Yeesookyung has been showing a rich variety of conceptual works, from ceramic sculptures, scroll paintings and cinnabar drawings on Korean paper, to video and multi-media installation.
Read MoreArguably, her most well-known sculptural work is the series Translated Vases. From ceramics villages throughout Korea, Yeesookyung collects discarded fragments of ceramic wastage flawed in the eyes of master potters. They acquire a new hue by the artist's hand: she reassembles these Translated Vases by gilding them with fine 24 carat gold leaf. These sculptural montages are freed from specific historical referents, genres or conventions. The bulbous vases become highly suggestive: they may be the ample, elegant curves of a woman's body, or the contorted abstractions of pain. By allowing these newly configured ceramics to depart from the bounds of their native Korean ceramic cultures, Yeesookyung's transformation of their form yields to a translation into the experimental and the contemporary.
Born in 1963 in Korea, Yeesookyung studied painting at the College of Fine Arts of the National University in Seoul. She has completed residencies at Villa Arson, Apex Art and the Bronx Museum, and her work has been shown globally at the 6th Gwangju Biennale (2006), ARCO 07 (2007), the 5th Liverpool Biennial (2008), the 2009 Vancouver Biennale, the 2010 Busan Biennale and the 18th Biennale of Sydney (2012). Most recently, Yeesookyung has been featured in notable exhibitions including "Women In-Between: Asian Women Artists 1984-2012" at the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum (2012), the "2012 Korea Art Prize" at the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul (2012), "Korea Eye 2012" at the Saatchi Gallery (2012), and "The Collectors Show: Weight of History" at the Singapore Art Museum (2012). Her works have been collected by the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Korea (Gwacheon), IFEMA ARCO Collection (Madrid), Echigo-Tsumari City collection (Japan), and the Saatchi Gallery (London).
Text courtesy Ota Fine Arts.
