Hyeyoung Kwak South Korean, b. 1982

Hyeyoung Kwak’s conceptual practice blurs the boundaries between ceramics and fine art. Since training at Sookmyung Women’s University, she has developed a distinctive two-dimensional practice that challenges conventional definitions of both disciplines. Kwak made her international debut in 2018 with her poetic series Seeing the Sound of Rain, which attracted significant attention from international collectors and curators.

Her work explores ideas of becoming and existence through the fleeting presence of rain—from its emergence as it falls to its transformation and disappearance upon landing. Kwak interprets the sound of rain as the voice of the invisible, briefly announcing its presence in the world.

To record this presence, she creates clay panels layered with cobalt, chromium and iron oxides, placing them outdoors in locations ranging from her garden to the streets of Seoul. As raindrops gather, flow and disperse, they form rivulets, pools and washes across the surface. These movements are captured by the oxides and clay, leaving traces of a natural event that cannot be precisely repeated.

Kwak regards nature as the maker of these works and herself as a collaborator—creating the conditions for the process while resisting direct intervention. She purifies the clay through repeated filtering before forming and bisque-firing each panel, then applies layers of oxide and waits for the rain. Once exposed, the panels must be moved with great care to preserve the integrity of the marks. Each work is monitored as it dries over approximately one month before being fired again.

Through this meditative process, Kwak relinquishes the artist’s ego and allows nature to assume an active role in creation. She invites viewers to approach the work with similar openness, free from the need for fixed interpretation. At the same time, its sensory qualities evoke our individual physical and emotional associations with rain, offering a moment to contemplate our own ephemeral relationship with the natural world.

Kwak’s work has been presented internationally, including Silent Mind at Lloyd Choi Gallery, London; Personal Structures at the European Cultural Centre, Venice; and successive editions of Collect in London. Other selected exhibitions have taken place at the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, the Aichi Prefectural Ceramic Museum in Japan, the Lee Jung Seop Art Museum on Jeju Island and the Seoul Arts Centre.