b. South Korea 1931
Park Seo-Bo is a Korean Dansaekhwa painter. Best known for his large-scale Minimalist paintings, the artist is widely considered one of the leading figures in contemporary Korean art. His work conflates the ethos of traditional Korean culture with the formal language of linear abstraction. With a practice that is both meditative and violent, Seo-Bo employs a variety of techniques such as sewing hemp onto canvas stretched over junkyard metal, and burning and corroding the surface of his works with blowtorches and chemicals. The artist’s work has been widely met with critical acclaim, with pieces featured in the collections of such important institutions as the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo, and the Musée d'Art Moderne de Saint-Étienne.