shooo - 129,6x72.3cm, ink on paper, 1999-2000
shooo detail
yodeleheeyoo! - 79x108cm, ink on paper, 1999
foo-ha - 160x120cm, ink on paper, 2002
On first glance you might think you are looking at a traditional Korean landscape painting, but on closer inspection the presumed brushstrokes appear as thousands of tiny, grain-size Hangul (traditional script of Korea).
This painstaking process is Yoo Seung-ho’s signature mark, a form of poetry inspired by the surreal ‘calligrammes’ of Guillaume Apollinaire (where words make up a shape). With a sense of tongue-in-cheek humour, many of Yoo’s delicate works are linguistic puns that highlight the absurd difference between how a word sounds and its associated meaning. History is humorously referenced in Yoo’s works, which draw format, scale, technical virtuosity and spiritual rigour from traditional Chinese and Korean aesthetics.
Yoo Seung-ho has been praised as one of a select few of his generation who have rejuvenated the artistic and spiritual practice of the traditional arts in Korea. Graduating from the painting department of Hansung University, Seoul, in 1999, he has since been included in several international exhibitions, such as 'Pause: 4th Gwangju Biennale 2002' and ‘The Elegance of Silence’, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, in 2005.
