Born 1947 in Kyungju, Korea.

Growing up in Kyungju - once the capital of the Shilla kingdom and one of Korea's most fabled artistic enclaves - inspired Young Sook Park to study Korea's longstanding ceramic arts tradition. The beauty of the surrounding landscape further instilled within her a commitment to the purity of form found in traditional Korean pottery-making techniques and, through careful study and practice of these techniques, she began developing her own distinctive style.

Young Sook Park's commitment to understanding the "lost" methods and styles of Korea's fabled Chosun Dynasty led to the establishment of Young Sook Park Ceramic Studio in 1979. Since then, Park has been constantly experimenting with materials, forms, scale, and firing techniques in order to forge a new tradition within Korean ceramic arts. Her clays produced by the artist, for example, take from 6 to 10 years to mature.

After twenty years of dedication and practice, Young Sook Park has mastered the fabled "Moon Jar" and has initiated a new chapter in the history of this once-lost art form. Renowned for the exquisite harmony shared between mouth, body, and base, the "Moon Jar," conceived during the Chosun Dynasty, represents the epitome of perfection for many ceramic artists. Balancing precariously on a rather high base, and featuring an upper section fuller than the lower section, both sections must be put together seamlessly and stress points must hold together to prevent collapse during firing. According to Park,

Born 1936 in South Korea.

Lee Ufan’s current retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum, Lee Ufan: Making Infinity, recognizes Lee as “a historical figure and contemporary master.” Lee came to prominence in the late 1960s as one of the leaders of the avant-garde Mono-ha group (Object School). Their philosophy commanded that art should reveal the essence and purity of raw physical materials. The idea was to uncover the essence of the object in its purest form by creating what Lee calls Re-Presentations. His work is constantly approaching the limit of a void. Lee’s struggle for a purification of objects is perhaps what attracted him to the work of Young Sook Park and led to an ongoing collaboration.

Lee's earliest works were ink or watercolor on paper and this medium has continued to be an integral part of his practice throughout his career. His watercolors are an important place for thinking about the language of the brushstroke.

In the 1980s and early 90s, Lee began painting open, free-form compositions of gray and black stokes on canvas. In contrast to his earlier more structured From Point and From Line paintings, this series was anchored to the irregular rhythms of wind.

Young Sook Park and Lee Ufan first met in 1979 at Park’s gallery in Insadong, Seoul. United by a shared aesthetic rooted in the belief that there is great complexity in simplicity, their initial collaboration produced a minimalist cobalt blue brushstroke that was applied to a series of dinnerware including plates, bowls, tea pots, tea cups and platters. Their collaboration led to terracotta reliefs and large painted plates among other objects.

Exhibition on view with Furniture Design by Eric Slayton and Uhuru.