallery Wellington, 2013; SOOM, Auckland Art Gallery, 2014; Haapoom, Te Uru Waitakere Contemporary Gallery, Auckland, 2015 and CIRCUIT Distributors Screening, International Kurzfilmtage, Oberhausen, 2020. To be noted the public projects ordered by the Auckland City Council public art commission, 2015; SCAPE Public Art, Christchurch, 2017 and Nelson Sculpture Trust public art commission, 2018. He had an artistic residency at space GGOOL, Seul, in 2010 and received the Harriet Friedlander New York Residency Award, in 2011. His work is represented in the collections of the Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne and The Museum of New Zealand – Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington.

SN, november 2020

Melik Ohanian

Artworks

Girls of Chilwell - Suspended Acting2014

Seung Yul Oh

António Olaio