A landscape enters the gallery, summoning memories of nature

Suh Do-sik solo exhibition runs from November 11 to 30

Around 40 works on view, including ‘Stella,’ evoking the Milky Way in a clear autumn night sky

A new form uniting the aesthetic qualities of metal, lacquer, and mother-of-pearl

The harmony of cold, hard metal with soft, refined lacquer

Mother-of-pearl radiating myriad hues adds warmth and elegance

Summoning each person’s memories of nature, conveying emotions of serenity and happiness

“I hope this exhibition offers audiences a long-awaited rest and warm sensibility”

Metal craft artist Suh Do-sik will hold the exhibition ‘Landscape’ from November 11 to 30 at Design House Gallery Moiso (272 Dongho-ro, Jung-gu, Seoul).

Held under the theme ‘Landscape: Summoning Memories of Nature,’ this exhibition presents around 40 works created through Suh Do-sik’s distinctive craft technique of applying natural lacquer to metal.

In particular, this exhibition highlights works that convey a sense of elegance and warmth by making use of mother-of-pearl that radiates a rich variety of hues.

‘Stella,’ a work expressing the Milky Way in a clear autumn night sky, means “star” in Spanish. On the inner surface of a small space made by delicately hammering a silver plate, autumn-hued lacquer was applied, and above it mother-of-pearl was densely inlaid in linear forms to express the spreading light of the stars.

The Landscape exhibition invites viewers to summon their own memories of autumn and of nature, so that they may feel serenity and happiness.

The moment visitors enter the gallery, their sense of time crosses between past and present, drawing them out of a bleak reality and into the warm, beautiful scenery of nature.

The works Suh Do-sik has submitted for this exhibition add various colors and textures of natural lacquer in parts to solid, somewhat cold-feeling metal forms, giving them visual vitality.

He brings motifs such as the sky of sun and moon, the earth of trees and forests, birds, persimmons, and pumpkins into each of his forms.

Furthermore, through landscapes of the earth blended in fresh yet cozy oranges, yellows, and greens, he evokes memories of autumn.

The warm, sweet fragrance rising from a pile of fallen leaves gathering one by one opens the viewer’s heart toward a blue sky where a bright sun rises, while also bringing them together with the hot red earth.

Suh Do-sik said, “The beauty of the Landscape exhibition will reach its peak only when each person’s warm memories and happy imagination are added,” adding, “I hope this exhibition can offer audiences a long-awaited rest and warm sensibility.”

For more than 30 years, Suh Do-sik has carried out diverse and challenging work, focusing on the fact that, beyond the craft genre’s tendency to be bound by technique and tools, craft is an art through which humans can express themselves most emotionally and sensuously.

Using cold, hard metal and soft, refined lacquer as his principal media of expression, he has harmoniously created spaces of imagination and memory.

He sheet-metal forms materials commonly used by contemporary metal craft artists—such as copper, aluminum, and silver—and combines them with the material properties and aesthetic qualities of lacquer, achieving a new sensory form of design.

Unlike existing metal craft works with a smooth feel, his works stand out for their distinctive texture and subtle coloring.

Looking at the lacquerware craft culture practiced today in various countries across Southeast Asia, including China and Japan, it is difficult to find cases where lacquer has been applied to contemporary metal craftwork.

For this reason, his works have stirred a fresh wind both at home and abroad.

Domestically, the atmosphere of traditional lacquerwork, which had been stagnant for some time, was linked to a phenomenon of revival after lacquer techniques came to be used in contemporary metal craft works.

Abroad, his creative works have drawn particular attention at exhibition events where the crafts of the three East Asian nations—Korea, China, and Japan—are introduced together, and he is invited to work exhibitions planned in China, Japan, and elsewhere almost every year.

Amid the high level of interest in the craft fields of the three East Asian nations of Korea, China, and Japan, he has continually taken part in numerous exchange events, including exhibitions and academic conferences held in each country. He has consistently participated as a presenter introducing the meaning and value of craft within Korea’s traditional art and culture, as well as Korea’s policies for promoting craft culture.