Hyun Nahm (b. 1990) translates contemporary landscapes and social phenomena into the language of sculpture. His work navigates the concept of Miniascape (縮景), a method of compressing vast natural landscapes into miniature forms. Originating from traditional East Asian horticultural practices—such as suseok (scholar's rocks), bonsai, and seokgasan (artificial rock mountains)—miniascape is not merely a reproduction of scenic imagery. Rather, it involves discovering a landscape within an object shaped by natural forces, and presenting it as a self-contained, miniature world. 

Following this approach, Nahm compresses the expansive and complex realities of the contemporary world into small sculptural forms, encapsulating both the present and the imagined future of urban landscapes.

Hyun Nahm describes his artistic keyword, Miniascape, as follows: 

“The reason a small rock can resemble a vast landscape—even though it was not intentionally crafted as such—is perhaps because it is composed of the same elements as the scenery it belongs to, having undergone the same processes of sedimentation, erosion, and weathering. What moves me deeply is the realization that, simply by faithfully following the principles of matter, a small fragment can inscribe within itself the entirety of the world it comes from.”

Focusing on the landscapes inscribed in objects shaped by material processes under specific climatic and geographical conditions, Hyun Nahm believes that to construct the landscapes of the world we live in, one must use the most commonplace materials found in everyday life. 

Accordingly, he selects industrial materials—such as polystyrene, epoxy, and cement—that form the substructure or surface of urban architecture as the primary medium for his sculptures. Just as miniascape is based on forms shaped by natural physical forces, Hyun Nahm experiments with the inherent physical properties of these contemporary materials through various methods, creating sculptural forms that reflect the textures and structures of today's landscapes.

In his first solo exhibition, 《Miniascape Theory》 (Art Space Hyeong, Shift, 2020), Hyun Nahm presented a vision of contemporary miniascape through his own sculptural language.
 
The sculptures showcased in the exhibition were based on objects the artist encountered in the low hills of Ilsan, urban landmarks, and man-made structures embedded in the cityscape. In the exhibition statement, Nahm wrote that he sought to “reconstruct the horizontal and visual qualities of landscape into vertical and material forms of sculpture.” 

This transformation was achieved through the manipulation and distortion of both the physical properties of materials—such as epoxy and polystyrene—and traditional sculptural techniques like casting and modeling.

The resulting vertical sculptures appear to “intertwine and melt, overheat and crack, swell, crumble chaotically, and fall out of alignment”—simultaneously functioning as miniature landscapes and as fragments of a larger, expansive world. 

Just as a small weathered stone can encapsulate the grandeur of a vast natural scene, Nahm harnesses the material responses of contemporary industrial composites to give form to the superficial qualities underlying advanced industrial systems. Through this, he compresses complex social structures and phenomena of the contemporary world into the scale of a single object.

Hyun Nahm’s practice can be likened to a form of “excavation.” His process typically begins by carving holes into polystyrene, into which he pours other materials. Once these materials harden, the polystyrene is dissolved and removed, revealing the final form. 

This technique, a kind of negative casting, yields unpredictable internal spaces and embraces the spontaneous deformations caused by chemical reactions between materials. The works, formed by materials flowing downward and later exhibited upside down, transform into ascending vertical structures—spires, high-rises, and towering silhouettes of the urban landscape.

The sculptures, with their rough surfaces left behind by escaping air bubbles and their near-fluorescent, vivid colors, evoke vertical ruins that might appear in a sci-fi animation. The bright, high-saturation hues that dominate Nahm’s work stem from the cultural industries he regularly engages with—animation, video games, and the internet. 

From within this realm of popular industrial culture, the artist extracts colors that are instant, provocative, juvenile, and at times toxic or surreal. Yet these once-bright colors undergo transformation: during the casting process, they stain, discolor, and distort; over time, they fade, rot, and decay.

"Excavation" in Nahm’s work refers not only to the physical methodology of sculpture but also to a conceptual act of roaming through reality—identifying and investigating vertical structures that appear sculptural in form. One such example is Cell Tower (2020), in which the artist focuses on cell towers that are scattered across cities and throughout the country, yet rarely receive aesthetic or critical attention. 

Viewing the cell tower as a contemporary spire, Nahm was struck by its grotesque form—one that contradicts its function as a vessel of cutting-edge wireless communication. In Cell Tower, he reinterprets its visual characteristics and its entanglement with the surrounding environment, recognizing it as the physical body of the internet—an invisible yet pervasive force that both sustains and threatens our daily lives.

In his 2021 solo exhibition 《Burrowing at the Bottom of a Rainbow》 at Atelier Hermès, Hyun Nahm presented Atog (2021), which was inspired by Kazimir Malevich’s sculptural series ‘Architekton Gota’ (1923). 

Hyun Nahm was struck by Malevich’s work, in which small sculptures evoke the imagery of utopian and futuristic cities, and saw a parallel to the concept of miniascape—the idea that a small object can trigger a much larger landscape. Inspired by this notion, Nahm sought to reinterpret it in his own way, leading to the creation of Atog.

As implied by the title of the work, which reverses the letters of "Gota," Nahm approaches the past and future in Atog through a repetitive yet opposing manner. The work explores the possibilities of vertical architecture, contrasting the horizontality typical of Western European modernist architecture of its time. While borrowing the cubic form of ‘Gota’—a model of future architecture—it moves away from the sleek, pure abstraction envisioned by Russian suprematists, instead revealing a dark, dystopian future cityscape.

The installation Chain Link Strategy (2022), presented at the Busan Biennale 2022, was created based on Hyun Nahm’s interest in the global communication system of underwater cables. The network technology that connects the land, sea, and space operates across various domains—financial transactions, communications, logistics, and military operations—closely intertwined with power structures.
 
Hyun Nahm conceptualized this relationship between technology and power by forming large and small sculptures connected in a chain, each piece passing through its own individual hole. The title “Chain Link Strategy” references the strategic tactic used by Pang in the Battle of Red Cliffs in Romance of Three Kingdoms, where he tied enemy warships together with chains, setting them ablaze to secure victory.  

Just as the title suggests, the sculptures are linked together like chains, occupying space while precariously relying on existing structures in a fragile composition.

Meanwhile, the ‘Void Extruction’ series visualizes the reversal of a state where matter is empty and becomes solid. In ‘Void Extruction,’ unlike his previous methods, the artist begins by carving and stacking small spherical chunks, then surrounds them with a layer of fiberglass and epoxy to form a larger mass, adding another step to the process. 

The artist then pours different materials inside the mass formed by multiple spheres, triggering chemical reactions that cannot be directly observed. After some time, the body needs to be melted away, and only then can the results be seen. As a result, where the material (sphere) once was, only a hole remains, and the empty space is filled with new matter.

In this way, Hyun Nahm transforms the hidden and external aspects of the vast world into visible and material dimensions, compressing them into the form of small sculptures. His work deviates from the logic of traditional sculpture, using sculptural acts that exaggerate and disturb the physical properties of materials. Through this approach, he expresses the complex and diverse phenomena occurring in the world he belongs to, evoking spatial imagination that goes beyond the sculpture on its pedestal.

”Manipulating materials by hand to create something is one of the most primitive activities of human beings, and this includes the art of sculpture. Sculpting requires many materials, tools, and cumbersome processes and procedures, and they result in an object with weight and mass that physically occupies a real space, so the viewers should move their bodies to experience it. 

And this is what makes sculpting more concrete and definite than any other acts. I hope to use such explicitness of sculpture, to reconstruct the world I am faced with, and to be able to see its essence more clearly.”  (Hyun Nahm, Interview from 《Burrowing at the Bottom of a Rainbow》 at Atelier Hermès)  

Hyun Nahm studied Painting at Hongik University and received his MFA in Fine Arts from Seoul National University of Science and Technology. He has held solo exhibitions 《Kawah Ojol》 (ROH Projects, Jakarta, 2024), 《Burrowing at the Bottom of a Rainbow》 (Atelier Hermès, Seoul, 2021), 《My Early Adulthood Pilgrimage Is Wrong, As I Expected》 (Instant Roof, Seoul, 2021), and 《Miniascape Theory》 (Art Space Hyeong & Shift, Seoul, 2020).
 
He has participated in various group exhibitions, including 《Wonderland》 (Lehmann Maupin, Seoul, 2024), 《The Hanging Gardens of Babylon》 (Nam-Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, 2023), 《off-site》 (Art Sonje Center, Seoul, 2023), Busan Biennale 2022, 《Cloud Walkers》 (Leeum Museum of Art, Seoul, 2022), 《OPENING CEREMONY》 (YPC Space, Seoul, 2022), and more.  

Hyun Nahm participated in the 2023-2024 RHO Projects residency program in Indonesia, and his work is part of the collection at the Seoul Museum of Art.

References

• 현남, Hyun Nahm (Artist Website) :
• 현남, 축경론 기획노트 :
• 메종코리아, 아뜰리에 에르메스에서 만난 조각가 현남, 2021.09.07:
• 헤이팝, 현남의 조각으로 재구성된 세계, 2021.08.02 :
• 아뜰리에 에르메스, 무지개의 밑동에 굴을 파다 (Atelier Hermès, Burrowing at the Bottom of a Rainbow) :
• 아트선재센터, 오프사이트 (Art Sonje Center, off-site) :
• 2022 부산 비엔날레, 현남 (Busan Biennale 2022, Hyun Nahm) :
• P21, 투 투 (P21, Two Tu) :