Suh Yongsun,
Brooklyn Ⓝ5, 2023-2025, Acrylic on canvas, 61 x 79 cm ©PIBI GalleryPIBI Gallery will present 《City and People》, a solo exhibition by
artist Suh Yongsun, from August 7 to September 13, 2025.
Since the 1980s and 1990s, Suh Yongsun has
explored themes of the city and the people who inhabit it, closely observing
the rapid transformations Seoul underwent during South Korea’s period of
economic growth. In the early 2000s, his focus expanded beyond Seoul as he
began traveling to cities abroad, walking their streets and observing the urban
landscapes and their residents firsthand.
This exhibition features Suh’s recent
works—new paintings of New York’s subway scenes and portraits of people within
them—as well as a selection of self-portraits. Together, the works revisit his
longstanding exploration of the relationship between the city and its people,
now rendered through a contemporary lens.
Suh Yongsun, Ⓝ 자화상, 2024, 2025, Acrylic on canvas, 118 x 75cm ©PIBI Gallery
The exhibition 《City
and People》 invites viewers to revisit Suh Yongsun’s
long-standing urban series through the lens of his most recent works, turning
our gaze toward “the city of here and now” and the fleeting figures within it.
Scenes from everyday life—such as
crosswalks, subway platforms, and bus stops—are reconstructed through the
artist’s perspective, transforming into seemingly indifferent yet unfamiliar
landscapes. Rather than focusing on individual characters, Suh presents figures
as collective, interconnected forms—creatures of different cities that, at the
same time, embody the universal identity of urban dwellers.
Suh Yongsun, The
Sound Inside, 2020, 2025, Acrylic on canvas, 82.2 x 125.7 cm ©PIBI GalleryThrough 《City and
People》, PIBI Gallery hopes to offer an opportunity to
reflect anew on the enduring themes of “people” and “the city” that Suh Yongsun
has long explored. By continuing to observe and document the streets, the
artist poses a timely question: How do people relate to and transform within
the city?
