Face4 2011 , 35 x 12 x 25 cm
Porcelain ceramic works, installed on the wall, inspired by Face

Face1 2011 , 35 x 12 x 25 cm
Porcelain ceramic works, installed on the wall, inspired by Face



Eyes3 2011 , 80 x 15 x 45 cm
Porcelain ceramic works, installed on the wall, inspired by Eye



Eyes4 2011 , 80 x 15 x 45 cm
Porcelain ceramic works, installed on the wall, inspired by Eye

Art is a lifestyle for me. Everything that surrounds and excites me is automatically processed and transformed into the final result: an artwork. It is fascinating to watch the transitions from life to art. The essence of my work is the human being and their everyday life. I find ceramic to be the most versatile material and it is suited to express my ideas. Working in clay is really deep and has much to interest me: philosophy, technique – so much.

In my work, I like to tell stories using symbols which are universal, when you look at my work you could tell your own story, and would interpret what you see in your own way and each work in the series is created to evoke a different moods and emotions. I am exploring abstract appropriated images from our culture and translating these onto the surface of my work. I feel that they address or allude to specific ideals that interest me. It has always been my goal as an artist to make work that speaks to the viewer on a deeper level.

My works are a step in my ongoing growth toward a personal and unique approach to clay. It is my hope that these images will provoke thought in the viewer. The characteristics and limitations of the materials is a fundamental issue for me. I make use of a working process which is based on analysis and experience. I approach my work in a formal and aesthetic way. That does not mean that emotionality and sensuality are set aside – on the contrary, I go for a cool expression with sensitive undertones and thereby join an abstract, new formalistic movement in contemporary art. - An Myung-nam

An Myung-nam

Seed in a Shell 2011, 29 x 37 x 37 cm



Blue Aqua Flower 2011, 28 X 36 X 35 cm



Landscape of a Sprit 2010 26 x 51 x 51 cm Blown, engraved and plished glass



Untitle 2004, Blown glass 111cm

Fluttering flower series / NB0152
Oxidized silver, white pearls, 24k yellow gold leaf
2 1/2" wide x 2 1/2" high on 16" to 18 1/2" multi cable wire



Oriental hill series / N0157
Oxidized silver, white pearls, 24k yellow gold leaf
16" to 18 1/2" length.



The chrysanthemum is bathed in moonlight
Oxidized silver, 18k yellow gold, tourmaline
2" wide x 2" high

Glowing I
10x10x2 inches.
sterling, fine silver and copper wires


So Young Park's contemporary jewelry forms and theory are inspired from her thesis, Nativity and memories from her childhood. She grew up near the ocean in southern part South Korea. So Young used to play with sea life and plants and collected many different kinds of shells and pebbles. She loved touching and observing the surface texture and pattern of shells and various naturally shaped pebbles during her happy childhood.

As So Young grew, she had several tragic experiences involving the death of her friends. She suffered a long time and her view of life and death dramatically grew different from many other people. Through her thesis works, she found that human life and plant life have similar growth and life characteristics. From an atheistic point view, nature reveals the beauty of the eternal cycles of life, like how rebirth transcends the tragedy of death. In order to bear fruit, plants must progress through many stages of life. During this process different parts of the plants body are required to be sacrificed for the fruit. However, this sacrifice does not signify the end of life, but gives birth to new life. In doing so, this process creates the eternal cycle of life. Her thesis pieces express desire, hope, and the power of life through organic plant forms, that are artistically rendered in a simplistic, geometric, and sophisticated manner.

Her jewelry art forms are assembled through the harmonic use of wires, tiny discs, engraved patterns, and textures forged of gold or silver, creating elegant, yet unusual visual forms. The use of wires, small discs, textures, and other small elements represent the single cells that makeup all life. Each piece contributes to long and painful process to create a beautiful and unusual art forms.

So Young Park

Orange Seed Segmentation, 2009; acid etched glass



Purple & Green Embryo Segmentation hot sculptured, cut, assembled glass 5.5" x 11.5" x 8"

Purple & Yellow Segmentation hot sculptured, cut, assembled glass 8" x 12" x 6.5"



Orange & Magenta Embryo Segmentation hot sculptued, cut, assembled glass 6.5" x 12.5" x 7"

Jiyong Lee’s Segmentation Series is inspired by his fascination with cell division. He works with glass that has simultaneous transparency and opacity; two qualities that metaphorically represent the clarity and mysteries of biology.




Homage to DNA, 2008; acid etched glass; 14½

Jiyong Lee is an assistant professor at Southern Illinois University Carbondale where he teaches as Head of the Glass Program. Lee was born and raised in Korea.

The deceptive simplicity and understated intricacy of Lee’s compositions represent the contradictory relationship between clarity and complexity found within life. Similar to the way “cells start to segment and become a life,” the uniquely refined transclucent laminated glass surface suggests the mysterious qualities of cells, and on a larger scale, the ambigiuity of our temporal existence. As the viewer moves around Lee’s objects the play of light transforms the sculpture into startling new forms which play on our perceptions and our expectations.

Ji Yong Lee

Rediscovery 0608, 2006, kiln-cast glass, 15 x 15 x 2 in.



Rediscovery 0609, 2006, kiln-cast glass, 15 x 11 x 10 in.



Rediscovery 100306 (2009). Kiln cast glass, 12.5"h x 9.5"w x 5"d.

A Korean professor Sungsoo Kim, working at the Cleveland Institute of Art, puts his sculptures named ‘Rediscovery: New Glass Sculpture’ on public view through his first U.S. solo exhibition. The sculptures that look like a semiprecious stone – carved with utmost care – are actually crafted from recycled glass and Styrofoam packaging materials. The definitive artworks are the medium for the artist to express his concern over an important environmental issue: Pollution.



Rediscovery 08001 (2009). Kiln cast glass, 40"h x 100"w x 10"d.



Detail of Rediscovery 08001 (2009). Kiln cast glass, 40"h x 100"w x 10"d.

In my work with Styrofoam, I try to find something concealed in it. The explicit purpose of this material is to protect products while they are in transit. As such, this material has a vital role in the economic machine, but ultimately it becomes trash. Its only value is conferred to it by the market value of the product it protects.

That value is lost as soon as the product it protects is removed. The depreciation is astronomical from a consumer-commodity standpoint, but I think there is still something valuable in it, that the packaging has value as an object itself. My work of recycling packing Styrofoam is then to seek the ‘value’ which is unseen in its material reality. By taking advantage of a particular type of object - packing Styrofoam - I am rediscovering the concept of ‘object’ that has been utilized in art since the turn of the twentieth century.

Sung Soo Kim