SHIN SHANG CHEOL
Born in 1976 in Wonju, Gangwon-do, artist Shin Sang-cheol received his master's degree in printmaking from Hongik University. Shin Sang-cheol held a total of 15 solo exhibitions, including one held in Seoul in 2021. He is active as an artist through various exhibitions at home and abroad.
The theme of the Shin Sang-cheol‘s work begins with individual memories, desires, and identities that explores the fundamental aspects of art itself. The artist questions the sensibilities and spirit of the times that represent the relationship between individuals and others. Furthermore, he addresses a wide range modern issues.
Shin Sang-cheol explores his paintings as a relation to individual desires and identities in modern society to reveal presentness at an early stage. The work highlights the time, where the past and the present meet in order to gradually emphasize the present. The medium, including ice painting and use of bit pieces of hangul, plays an importance to the painting, as they present relief and fragmented recalling a memory, reproducing and reflecting a specific image or a moment. Preservation and reinterpretation are emerging as a new formative language unique to the artist.
In the work, there is an emphasis on representational attempts and sensuous acts that reflect specific images or moments. Simutaneously, abstract expressions and minimal attempts, using simple colors, are being made in the pieces. In every media, two-dimensional and three-dimensional, printmaking, pictorial, and sculptural processes, they induce consilience with each other and show a non-genre tendency.
Artist Shin Sang-cheol creates a work as if consonants and vowels meet to complete a word, sentence, and writing. Rather than emphasizing only the artists themselves, he aims to create a culture of mutual respect and fellowship. Moreover, through the subject matter of Hangeul, people can learn about Korea and Korean culture through the love of art. Shin Sang-cheol hopes that people will feel the limitless deviation of their imagination by escaping from reality while encountering his work.
King Sejong the Great (세종대왕)
200 x 200 cm
Oil on canvas
2020
HANGUL
“Hangul is a collection of all my memories. When I was a teenager, I loved listening to music. 'Hangul' (Korean alphabet) is a character modeled after a pronunciation organ, so it can express all sounds. There were memories that were far from my memory, vivid memories, and memories that I wanted to store forever. Used as a habit as a Korean, Hangul is a collection of all these memories. Hangul, which I used as a habit as a Korean, is a collection of all my memories.”
“The first work using Hangul was a series of portrait paintings. This series focuses on the question of ‘what is art?’ From this question, the series built up inside and outside, hovering around the art boundary. It reveals traces of distress of creativity by scribbling, studying. If I recreate pre-made art within myself, wouldn't I become a true artist myself? It is a work like a diary of blind hope.”
BTS
91 x91 cm
Oil on canvas
2021
Remembrance 아버지
70 x70 cm
Mixed media on canvas
2015
70 x70 cm
Mixed media on canvas
2015
Remembrance 어머니
70 x70 cm
Mixed media on canvas
2015
MOTHER
“Everyone has their own story. Even when looking at the same object, what is felt by each person's memory seems to be different. The Korean word 'mother' was used as a motif in my work, when the audience found the word ‘mother’, I hope it will be an opportunity to recall their nostalgia for their mother.”
Left Behind Memories (Whispers in the Night Sky)
90x90 cm
Mixed media
2020
MEMORIES
“The meaning of this work is a collection of memories, and the memories of Koreans are stored in Korean. Newspaper or thesis, left over from other types of documents. As the times change, it is also left as a picture, photography, or video, but it is mainly accompanied by writing. This work is being attempted to create an implicit image of this phenomenon.”
90x90 cm
Mixed media
2020
MEMORIES
“The meaning of this work is a collection of memories, and the memories of Koreans are stored in Korean. Newspaper or thesis, left over from other types of documents. As the times change, it is also left as a picture, photography, or video, but it is mainly accompanied by writing. This work is being attempted to create an implicit image of this phenomenon.”
The Strata of Memory
50.5 x 41.5 cm
Mixed media
2020
THE STRATA OF MEMORY
“The title of work is 'The Strata of Memory'. For example, it is an abstraction of the contents of a diary. The consonants and vowels of Hangeul were dismantled and reorganized into an unreadable form. The meaning of this composition may be an attempt to express an unconscious self in memory or an act of con- sciousness to regain a forgotten memory, but I think it is a process of finding another self through this act.”
50.5 x 41.5 cm
Mixed media
2020
THE STRATA OF MEMORY
“The title of work is 'The Strata of Memory'. For example, it is an abstraction of the contents of a diary. The consonants and vowels of Hangeul were dismantled and reorganized into an unreadable form. The meaning of this composition may be an attempt to express an unconscious self in memory or an act of con- sciousness to regain a forgotten memory, but I think it is a process of finding another self through this act.”
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2021 Gyoha Art Hall Invitational Exhibition at Paju
Olivia Park Gallery Invitational Exhibition at Seoul
Invitational Exhibition of Museum of Modern and Contemporary History Yongin
2018 Gallery O Invitation Exhibition at Seoul
2015 Namsan Library Gallery Invitational Exhibition at Seoul
2014 Leaders Gallery Soo Invitational Exhibition
2013 Gallery Serene Space Invitational Exhibition at Seoul
The-K Gallery Invitation Exhibition at Seoul
2012 Gallery Supplement Invitational Exhibition
2009 Bong Art Gallery Planning 55 Degree Wine Bar
2008 Gallery I Invitational Exhibition
Gallery Sono Factory Invitational Exhibition
2007 Gallery Haru Invitational Exhibition
Gallery Picture Collection Planning Invitational Exhibition
Gallery the- D Invitational Exhibition
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2022 Ace Art Fair at Insa Art Plaza, Seoul
Special Invitation to Ukraine Peace Support Fund at Maison de Bonaire Gallery, Seoul
Art Busan BEXCO
2021 Miami ART Contest
Relationship at Maru Art Center, Seoul
G Art Exhibition at Insa-dong Sanchon Gallery, Seoul
Mapo Art Association MCM Props Exhibition at Insa-dong Sanchon Gallery, Seoul
Plastic Art Fair at COEX, Seoul
Busan International Gallery Art Fair at BEXCO, Busan
The 4th Korea Leaders Exhibition at Piccadilly Museum
Korean Art Museum Opening Commemorative Exhibition at Korean Art Museum, Seoul
Asia Art Show at Incheon Songdo Convention Center, Incheon
BANK ARTFAIR at Intercontinental Hotel, Seoul
G-ART Sharing Exhibition at Blue Gallery, Seoul
100th anniversary of Bishop Ji Hak-soon at Wonju
President Moo-Hyun Roh Commemorative Exhibition at Maru Gallery, Insa-dong, Seoul
2020 Gangwon Contemporary Artist Exhibition at Gangneung
Gangneung Museum of Art Opening Commemoration Exhibition of the Power of Artists at Onggi Group Art Center, Gangneung
10 to the power of N at Seoul Station History Museum, Seoul
1+1=0 ago at Gallery Art Logic
2019 And 100-tour at Mapo Art Center, Cheongju Cultural Center, Jinju Cultural Center, Gunsan Palma Art Center
Korea Art Festival at Jincheon
Gangwon Contemporary Artist Exhibition at Chuncheon Cultural Center, Chuncheon
2018 ART ASIA at KINTEX, Ilsan
2017 Handmade Fair Special Exhibition
2016 Korea-Japan Art Exchange Exhibition at Tokyo, Japan
Art Jeju at Lotte Hotel, Jeju
2015 Shanghai Open Art Fair at Shanhai Expo, China
Pyeongchang Biennale at High1, Pyeongchang
Korea-Japan Art Exchange Exhibition at Hanjeon Art Center, Seoul
Seoul Affordable Art Fair at Dongdaemun DDP, Seoul