Yusun Won South Korean, b. 1997

Yusun Won is an award-winning emerging Korean ceramic artist whose practice explores perception, hidden space and the boundaries of traditional vessel forms. She established her ceramic practice in Cardiff, UK, where she completed her MA, before returning to South Korea to establish a studio in Seoul.

Through unexpected reinterpretations of historic Korean objects, Won challenges conventional ideas of utility and offers new ways of encountering ceramic form. One of Won’s principal series began with her observation of an 18th-century Joseon-dynasty vessel constructed by joining two separate forms. Drawn to the seam between them, she began to imagine what might be revealed if the vessel were opened. By dividing and reassembling familiar forms, Won separates interior and exterior space, allowing previously concealed volumes and unexpected structures to emerge.

Her delicate porcelain works are patiently constructed by hand. The exteriors remain unglazed to preserve the natural quality of the material, while subtle impressions of the artist’s fingertips remain visible across their surfaces. These traces of making lend intimacy and softness to forms that are otherwise precise and architectural. Won’s exploration of perspective developed through a simple moment in the studio. While observing a vessel with her head tilted to one side, she began to consider how a form might appear upright from an altered viewpoint. This led her to question whether any single alignment could be considered correct, and how ideas of balance depend upon individual perception.

Approaching the vessel from multiple angles, Won creates forms that appear tilted, interrupted, partially omitted or deliberately unbalanced. Rounded and angular elements coexist, while empty spaces become as significant as the porcelain surrounding them. Despite their instability and variation, the individual forms come together in a quiet and elegant harmony.

Won was a finalist for the BADA Art Award in the UK in 2021 and won the Cheongju International Craft Competition in South Korea in 2019.