Sunyoung Hwang
Exploring physical and psychological layering, Sunyoung Hwang’s work creates a sense of different layers, of strata, both beneath and within the picture plane. Hwang would describe it as a tangible representation of the unconscious incoherent flow of metaphorically internalised thoughts, emotions, memories, and impressions that pass through my mind. For Hwang, the canvas is a place where they are reviewed, reconstructed, and re-approached, and where Hwang attempts to unearth the invisible accumulation or remnant of these phenomena that are implicit in, or exist beneath or between, layers of what is perceptible through the tangibility of the paint. It is what Hwang would describe as emotional archaeology.
As Hwang works directly onto the canvas without preliminary sketches, drawings or photographic references, the entire process of painting happens only on the canvas through an organic process and development. Using a spontaneous, stream-of-consciousness method of composition, Hwang overlaps multitudinous layers with intuitive conceptions of time and space, eschewing preordained logic to better access a personal sense of procedure, leaving the process as valuable as the final product. This results in gestural works that feel like they have been caught in a moment with a sense of the passage of time – the ideas and emotions expressed can never be finished nor fully come into being, only (barely) contained by the canvas. The expansiveness of thought and feeling resists the finitude of the canvas. However, at the same time, they seem to have a desire to stay and isolate themselves within the canvas. There is a tension suggested between permanence and impermanence, chaos and control, the visible and invisible, a sense of presence and disconnection through fragmented compositions, whispery, floating gestures that appear caught amongst the layers, or hidden, implying the buried histories beneath and within the picture plane.
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B.1988, Seoul. Lives and works in London
Education
2014–2016 MA Painting, Royal College of Art, London
2009–2012 BFA Fine Art (First Class Honours), Slade School of Fine Art, University College London, London
Solo and Duo Exhibitions
2024 (Upcoming Solo), Frestonian Gallery, London
2024 (Upcoming Solo), A-Lounge, Seoul
2021 (Duo) Convergence and Collapse, Grove Collective, London
2019 (Solo) I Feel Guilty About Missing You. Because I Didn’t Feel Guilty About Leaving You, GalerieERD, Seoul
2018 (Solo) The Echoes of Forgotten Nights | The Chadwell Award Winner's Exhibition, Nunnery Gallery, London
2017 (Solo) With Half-Closed Eyes, GalerieERD, Seoul
2016 (Solo) Liminal Moment, Project Gallery, Arundel
Selected Group Exhibitions
2023 A Matter of Perspective, Liliya Art Gallery, London
2022 Taking a Broom to the Wasps’ Nest, Pictorum Gallery, London
2022 Untitled Art, with Cob Gallery, Miami
2022 Vanguards, Unit London, London
2022 Through The Prism, Gillian Jason Gallery, London
2022 That Wilderness Within, PRIOR Art Space, Barcelona
2022 In Awe of You, Liliya Art Gallery, London
2021 Ellipsis Prints Billboard Takeover, Wells Terrace, Finsbury Park, London
2021 Swimming Backwards, Sid Motion Gallery, London
2021 The Top 100, The Department Store, London
2021 Origin, Delphian Gallery, London
2020 Antisocial Isolation, The Saatchi Gallery, London
2020 Urban Reckoning, The Koppel Project Hive, London
2020 Art Central 2020 (Digital edition), Hong Kong
2019 Delphian x Guts, co-curated by Delphian Gallery & Guts Gallery, The Factory, London
2019 Last Night a Brush Saved My Life, The Address Gallery, Brescia
2018 Young Contemporary Talent Purchase Prize 2018, The Cello Factory, London
2018 Fresh Paint, Messums Wiltshire, Salisbury
Awards and Scholarships
2020 Longlisted, Jackson’s Painting Prize 2020, London
2018 Finalist, Young Contemporary Talent Purchase Prize 2018, The Ingram Collection, London
2016 Winner, Chadwell Award 2016, London
2016 Third Prize Winner, Bath Open Art Prize 2016, Fringe Arts Bath, Bath
2011 Awardee, Steer Memorial Prize, Slade School of Fine Art, London