Originality & Identity

Sikyung Sung focuses not on constructing concrete forms but on the visual language that emerges through the act of painting itself. Particularly drawn to the unpredictability and spontaneity of artistic gestures, Sung explores how images captured in fleeting moments respond to and collide with each other within the pictorial field. Early works such as Green Bridge(2016) and Ridge(2017) trace the trajectories of thought and emotion through dynamic brushstrokes and rhythmic color contrasts, embodying the artist’s fundamental inquiry into the dissolution of the boundary between planning and spontaneity.

This approach becomes more pronounced in the ‘Zamboni’ (2020–) series, where Sung actively embraces the incidental traces created by brush movements on a damp, white surface coated in oil paint. Wet Wall(2023), featured in the exhibition 《For a long time, All at sudden》(d/p, 2023), exemplifies this method: ten modular panels were painted individually without prior consideration of their final arrangement, then spontaneously assembled on site. The resulting mural reveals a dense interplay between short bursts of intuitive action and compositional responsiveness, underscoring Sung’s commitment to immediacy and sensory engagement.

Style & Contents

While employing traditional painting media such as oil paint and canvas, Sikyung Sung actively incorporates formal devices and structural experiments into his process. His early methodology involved masking tape to divide a single canvas into multiple internal frames, each becoming a zone for intuitive image-making. The ‘Multi-Frame Device’ series, presented in 《Exit Exit》(SHIFT/Art Space HYEONG, 2019), represents a spatial-pictorial strategy wherein disjunctions between frames become core compositional dynamics.

As his practice evolved, Sung gradually moved beyond the structural limitations of this framework to focus more directly on the material behavior of paint and the temporal momentum of brushstrokes. His recent works, including those shown in 《SUNROOM》(BB&M, 2023), explore the interplay of light and shadow inspired by architectural conditions, refining a balance between spontaneity and pattern.

The ‘Othello’ (2022–) series, named after the board game, integrates regimented color patterns with unrestrained drawing. In works like Othello – Clasping(2024), Sung overlays vibrant yellow, green, and pink strokes within a shifting matrix of lines and fields, generating a new kind of visual tension born from intuitive rhythm and structural repetition.

Topography & Continuity

Sikyung Sung has consistently explored themes such as the “discrepancy between spontaneity and planning” and “the compositional trajectories traced by paint.” His early works focused on formal experimentation through the division of frames and the orchestration of chance, while more recent works integrate intuitive drawing and structural composition within a unified pictorial system. This evolution has deepened his understanding of composition, temporality, and materiality in painting.

Sung has established himself as an artist who simultaneously engages in structural reflection and formal experimentation within the medium of painting in contemporary Korean art. By fluidly dismantling the dichotomy between plan and impulse, he shifts the focus from producing singular images to constructing generative relationships within the canvas as the true object of pictorial exploration.