Perrotin brings Shim Moon-seup's seascape-inspired canvases to Paris

Installation view of Shim Moon-Seup’s solo exhibition at Perrotin Paris / Courtesy of the artist and Perrotin

Shim Moon-Seup, regarded as a pioneering force in modern Korean sculpture, presents a series of his meditative, seascape-inspired abstractions at Perrotin Paris.

The exhibition in the French capital features 13 paintings and two sculptures by the artist and follows his first solo presentation held at the international gallery’s Hong Kong outpost last year.

Born in 1943 in the southern port city of Tongyeong, South Gyeongsang Province, Shim first dove into the country’s postwar art scene through anti-academic experimentations challenging conventional sculptural norms.

In the 1970s, influenced by minimalist artist Lee U-fan and the Mono-ha (School of Things) movement, Shim used simple materials such as stones, paper, tree trunks and steel plates in their raw state and arranged them in a way that turns viewers’ focus onto the idea of relationships – those between the natural and manmade elements and between the materials and space – while minimizing his own intervention.

Shim Moon-Seup's "The Presentation" (2022) / Courtesy of the artist and Perrotin

Along with his fellow avant-garde creators of this time, Shim is one of the artists featured in the ongoing group exhibition, “Only the Young: Experimental Art in Korea, 1960s-1970s,” at the Guggenheim Museum in New York.

His artistic repertoire began to expand beyond 3D installations in the 2000s when he turned to oil paintings – a medium which, in his eyes, shares fundamental overlaps with sculptures.

On view at the Paris gallery are the canvas works, "The Presentation," born from repeated and layered brushstrokes, which evoke the azure waves and tides of his childhood.

“The dominant blue tones are a reference to his past and the sea, which he carries within him, and which have taught him to both look at nature and collaborate with it,” Mael Bellec, curator of Chinese and Korean art at the Musée Cernuschi in Paris, noted in a statement.

“Shim Moon-seup” runs through Jan. 13, 2024, at Perrotin Paris.

Sculptor and painter Shim Moon-Seup / Courtesy of the artist