Installation view of 《Do Ho Suh》 © MMCA
The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA),
presents a large-scale solo exhibition of Do Ho Suh, a key figure in Korean
contemporary art, at MMCA Seoul, on view through February 9, 2027.
The exhibition is organized to offer a comprehensive survey of the
artist’s practice, which has continually expanded in scope over four decades,
establishing a distinctive presence both in Korea and on the international
stage. It is the largest exhibition of Suh’s work to date.
Do Ho Suh (b. 1962) has constructed a distinct artistic world
through his inquiry into fundamental questions of the individual and the
community, home and displacement, and memory and identity.
Based on his experiences of growing up in Seoul and living in the
United States and Europe, Suh explores the relationship between home,
architecture, the body, and space through diverse media, including sculpture,
installation, drawing, and video.
Installation view of 《Do Ho Suh》 © MMCA
Reflecting on constant relocation and shifting relationships, he
has expanded his personal narrative into broader studies of human existence and
identity, memory and place, and community and society. By transporting familiar
spaces and objects to unfamiliar settings, Suh redefines home not as a fixed
dwelling but as a space in which memory and experience accumulate and travel.
By prompting contemplation on life and existence beyond the
boundaries of any single place or culture, Suh’s art demonstrates the vital
potential for Korean contemporary art to engage with the world.
Installation view of 《Do Ho Suh》 © MMCA
Bringing together over 500 works of drawing, sculpture, video, and
installation—from previously unseen works produced during the artist’s
university years to signature works and ongoing projects—the exhibition offers
a multidimensional view of Suh’s artistic journey and the evolution of his
thinking.
In particular, his fabric reconstructions of actual architectural
spaces, alongside works that record the traces of everyday spaces and objects,
invite a reconsideration of the ties between physical places and the memories
accumulated within them, as well as between the individual and the community.
Installation view of 《Do Ho Suh》 © MMCA
By presenting works from different periods and locations along a
single continuum, the exhibition reexamines the connections and variations that
run throughout Suh’s oeuvre across time and space. Moving freely between works,
visitors come to discover these connections for themselves, overlaying their
own memories and experiences to generate new meaning.
The exhibition unfolds across Galleries 3, 4, and 5; communal
spaces; and the MMCA Studio, with works from different periods and in different
media arranged to form organic connections. Early and recent works, drawings
and installations, the home and the body, and space and time reflect and
infiltrate one another, revealing the evolution and deepening of the artist’s
thinking.
