Son Hyunseon (b. 1987) is a visual artist who continuously questions the act of seeing and explores the connection between the visible and the invisible. Her practice delves into the various abstract forms of sensations that are not visually perceived but felt through the body, rendering them onto the surface of the canvas. 

Expanding the realm of imperfect visual perception, her work extends beyond the pictorial plane into performances that involve movement and a range of tactile experiences.

In her early works, Son Hyunseon closely observed specific objects and translated them onto the canvas repeatedly. A representative example is her painting series ‘While Revolving around’ (2015–2016), which consists of multiple depictions of a ceiling fan spinning in circles.

Some works in the series clearly depict the physical form of the object, while others portray only a gray semi-circular shape, as if capturing the peak of its motion. For the artist, the repeated act of observing and painting the object is not simply an attempt to reproduce its visible appearance. Rather, it is a process of grasping the movement of the object and transferring the ideas that emerge through associative thinking onto the surface. 

In her ‘Like the Moon’ (2016–2017) series, which depicts the rotating drum of a ready-mixed concrete truck, the paintings repeatedly feature shadows suggesting the direction of light and sparsely placed circular protrusions. These elements make it difficult to discern the object being represented.
 
Through such works, the gradual abstraction of form becomes evident, as each piece focuses on the unique motion of the object. Rather than reproducing the external appearance in a literal or representational manner, the artist objectifies the subject and transforms associated ideas into visual imagery.

In Son Hyunseon’s paintings, the ceiling fan and the drum of the concrete mixer have lost their familiarity and empirical representational quality. Yet, this very loss allows them to expand into abstract forms—becoming a kind of idea of all things that revolve.
 
In this way, representation in her work functions not as an end in itself, but as a framework for expanding painterly imagination. In her 2015 artist’s note, Son writes that through the repeated act of drawing an object, there comes a moment when “the imagined image and the real image invert each other.” At that moment, she suggests, only the painter can discover a visual truth by combining “association and confrontation” drawn from personal experience.

Since then, Son Hyunseon has shifted her focus to the artist’s body—specifically, the act of seeing—as a central element in her work. In her 2021 solo exhibition 《In the middle of Oasis》 at A-Lounge, she presented a series of paintings that visualized elements she has long been interested in: light, mirrors, and fire. Rather than depicting static objects on canvas, these works seek to capture the point of encounter between the object and the artist’s own act of seeing—an experience unfolding in continuous time.

Son Hyunseon’s painterly gestures, enacted through her body, are expressed through acts of folding and cutting paper. For the artist, folding paper is a tactile way of seeing—an experience of perceiving the object through contact. She researches and collects various diamond cutting techniques, selects specific cuts, draws the cutting lines, and carefully folds and unfolds along them, forming surfaces and discovering color in the process.
 
Another tool of seeing, the mirror, appears in her work with an opaque surface that reflects nothing. The disconnection between the “I” who looks into the mirror and the mirrored image of the self momentarily suspends the eye’s role as a visual organ—challenging the act of seeing itself.

Finally, the artist’s act of painting flickering flames culminates in a direct encounter with the moment of looking at fire itself. In these works, the viewer follows the rising flames through the artist’s gestures and shares that moment in real time. As both the act of seeing and the image that results from it, the flame reappears through the viewer’s gaze—inviting us to imagine what remains at the intersection between sight and subject.

The artist’s interest in the “body that performs painting” arises from her experience of how, through years of training and education in visual art, the sensory coordination between her eyes and hands became overly developed, while the other bodily senses gradually diminished and dulled. Seeking to break free from the conventional, vision-centered approach to drawing, she turned her attention to reconnecting with the previously neglected senses, undertaking a process of unlearning the ingrained bodily habits.
 
Through this kind of rehabilitation, the artist was able to engage closely with senses beyond sight and the hand’s tactile feedback, and she felt her bodily awareness—and the scope of her physical relationship with materials—expand.

Building on these interconnected senses, Son Hyunseon presented works focused on the gaze and the body in the 2021 group exhibition 《What We Talk About When We See Exhibition》 held at SeMA Bunker. The series of five paintings titled ‘I(You), Mirrored’ (2021) captures the artist’s effort to grasp her own body and gaze. These works function as a kind of self-portrait, while simultaneously presenting a strange “mirror” that reflects nothing yet reflects everyone.

The paintings, hung at various angles and heights throughout the space, continuously prompt viewers to move their bodies and shift their gaze. What is seen through these scattered works is not a complete image of the subjects or of Son Hyunseon herself—the artist who painted them—but rather partial views of hands, arms, and backs.
 
In other words, while the works originate from Son Hyunseon’s body and gaze, the resulting pieces do not reflect the concrete image of any specific individual. Instead, they act as a unique mirror that reflects the bodies and gazes of all those moving around to see them, encouraging viewers to reawaken their own sensory awareness.

Alongside her painting practice, Son Hyunseon developed a performative work titled Invisible Talk (2021), in which she becomes a living artwork engaging in dialogue with the audience. As a living painting present in the exhibition space, the artist occupies a set viewing time, after which she transforms her body to embody the next painting.
 
As both artist and artwork, she introduces herself aloud, makes eye contact, and communicates with viewers through facial expressions. Meanwhile, visitors facing the “artwork” interact with it through various tools placed in the exhibition space, as well as through their gaze and speech, reflecting on their own presence in the process.
 
Invisible Talk frames the encounter not as a conversation with the artist, but as a dialogue with the artwork itself. It reveals the directional flow of gazes during exhibition viewing and illuminates the very act of “seeing an exhibition.” At the same time, it invites reflection on the time, boundaries, and hierarchies between artist, artwork, and viewer—figures who may be physically present together yet remain unseen or unrecognized by one another within the exhibition.

Following this, Son Hyunseon’s 2022 solo exhibition 《Hole Way》 at 5% further highlights her artistic practice that bridges painting and performance through the body. The exhibition was staged as a kind of platform, beginning with the relational energy between the artwork and the artist, which then meets the audience to create new relational points. 

Son’s painterly practice, which has focused on the relationship between the object and her own body, becomes more concretely expressed in 《Hole Way》 through the motif of the hole. Within the two-dimensional plane of painting, holes are depicted as curved circular lines or rounded painted shapes. While representing holes in painting may ultimately be an illusion, it simultaneously exemplifies a visual imagination that can emerge uniquely through painterly elements.

Using the capacities of dots, lines, and planes, the artist attempts to visualize the hole. Through this painterly practice, she engages the viewer’s senses, expanding the realm of perception. The holes appearing in 《Hole Way》 become a tool of communication between the artist and the audience, through which viewers come to realize the futility of rigid boundaries dividing inside and outside.
 
A mural located inside the space was created through prolonged interaction with the environment, responding to the wall’s irregular textures. Each brushstroke, imbued with breath, weaves together the inside and outside without distinction—like a Möbius strip—intersecting and giving three-dimensional form to the corner walls.
 
The various holes occupying the exhibition space reveal the trajectory of the artist’s gestures and energy, capturing all sensory elements of a certain time and place—air, light, sound, and smell. As viewers encounter these bodily and mental movements, they pass through their own metaphorical holes, sensing their individual fields of energy.

Furthermore, in the 2024 two-person exhibition 《Back Side》 held at Primary Practice, Son Hyunseon explored the sensations of tension and connection experienced through dialogue with others, expressed across three interrelated works. To create these pieces, the artist conducted multiple workshops in which she sat back-to-back with a different participant each day, engaging in conversation.
 
Son translated the bodily sensations encountered while connecting with another person’s world into a series of interconnected paintings and installations. One such work, Back Map: thermos – between – us (2024), painted on the gallery’s glass window, invites viewers to physically engage with the piece, sharing the sensation of backs pressed together—a contact that cannot be seen with the eyes. 

Using pigments that change color in response to heat, this work shifts hues according to the body temperature of the viewer who touches it. By witnessing these momentary color changes through brief contact, viewers gain a sensory connection beyond sight, briefly accessing the embodied experience of that moment in dialogue.

Additionally, this resonates with intermittent narrations filling the space, as well as small drawings and phrases embedded and played on the walls. These elements are excerpts and edits from conversations held during the previous workshops, presented randomly to evoke the layered experience of that time and place through the interplay of image, spoken language, and written text.
 
Additionally, the systems of visual perception conferred by the clear shapes continue to branch off and extend through real-sized thermal images of the artist as seen from behind (Back to Back: through warmth, 2024) or a view from behind that has been transferred along its contours with the next image-symbol derived from the body (Back to Back: edge of warmth, 2024).

Son Hyunseon’s work can be understood as a practice that begins with the act of seeing and captures the invisible energy inherent in the subject through the mediation of the artist’s body. The vibrations formed by the encounter between the subject and the artist’s body are then transmitted once again to the viewer through the canvas. 

In this way, Son’s paintings become relational fields where different energies dwell and circulate, bridging the visible and the invisible, and reawakening dulled bodily senses.

 “As a visual artist, I continually question the act of ‘seeing’ and focus on connecting what is visible with what is invisible. My paintings depict various abstract states of sensation that are not seen but felt through the body. Recently, alongside concretizing the movements of the body that performs painting on the flat surface, I have been creating moments of encounter both inside and outside exhibitions through performance.”    (Son Hyunseon, interview with Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture ‘Culture + Seoul’ Magazine)

Son Hyunseon earned a B.F.A and M.F.A from the Department of Fine Arts, Korea National University of Arts. She is currently based in Seoul. Her solo exhibitions include 《Hole Way》 (5%, Seoul, 2022), 《In the Middle of Oasis》 (A-Lounge, Seoul, 2021), 《Standstill - Spin - Sphere》 (Chapter II, Seoul, 2017), and 《Eyes Breathe Time》 (175 Gallery, Seoul, 2016).
 
She has also participated in numerous group exhibitions, including 《Back Side》 (Primary Practice, Seoul, 2024), 《House on Fire》 (Esther Schipper, Seoul, 2024), 《Hysteria: Contemporary Realism Painting》 (Ilmin Museum of Art, Seoul, 2023), 《What We Talk About When We See Exhibition》 (SeMA Bunker, Seoul, 2021), 《“1+1” A Collector’s View》 (ONE AND J. Gallery, Seoul, 2021), 《Us Against You》 (Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art, Ansan, 2020), 《Unreachable》 (Perigee Gallery, Seoul, 2019), and 《DOOSAN Art Lab 2017》 (DOOSAN Gallery, Seoul, 2017).
 
Son was selected as an artist-in-residence at the K-Arts Creative Studio in 2024 and the SeMA Nanji Residency in 2022. 

References

• 서울문화재단, [예술인 아카이브] 손현선_시각예술/회화/퍼포먼스, 2024.11.28
• 챕터투, [서문] 정지-회전-구 (Chapter II, [Preface] Standstill - Spin – Sphere)
• 기억의 미술관, 일민미술관 히스테리아: 동시대 리얼리즘 회화 展
• 에이라운지, [보도자료] 빛불짓 (A-Lounge, [Press Relase] In the middle of Oasis)
• 서울시립미술관, 우리가 전시를 볼 때 말하는 것들 – 손현선 작품 설명글 (Seoul Museum of Art, What We Talk About When We See Exhibition – Son Hyunseon Artwork Description)
• 서울시립미술관, 우리가 전시를 볼 때 말하는 것들 – 손현선 작품 설명글 (Seoul Museum of Art, What We Talk About When We See Exhibition – Son Hyunseon Artwork Description)
• 프라이머리 프랙티스, [서문] 뒷모습 (Primary Practice, [Preface] Back Side)