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KIM SUNGSOO

Sungsoo Kim was born and raised in South Korea. He began working with glass at Kookmin University, South Korea, in 1999. In 2005, Sungsoo moved to the United States and attended Kent State University, where he earned his MFA in 2008. From 2008 to 2009 he worked at Centre College, KY in an assistant Art program with Stephen Powell. Since 2009 he has worked as an adjunct professor in Glass at The Cleveland Institute of Art as well as an assistant professor (term) at Kent State University from 2010.

 

Many of his glass works have been featured in several influential art exhibitions: “SOFA (the International Expositions of Sculpture Objects & Functional Art) Chicago” (2011, 2010, 2009) in Chicago, SOFA Santafe(2011) in Santafe, Glass Weekend 2011’(An International Symposium and Exhibition of Contemporary Glass) where he was awarded Rising Star, and “BIGG: Breakthrough Ideas in Global Glass” (2009) at Hawk Galleries in Columbus where he was placed as the Best in Show. He has also selected as a finalist in several art competitions: the “NICHE Awards” (2012, 2009, 2007), “2009 MFA Exhibition Competition” at Urban Glass in New York, and “e-merge” (2010, 2008) at Bullseye Glass in Portland. Also, his art works have been featured in some art journal articles including “Rader: Packaging Itself,” American Craft for (2010), and “The Best Work from the Top Glass Programs,” The Urban Glass Art Quarterly for (2007). He has also been spotlighted by FOX 19 Evening News of Cincinnati, Ohio (2010) as well as interviewed by Jane Durrell on WVXU 91.7 FM Radio (2010).

 

“I see my artistic process as being involved with a type of recycling, specifically the reuse of Styrofoam packaging materials to create art. I think that one of the artist’s most important roles is to reveal the hidden value inherent within a particular object. By framing the object in a new way, the artist can challenge viewers to rethink the value of everyday objects and encourage them to find aesthetic pleasure in the most seemingly mundane places. In my own work, the recycling of industrial and consumer by-products has led to two distinct avenues of exploration.

One is the search for something inherently artistic in industrial waste materials, and the other is the creation of a wholly new aesthetic value out of the formal elements present within this waste. This last involves a kind of rearranging and refining of the existing formal elements to create a new gestalt. “

 

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