John Hurrell – 8 March, 2026
Three white resin (mostly animal) floor sculptures and seven paintings of spiraling coloured oblique triangles are presented together in this current Seung Yul Oh exhibition. Of the former, there is a bending monkey that appears to be greeting the visitor, or in a position of contrition, or else praying as if in a temple. Then again it might be stretching, anticipating some frenetic or arduous exercise.
Three white resin (mostly animal) floor sculptures and seven paintings of spiraling coloured oblique triangles are presented together in this current Seung Yul Oh exhibition. Of the former, there is a bending monkey that appears to be greeting the visitor, or in a position of contrition, or else praying as if in a temple. Then again it might be stretching, anticipating some frenetic or arduous exercise. There is also a white crab standing up on its back legs, of ankle height, peering up at the gallery intruder.
Possibly more conspicuous than the monkey is a length of joined up pieces of ribbed concertina PVC piping, attached to the wall near a corner, and with its free end sealed by a transparent disc. The title of this show very vaguely suggests this meandering conduit could be intestinal—even though it doesn’t look remotely like bulging guts.
It perhaps alludes to transition. Or it could be a symbol that pushes possible links joining the characteristics of animals with abstraction to declare a serious philosophical consideration; so the combination is not circumstantial. The body is referenced openly so that even with static hard-edged geometry the retina is ‘stretched’ as if a monkey’s spine.
All the paintings of carefully locked-in coloured triangles seemingly turning within the canvas edges are impeccable—as you’d expect from Oh. They place pressure on the canvas centre so it advances towards the viewer as well as the edges of each square or rectangle. (ie. the picture-plane.) Or direct direct viewer energies to opposite corners.
This tends to limit the suggestion of movement, encouraging a holistic viewing of the painted planar surface—avoiding any angular optical interruptions formed by clean vibrating edges adjacent to unmodulated chroma.
I’m not sure of how you interpret the animal sculptures because they could be satire and intended as a condemnation of certain human behavior patterns linked to religion (or perhaps the artworld?). They are not overtly nasty, but really a little gentle nudge with a well-aimed elbow. A flicker of a very rapid wink.
John Hurrell
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