Suh Se Ok, Do Ho Suh: Caressing the Memory

About the exhibition

Ink paintings by Suh Se Ok appear with thread drawings and new rubbings by Suh Se Ok's son, Do Ho Suh. In the 1970s Suh Se Ok built a hanok, a traditional Korean house, in Seongbuk-dong, modeled it on Yeongyeongdang at Changdeokgung Palace and named it Musongjae. Do Ho Suh grew up there.

The Seongbuk Culture Foundation, which runs the museum, describes two parts. The first treats the home as a place of thought and memory, with objects and rocks Suh Se Ok prized. The second, on people and the time that connects them, sets the People series beside Do Ho Suh's thread drawings, the 2026 Karma series and 나의 집들, a work about 3 meters long.

A small room holds the new rubbings of the hanok. Vogue Korea reports they were made with thread and graphite from the house's wall patterns and stone objects. Do Ho Suh's solo show at MMCA Seoul runs through February 9, 2027.

About the artist

Korea JoongAng Daily reports that Suh Se Ok (1929–2020) was born in Daegu, studied Oriental painting at Seoul National University and taught there for about four decades from 1955. ArtReview describes the People series, begun in the 1960s, as stylized figures painted fast on big sheets of paper in short and long strokes. Do Ho Suh (b. 1962) was born in Seoul and lives and works in London. The artist builds precisely proportioned copies of homes and household appliances in sewn, see-through polyester and represented Korea at the 2001 Venice Biennale.

Sources: Victoria Miro: Do Ho Suh · ArtReview: Suh Se Ok obituary